Double Square 双方藝廊

Double Square Gallery is delighted to present Yen Ye-Cheng Solo Exhibition, Amarantha Xing Xiang Zi, from 18 December, 2021 to 29 January, 2022. Yen returned to Taiwan right after practicing Western painting in New York, and has been teaching here since then. He devotes his life to education and artistic practice, exerting a profound influence on other artists. Taking flowers as the medium, he creates visual images swing between abstract and concrete art, with rich Oriental cultural heritage carried by Western painting techniques. This is Yen’s another collaboration with Double Square Gallery, after being featured in a group show, Blossom Trees in the Stone, in 2020. This solo exhibition will display the Flowers series, 20 pieces in total. Through artworks come in all colors and sizes, it attempts to introduce the unique Oriental philosophy embedded in Yen’s artworks to the public. This exhibition has cordially invited Chen Kuang-Yi, Professor of the Department of Fine Arts at National Taiwan University of Arts to be the curator, who thoroughly contextualizes the background of Yen’s artistic practice.

Yen spent his youth in the countryside getting along with flowers around. When he was a student, he came into contact with ink art, and was captivated by flowers painted in freehand style. Flowers easily become symptomatic of the artist’s soul. The term “Xing Xiang Zi” in the exhibition title is derived from a common cipai name in the Song Dynasty, referring to the people who practice the way and burn incense. As described in the title, Amarantha Xing Xiang Zi symbolize not only Yen’s interest in classical literature, but also his persistence in creating artworks. Throughout the years, it becomes his daily ritual to transform what he sees and feels into the depiction of flowers in various shapes.To Yen, everything in his life accumulates into the foundation of his painting, and it turns out that the kaleidoscopic quality of flowers offers him the most leverage to freely express himself. Living through times of traditional fine art training and avant-garde movement, experiencing the confusion and quest alongside, the artist finally found his answer in Western painting technique and Oriental artistic conception. He was well nourished from various cultural accomplishments, for instance, calligraphy, sculpture, pottery, landscape, film, literature, poetry, tea art, Buddhism, Zen and many more. Such an abundance of artistic heritage is being disassembled, internalized, then spilled out through his paint brush, eventually blossoms on the canvas and grows into this distinctive set of artworks, Flowers.

All the pieces showcasing in this exhibition are named after Flowers. Unlike Yen’s previous practice of naming his artworks after traditional cipai names which hint at ways of interpretation for the viewer to uncover, this time the artist decides to name his artworks in the simplest way, and let the viewer get lost in the flower field for one’s personal exploration and sensation. Yen’s painting has a strong tone of expressionism; intuitively allowing his emotion overwhelm the visual image, instead of conceiving before applying the first brush stroke, often his brushes seems to be brought into life to complete the picture on their own. He demonstrated distinctive Oriental aesthetic and charm by means of oil and acrylic paint textures. Out of his simplified and semi-abstract drawing style, Yen integrates Western automatic painting technique with Oriental freehand style, meanwhile transforms his internalized philosophy and emotion into rich visual languages. His bold and daring use of colors, together with his brush strokes that vary between delicacy and robustness, resemble how flowers organically grow and spread amid mountains and plains, eventually rambling over the whole canvas. His vigorous creative energy drives him to paint larger; from single panel pieces, to diptych and triptych canvases. Lively vitality is noticed to be spreading all over the art pieces alongside the paint. The vibrant yet delicate colors of paint break the border between concrete art and abstract art. These works cast off from endlessly chasing after new forms, and instead return to the purity of painting.

Yen Ye-Cheng was born in Taichung in 1955. He graduated from the National Taiwan Academy of Arts with a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts (Western Painting) in 1978. In 1991, he went to the United States and graduated from the State University of New York with a Master of Fine Arts three years later. Since 1988, he has participated in many group shows and has held numerous solo exhibitions. After he returned to Taiwan in 1994, he kept painting as he was teaching at schools, during which he determined to identify himself as a professional artist. Regarding Yen’s works, Oriental charm is illustrated through Western media while the artist’s awakening experience is translated into abstract forms of flowers. He converts his feelings and preoccupations into outlines marked on the canvas - from sensory perceptions and gathering of thoughts, to the process of which it transcends outward appearance of things, and further evolves into abstract colors, textures, and contours on canvases. The representation of flowers fosters unlimited artistic creativity in Yen. His works are not merely based on observation and depiction, but layers of brush strokes that flow, smear, wax and wane, coming down to a series of scattered pattern, revealing ups and downs of life. Unfolded under Yen’s layers of painting is an exceptionally intriguing spiritual world.

Amarantha Xing Xiang Zi - Yen Ye-Cheng Solo Exhibition
Exhibition dates：2021.12.18-2021.01.29
Exhibition venue：Double Square Gallery D2,D3
Opening reception：2021.12.18 (Sat) 15:00
Curator：Chen Kuang-Yi