Confluences – Identities & Ideals
March 2–April 7, 2019
The merging of influences like the meeting of rivers
Asia Art Center is proud to present Singapore based contemporary ink artist, Hong Zhu An’s (b. 1955 Shanghai) first major solo exhibition in Taipei, curated by independent curator Tan Hwee Koon. The exhibition entitled, “Rong” is intentionally translated into the term “Confluences”—an attempt to express Hong’s identities and ideals shaped by the merging of influences in his art and life from Shanghai, Chongqing, Sydney to Singapore—like the meeting of rivers. At the same time paying homage to Hong’s ancestral hometown Wuxi, in particular, to the calligraphy inscribed plaque in his ancestral home named, “Rong De Tang” embodying his grandfather’s moral and ethical reminders for descendants to always practice “tolerance and forgiveness”. Interestingly, Shanghai, Chongqing, Sydney and Singapore share a commonality, i.e. the meeting of and tolerence for the existence of different cultures and influences amalgamating into Hong’s unique blend of identities. Wuxi, his ancestral hometown where the Taihu rock hails from the famous Lake Tai; and Suzhou where he sought inspiration and respite from city life in the ancient water town Tong Li are closely associated with water. Perhaps explaining Hong Zhu An’s associations and experimentations with the theme and aesthetic qualities of water symbolizing the ideal qualities of a gentleman in his art.
About the artist
Hong Zhu An (b. 1955, Shanghai) came from a family of learned scholars and started learning calligraphy from his father when he was four years old. Hong graduated from the Shanghai School of Fine and Applied Art with his peers Gu Wenda (born 1955, Shanghai) and Chen Zhen (1955–2000) in 1976. He studied with scholar Wang Zidou and started his lifelong enthrallment with the timeless art and aesthetics of Bada Sharen (1626–1705). In the early 1980s Hong pursued further studies in oil painting and on colour at the Sichuan Art Academy in Chongqing. He left for Sydney in 1989 to learn English and became a full-time artist drawing and painting with a group of Chinese artists including regular Archibald finalist Shen Jiawei (b. 1948, Shanghai). Since coming to Singapore and winning the prestigious UOB Painting of the Year award in 1994 with an inaugural expression of his signature style, Hong has been living and painting as a recluse in Singapore. Hong Zhu An is collected widely in both private collections and public institutions from Asia, Europe to North America including the Sullivan Collection at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology University of Oxford, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Princeton University Museum and the Singapore Art Museum.
About the curator
Tan Hwee Koon (MA History in Art and Archaeology SOAS University of London; MA and Master’s Programme in Comparative Culture Sophia University, Tokyo) is a Singapore-based independent curator with a research interest in both modern and contemporary East Asian and Southeast Asian art, in particular, on migration/ diaspora and transnationalism. Tan is a versatile curator with a wide breadth and depth and an ongoing focus on sculpture and Chinese ink.
