Reality & Essence

By Shen Bo-Cheng (Curator)

The exhibition title Reality & Essence: The realistic painting of Huang Chia-Ning came from a term in Buddhism. It means the law (Sanskrit: dharma), and is the essence of truth. It is the correct wisdom or insight, and therefore the real meaning of Reality & Essence is to see the insight without obstacles and understand the truth.

The exhibition Reality & Essence: The realistic painting of Huang Chia-Ning tries to reflect and explore the relationship between “painting” and “reality.” In the whole process of “realistic painting,” it is not the precision of “skills” itself that achieves artistic quality, but rather “insight” determines the “essence.” “Insight” means seeing with mental perception, it is about the state of the mind. From Snails, Doves, Cauliflower, X-ray Film, these titles are easy to understand. One can find that the title of Huang Chia-Ning’s work is everything on the canvas. The absolute relationship between the direct pictures and painting titles has the cognitive gap between the “name” and “real.” It is worth noticing that in this logical dialectical relationship, “perception” or the “sensible” experience of life perception are missing between “real” and “name,” but the real work transmits the “inexplicable feeling” that detaches from the intuitive relationship of “name” and “real.” This inexplicable feeling is the insight of the artist’s “perceptual cognition.” The insights based on “perceptual cognition” make art and aesthetics possible. The exhibition attempts to start from the “perceptual cognition,” and gradually guides the viewer through the works into the unique inner progress of Huang Chia-Ning’s creation. It also shows the artistic meaning and aesthetic state of Huang Chia-Ning’s “paintings.”

The technical analysis of painting is the process by which body techniques record and leave traces of personal perceptions through paints, brushes and canvases. “Realistic painting” is a depiction of cognition of objective phenomena.

“Art” only occurs when the picture is linked to the experience perception of intention. In the deep perception, Huang Chia-Ning grabbed the “reality” that is left by the rational. Thus, the artist’s work is on the one hand the perception of reality, on the other hand, the materiality of meaning itself. “Reality & Essence” is not just explaining of words and theories, but intuitively grasping the change and experiencing, just like the “reflecting again on the moss” to observe the true light silently shines.