Kylin Gallery is thrilled to announce our representation of artist Diana Shui-Iu Wong and will present Wong’s solo exhibition: CONTEMPLATION from June 1 to August 24, 2020. The online exhibition will be available concurrently with the physical show. The 13 works to be included in the exhibition include painting, sculpture, and installation, all selected from Wong’s three main series created from 1983 to 2020. Each series reflects the artist’s understanding of art at the time, the deep exploration of self, and her perception of changes in the world.
Diana Shui-Iu Wong is a Los Angeles based artist born in Hong Kong. She studied at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Italian Academy of Art in Rome with a B.A., and as the guest student at Royal Academy School of Art in London, England. Having moved to the United States in the 70s, her work was influenced by Western expressionism, liberalism, and individualism essential to that moment. Having studied with Mr. Huang Wenshan and Chen Xueshu however, her work also engages with Eastern philosophy, coalescing in a body of work that defies strict formal categorization.
In the early 1980s, Wong moved to Los Angeles, which was hailed as an "art desert". From 1981 to 1986 she created oil paintings in the series “Pacifica,” reflecting her artistic trajectory of her first years in California. Wong's works in the late 1990s were mostly influenced by Eastern philosophy, engaging the vastness of the sky and outer space, conforming to the laws nature, “action through inaction” - a core of Lao Zi’s ideology and the concept of “Tao.”
According to Wong, "My recent work is about the endless universe, imagining leaping, vivid colors and halos like the rolling sea. The planet in it’s celestial orbit, impacted by falling meteors, creating a celestial wonder, a fusion of real and unreal. These are paintings of a flowing landscape without a focal point, activated from many different angles. This gives me extraordinary freedom and boundless joy in creating. When I roam through the tunnel of time from the past, present, and future, my work intertwines with the teachings of the I Ching, exposing profound secrets of the universe.”
In 1994 Wong was invited to exhibit her large-scale installation at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. In 1997, Wong, Zhao Wuji, Wang Wuxie, Xiao Qin, Lu Shoukun and other international artists were invited to participate in the group exhibition "Beyond Abstract" in Hong Kong, and the Shanghai Art Museum.
Ego, desire, anger, attachment, greed, jealousy and lust constitute the installation Table of Bottomless Bliss. Wong created eight “human nature dishes" through sculpting recycled dry paint — looking directly at the negative elements of human nature in the impetuous environment of contemporary society.
Ego Salad, Deep-Fried Desire, Anger Pot Pie, Attachment Pudding, Greedy Spaghetti, Jealousy Jello, Lusty Lasagna, and Morphic Elixirs. A cup of enlightenment tea is prepared at the end of the 8 dishes. Only its full of nothing.
In 2020, this year of global pandemic, Wong created the bright and happy "Cupcakes Series”. She hopes that in this dark moment, people can discover the best in the human spirit. There are a total of seven pieces in the "Cupcake Series,” a body of work that Wong hopes will provide resolution and closure to the Table of Bottomless Bliss. This exhibition includes three of these works, four pieces have been collected by the Santa Monica Art Foundation.