Hello, World!
Virtual gallery section one tour: http://m.asterpiece.com/space4/?UrbanTribeII=
Urban Reverence
Urban Tribes II – Urban Reverence (Virtual Gallery series one)
The current pandemic throws everything into turmoil, making us more widely connected by cyberlink, and more in tune with nature and inner mindset. This exhibit focuses on the diversity of life that promotes interactive relationships in communities. A self-sufficient group in any ethnicity may develop its own cultural identity, diverging significantly from its original character. Yet the members of urban tribes never completely take on the living style of the larger population in which they reside, and it is the differences that are most interesting. Here, we use a fresh perspective to view isolated pockets of disjointedness, and then interpret them in a larger context. We are all in a one-universe tribe.
Urban Tribes, of which this is the second part, examines how “tribe” and “community” have changed to apply to wider groups, defined by race, ethnicity, language, culture, art, economic dynamics, or even digital commonality. The resulting groupings form one of the urgent topics of the 21st century, which in many countries portend crises in political, economic, cultural, and environmental issues. Artists working in various media and representing various ethnic and cultural backgrounds conceptually address what it means to be part of these Urban Tribes. Here, the interconnection between mind, body, nature, culture, language, and how working with this concept of the urban tribe will pull a viewer through a symbolic journey.
Curatorial team：
Chief Curator: Luchia Meihua Lee, Executive Director, TAAC
Co-curators: Jennifer Pliego, Director of Special Programs and Head of the House of Art, El Taller Latino
Americano, NYC. Sarah Walko, Curator, Director of Education & Community Engagement, Visual Art Center of New Jersey
Participating artists: (section one)
1. j. maya luz
j. maya luz
Heart Mandala for Ric and Ev, 2017
Printed on glass, 16 x 16 inches
Courtesy of the artist
Born and raised in New York City, j. maya luz is a New York City-based artist. Her photographs are an amalgam of a bi-cultural heritage, her urban environment, sensitivity to an inner life and how all of that can be expressed through symbols, artifacts, and connections. Her work has been shown in and is in private collections in the US, Mexico and UK. In 2005 “Dar a Luz/Bring to Light”, photographs of women in the last stage of pregnancy, was selected to visually represent the Pan American Health Organization’s concept - ”Make Every Mother and Child Count”. A book, “God Space”, spiritual images of Mexican churches was published in summer 2019. J maya luz’s photographs have been published in print and online in Women's Wear Daily, Time, The Guardian, W, Smith, Heyoka, The Wall, among others.
Mandala
Memories of our personal histories are triggered by the things we own: the way they look or feel on our fingers or skin; the placement, relationship or juxtaposition to other things; the dance choreographed as we use them for pleasure or purpose. In this way, objects hold memories of times, places, or ways of being.
They become keys to connecting to parts of the past. Our “now” meets that “past”. An old self, meets the new. Perspectives shift. We gain knowledge and deepen awareness.
These Mandalas are a meditation on remembering what was forgotten and learning what was previously not understood.
2. Herberto Turizzo Anaya
Herberto Turizzo Anaya
Second Ave Subway mural, 1998
Bernardo Palombo, Donna Light, Turizzo Anaya for the MTA
192 x 120 inches, Courtesy of the artist
From the center of DaVinci’s man inside the square and circle, the arm and leg sustain the cosmos and human nature. The world is operated by homo sapiens which is present in an ideal of universal human harmony.
“I’m in a place between nature and my imagination. Nature is there, but my imagination takes nature and creates new shapes.”
Herberto Turizzo Anaya (Columbia-American)
Turizzo was born in El Limon, Colombia in 1952, and spent much time in the jungle. Myth and magical realism of the jungle’s elements and symbols, give him a way to balance a vision of bringing humanity to nature and further toward transcendence; this lies in counterbalance by his bewilderment of humanity’s darker instincts. For more than four decades, the artist has produced and shown acrylic paintings and mixed media works in Latin American, England and the U.S. In 1981, Turizzo moved to New York and now lives in the Hudson Valley.
3. Sarah Haviland
Sarah Haviland
Why Birds? Arc Notebook 11
From Arc of the Moral Universe Notebook Project
2019
Paper collage
8 x10 inches
Courtesy of the artist
From a series of double-spread journal collages, Why Birds? reflects on Haviland’s bird-figure research pursued in Taiwan. The Arc of the Moral Universe: A Notebook Project is a collaborative project organized by artist Carla Rae Johnson and responding to challenging times by keeping a visual journal (July 4, 2018-July 4, 2019). A new notebook project, Arc of the Viral Universe, is ongoing.
4. Hiroshi Jashiki
Hiroshi Jashiki
Forsythia, Central Park, 2014
pigment print on silk habotai, Tea ceremony screen
79 x 27 inches
Courtesy of the artist
The northern part of Central Park is the most interesting and enchanting. It may sound odd, but the only time I get nostalgic is when I’m strolling in the park. Though I’m not sentimental by nature, I can’t help feeling that I’m actually in Okinawa. If the park vegetation is slightly unruly or the color of the pond is moss green, it definitely is Okinawa. And in the winter, melting ice on the pond reflecting the bare trees is a Japanese esthetic.
5. Yeh Fang
Yeh Fang
The Map of the Soul
2015
Oil on canvas
64 x 51 inches
Courtesy of the artist
Fang lives and works in Taipei, Taiwan. She graduated from National Taiwan University of Arts and has exhibited at Art Taipei 2018 (International); Tokyo International Art Fair, HIKARIE HALL, Tokyo, Japan; Vision of the Void, Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taiwan; L’art ici et maintenant (ARTISHOK France); Freedom in the Art: Natura Nutrix-Homo Vorax, Venice Triennale, Venice, Italy; Asia Exhibition, Queensborough Community College Art Gallery, New York, America; Among the Mountain Views and Serene Water, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China; and The Travels of Life, Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China.
6. Lee Wei
Lee Wei
Memory of Nature
2018
acrylic on canvas, objects coated with metallic paint,
9 pieces, 8.3 x 5.5 inches each
Courtesy of the artist
This series of works features flowers and plants, and is inspired by shapes and sounds found in nature and by years of practicing meditation. The artist alters images of flowers and incorporates botanical textures into her paintings. The relaxed compositions of these works highlight the changes between overlapping layers. She prefers to use tranquil colors and blend into them a metallic tint. The images of flowers and plants are turned into metaphysical presentations that incorporate the abstract.
The earth is undergoing devastating and rapid environmental changes. The artist is acutely aware of the importance of preserving nature and restoring it, and the inherent logical difficulties. She uses totemic symbols accompanied by shapes of metallic flowers and plants to create three-dimensional visual effects. Thus, she tries to represent primeval nature and stress eternal law and truth. Her art originates from the union between human beings and the universe; and it is the eternal law that she draws.
Lee was born in 1969 in Yilan, Taiwan. She received her Master of Art at Fontbonne University, Missouri, USA and an MVA [Master of Visual Art] at Sydney College of the Arts in Australia. Lee has taught both in Taiwan and Australia in private and public institutions such as National Yilan University and Lanyang Institute of Technology. Currently, Lee is a full-time artist exhibiting in Taiwan and internationally.
7. Reinhard Blank
Reinhard Blank
Change through the coordinates space and time
2017
pigment on canvas
90.5 x 35 inches
Courtesy of the artist
Born in Memmingen, Germany, Blank lives and works in Thal Atelier, Bad Grönenbach, Germany. In 1986, he earned an MFA (master class diploma), The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (Akademie der Bildenden Künste München, also known as Munich Academy), Germany.
Unornamented, radically-simplified geometric forms are grounded in Earth symbolism and demonstrate Blank’s concerns with the world, the body, the mind, and the spirit.
His rational structure design correlates width, length, area, volume, proportion, space, and the Fibonacci sequence to promote his aesthetic view, and also respond to visual interpretation with implicit and metaphorical statements in a systematic style. Blank’s work emphatically endorses a harmonic, meditative character appealing for contemplation of the rationality of human intellect. This reveals his innermost concern with consciousness – a seemingly comprehensible, mechanical structure, modified by a transcendence beyond the limits of rationality, and hence unknowable.
8. Pey-Chwn Lin
Pey-Chwen Lin
Revelation of Eve Clone Documentation-IV, 2017
Motion Graphics, animation, and electronic music, color with sound [single channel DVD looped, running time: 7mins.
Pey-Chwen Lin, lives and works in Taipei, Taiwan. Lin received her doctorate in Creative Arts from the University of Wollongong, Australia, taught at various universities in Taiwan, and directed the Digital Art Laboratory at National Taiwan University of Arts. She also published the first digital art book in Taiwan, titled Taiwan Digital Art E-Files. Her work has been exhibited in major art venues and museums internationally.
Eve Clone is a recurring figure in Lin’s art and an unholy product of 3-D computer animation and associated digital technology. The video Revelation of Eve Clone IV centers on the figure of Eve Clone, created by the latest digital technology conjoined with human desire. Her gold head recalls the head of the statue in the book of Daniel; so Eve Clone epitomizes human hubris in challenging God’s supremacy. While humans believe that they are pursuing high technology avidly, in fact they are controlled by it.
Special Thanks to: Dr. Ken Howell, King Lee (ARTPOT), Giovanna Sung, Patrick Huang (TAAC co-founder and Board member), Ming Chiang (TAAC board member), and Shining Sung Collections
Exhibition: Urban Reverence, New York (paused due to coronavirus)
The phenomenon of migrants forming an international cross-cultural "urban tribe" is one of the urgent topics in the 21st century. Analyzed historically in the context of the planet and symbiosis, this involves the survival of human beings and maintenance of balance among various living things. The discourse thus moves to valuing human nature, preservation of multiple cultures, the environment, and the new multi-faceted unity. Potential political, economic, and cultural crises can only be averted by an emphasis on the diversity of life that promotes interactive relationships.
Curatorial team:
Chief Curator: Luchia Meihua Lee, Executive Director, TAAC
Co-curators: Jennifer Pliego, Director of Special Programs and Head of the House of Art, El Taller Latino Americano, NYC
Sarah Walko, Curator, Director of Education & Community Engagement, Visual Art Center of New Jersey
Urban Tribes-II Urban Reverence Participating artists
Herberto Turizzo Anaya, Reinhard Blank, Eric C. Chiang, Dennis Redmoon Darkeem, Catherine Lan (藍巧茹), Lee Wei (李瑋) , Yen-hua Lee (李燕華) , Stephanie Cheung/Chengwen Lin (林正文), ShihPao Lin (林世寳), J. Maya Luz, Eleng Luluan (安聖惠), Sarah Haviland, Diana Heise, Hiroshi Jashiki, Alexander Khimushin, Walis LaBai (Dingwu Wu吳鼎武), , Rosalia Mowgli, Sarah Walko, Chin Chih Yang (楊金池), Yeh Fang (葉方)
