Kurt Chan — The Botanical Breaths｜陳育強 — 讓花木再呼吸

To celebrate the founding of Touch Gallery, we are honored to present Kurt Chan as our first highlight of the month, showcasing his Western paintings and ink works “Fa-mular”.

Prof. Kurt, Chan Yuk Keung was graduated from the Department of Fine Arts, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He then obtained his M.F.A. from the Cranbrook Academy of Art (鶴溪藝術學院), Michigan, U.S.A. Professor Chan joined The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1989, teaching studio courses and supervising M.F.A. students. He has retired since 2016. He is now working as the deputy director of Hong Kong Art School.

In this exhibition, he explores the energies and momentums of flowers, likening nature to human life. Just as the cycle of human life, flowers grow, bloom and wither. The beauty of flowers falls somewhere within the liminal state of imagination and reality. Though flower formula is just a standardized construct for flowers, our imagination upon flowers still blooms wild. Kurt Chan’s “Fa-Mular” presents the polymorphous essence of flowers with his signature blend of Chinese and Western art. The outlines and patches of flowers are portrayed between abstract and concrete expressions. Points, lines and surfaces combines, infiltrates and interacts, allowing viewers to feel not only the interconnection of lines and surfaces, but also of the action of painting and strokes. Leveraging his paintbrushes, Chan touches, writes and molds flowers otherwise.

Chan’s earlier works explore the possibilities of using different materials and media. Recently, he returns back into paintings as a media. Extending his experience in experimenting different materials to the canvas, Chan discovers the process of painting is akin to a recurring action of mistake correction — an artwork is emerged from countless mistakes, reflection and refinements.

With Chan’s rich experience across multiple media, he combines Chinese and Western art. While we see the strokes of Chinese art in a Western painting, the avant-garde approach is also manifested in his ink works. The momentum of the paintings varies from vigour to gentleness, entwining reality and imagination, visualizing the vivid breath of lives. No matter in macro and micro visions, Chan’s work unfurls the heartbeats of flowers.

為慶祝Touch Gallery的成立，我們十分榮幸邀請到陳育強先生成為藝廊首位展出藝術家，展出他近年西畫及最新水墨作品 - 花程式。

陳育強畢業於香港中文大學藝術系，及後於美國密玆根州鶴溪藝術學院取得藝術碩士學位，一九八九年始於香港中文大學藝術系任教藝術課程，並指導碩士生。他於2016年退休，現為香港藝術學院的署理院長。

在這次展覽，陳育強探索花與人生的聯繫與互動。「花程式」系列作品中，陳氏把花卉的變幻無常，化成中、西藝術連結的表像。陳氏將花的缐狀和塊狀，時而抽象，時而具像地表達；點、線、面三者結合，穿插和互動，讓觀者感受到缐條、面塊、繪畫動作和筆觸之間的關係，他以畫筆去觸摸、書寫及雕塑她。

陳氏早年作品擅長探索物料之間的可能性，近年重回畫作媒介。他將以往實驗性處理物料的經驗伸延到平面畫作上，發現繪畫過程就好像一個不停糾正錯誤的動作；作品在無數的犯錯、思考、改正中產生。融合他多年遊走不同媒介的經驗，將中、西藝術滙成一體，彷彿在西畫中看到水墨的筆法，同時水墨畫亦打破固有的傳統畫法。畫作節奏時快時慢，虛實交錯；生物的呼吸起伏都在視覺上呈現。無論是全然或微觀下的花，都牽動着俏然悸動的心跳。