Alisan Fine Arts is pleased to present Word Play: New York, a companion exhibition to our current exhibition at our Central Hong Kong location. Centred around the expression, investigation and deconstruction of Chinese characters, we will feature works by 7 artists across different generations: Cui Fei, Hung Keung, Chiu Li, Wang Dongling, Wang Tiande, Wei Ligang and Kan Tai-keung. The written word - long considered the essence of Chinese culture - continues to serve as the point of departure for both faithful emulation and radical innovation in contemporary art.

Based in New York, Cui Fei is well known for her work that uses natural materials (thorns, grape vine tendrils) to emulate calligraphic writing. Cui’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at venues such as the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY; Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ; Queens Museum, Queens, NY, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE; Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, MA; New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT; Wave Hill, Bronx, NY; Bronx Museum of Arts; Kunstgewerbe Museum, Dresden, Germany; Rietberg Museum Zurich, Switzerland; and Museum of East Asian Art in Cologne, Germany, among others.

Hong Kong-based Hung Keung is known for his interactive installations that integrate film, video and digital new media with classical Chinese themes of philosophy, art and literature. His innovative installations employ imagery of Chinese characters, ink, rice paper, and flowers, creating novel ways for audiences to experience and engage with traditional themes and concepts. Hung Keung received a BA from the Fine Arts department of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, MA in film and video from Central Saint Martins, London, and PhD from Zurich University of the Arts and University of Plymouth, UK, in digital media and Chinese philosophy. He is Currently a Professor and MA (VAECP) Programme Leader in the Department of Cultural and Creative Arts, Education University of Hong Kong.

Born in Hong Kong, Chiu Li has was invited by Wucius Wong to become a junior member of the One Art Group, a prestigious painting club originally founded by Lui Shou-Kwan. Later emigrating to New York, Li spent 25 years as a Brand Packaging Consultant before transitioning to become a collector of traditional Chinese paintings, calligraphy, and objects. Li’s work blends Western design principles with traditional Chinese aesthetics, exploring the intersections of painting, calligraphy, and poetry.

Wang Dongling is celebrated around the world for his large-scale abstract “calligraphic paintings.” Encouraged by his calligraphy instructor Lin Sanzhi (1898-1989) to find a method of individual expression in his work, Wang began to experiment with ways in which the calligraphic stroke might be liberated from the conveyance of meaning, using the line as a form of expression, parallel to the use of line he admired in Picasso, Klee, Miro, and Matisse. The act of his painting became a physical performance in which Wang translates the text of ancient Chinese poems with gestural interpretations of traditional characters. With bold and forceful brushstrokes, Wang often saturates the paper all the way to the edges, reversing the usual ratio of background space to figure on the paper, thereby creating a heightened sense of tension for the viewer.

Wang Tiande is an innovative avant-garde ink artist known for his creative use of incense sticks as a form of brush. Born in Shanghai in 1960, he studied at the College of Art in Shanghai in 1981, before pursuing further studies at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou. After graduating in 1988 with a degree in traditional Chinese painting, he went on to obtain a Ph.D. in calligraphy in 2010 from the same academy. Well versed in traditional Chinese art and culture, Wang searches for further possibilities in the realm of ink art. His most ground-breaking creation, Chinese ink with burn marks on layered rice paper and the use of incense sticks in lieu of brushes to paint, transforms paintings of traditional landscapes and calligraphy while conveying the ephemeral quality of painting.

Originally trained in mathematics and Chinese calligraphy, Wei Ligang takes an analytical approach to revolutionize traditional calligraphy. Initially playing within traditional rules and structures of classic calligraphy, Wei has since pushed past textual playfulness into a purely abstract form. Inspired by the “continuous cursive” calligraphy of the 17th-century Shanxi calligrapher Fu Shan, Wei applies to various ancient styles of script to create his own distinctive “gold-ink cursive,” and “shadow cursive” styles. A committed educator and the founder of the International Shuxiang Society, he believes that Chinese calligraphy will reach an unprecedented height within this generation. He aims to develop “writing” (shuxie) into an art form capable of embodying all phenomena and things in the universe and a way to construct “pure structure itself.”

Kan Tai-keung, born in 1942 in Panyu, Guangzhou, and based in Hong Kong since 1957, is a celebrated artist and educator known for his pioneering role in graphic design and ink painting. Guided by family mentors in his artistic journey, he studied under Wucius Wong and Lui Shou-kwan, becoming a key figure in Hong Kong’s New Ink Art Movement. Kan has merged Chinese and Western traditions in his creative endeavors, leading the One Art Group and influencing students through decades of teaching. Honored with prestigious awards, including an Honorary Doctorate of Design, his works are globally recognized and held in renowned collections. Currently, his art features in M+’s exhibition Shanshui: Echoes and Signals.