Leo Gallery Shanghai – Soft Power 2018

Exhibition Introduction

Leo Gallery is pleased to present “Soft Power 2018, A Female Artists’ Exhibition”, as part of the Gallery’s ten-year anniversary exhibition series in Shanghai. As the sixth exhibition of the series “Soft Power”, that Leo Gallery has held since 2011, the works and thoughts of essentially two female artists, namely: Ingrid Ledent and Lin Yan will be presented. Ingrid Ledent, a renowned contemporary printmaking artist, and Chairman of the International Adviser Board at International Printmaking Organization Alliance continues to expand the boundaries of traditional printmaking. She combines the latter with computer prints, video and sound pieces, where a new horizon for printmaking creations rises. Ledent has used reproducibility, as a characteristic of printing techniques, not to make editions in a simple way, but to generate unique artistic elements. Along with her printing process, with aqueous layers, where repetition dissolves into the windows of spatial tension and creates organic silhouettes, time becomes one of the main themes in Ledent’s work. Influenced by Henri Bergson’s concept of time, she has been trying to seize Durée, as the perception brought by reproducibility and time has been implicated in the word mindscapes, which the artist created specifically for the theme of the exhibition. Mindscapes, per say, do not exist but can be considered as the artist’s visitation to some sort of word game, as it refers to specific mental and emotional landscapes of the artist’s thought process and headspace.

Since the 1990s, Lin Yan has been working and living in New York City. Oscillating between Chinese and Western culture, she revisits her memories and emotions rooted in both East and West. Yan was strongly shaped by Chinese Taoist thought, leaving her work toothed in the spirit and image expression of Oriental philosophy. She uses “Xuan Paper”, also known as rice paper, an indispensable material in traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy, as the main material in her work. Lin Yan’s work is a journey through traditional painting, sculpture, and deconstructs of Xuan paper, along three dimensions of line, surface, and body.

 

Compositional elements, such as the multiple layers of Xuan paper, let the spectator indicate a sense of freeing deliberation. In its simplest black-and-white color, the installation exposes dynamic posture in the setting of space and light. Respective fluctuations in her work evoke an explicit recollection of the changes of nature, culture, and society.

 

A lot of Lin Yan’s works have been inspired by her steady visits to China. As indicated by the exhibition theme “Inverted Shadow”, if she was to be closer to heaven and earth in Northern China, then in Southern China – or Jiangnan, as the thick air has given her the chance to revisit water, as a fundamental element in her work.

 

The recurring theme takes place in the exploration of the relationship between space and architecture, man and nature, but with no historical or geographical traces. In her view, the most valuable part of her work is the line between sensibility and spirituality. Nicely summarized in the question she once raised: “how to grasp the untouchable?”. This gives the artist the freedom to gradually transit from the obvious to the untouchable.

 

The aesthetic experience and perspective, as well as the taste of the life of females, have constituted special symbols which female artists convey in their creations. Both the female artists try to proceed from their individual experience to move their concerns inwards and display their personal and mental aspects through self-discoveries. This kind of pursuit of unique artistic languages by female artists is what Leo Gallery wishes to present and explore in the “Soft Power” exhibition series.

 

 

 

Artist Statement

Time, as it is also in a process, is the basic theme in my work. I am strongly influenced by Henri Bergson’s idea of time, especially his philosophical thinking about “durée,” the continuous living of a memory which proceeds the past into the present. Emerging out of the manner in which I experience time, I highlight what cannot be interpreted as concrete, within the measurable time, for the soul is not able to comprehend the experience as a phenomenon within the limits of time. This is a foundation for my images, a non – transparent, archaic tissue of frequently recurring forms. Also important in the content are processes of manipulation, the phenomena of the matrix and the controlled coincidence or serendipity. Time is also involved in the human body as well as in the actions it undertakes. Therefore, I often use my own skin and body parts to reference and translate the time into more visual aspects.

—Ingrid Ledent

 

If I were to be closer to heaven and earth in the north, then after coming to the south – Jiangnan, or the south of the Yangtze River in China, the moist air has given me a glimpse of water, another indispensable natural resource in life. The exhibition of “Lin Yan: Inverted Shadow” in the noble south is a reflection of the installation done in the north -“Phekda” that is the third star of the Big Dipper, also my reaction to ink as well as the attitude of modern humans towards nature.

—Lin Yan

 

Ingrid Ledent (b.1955)

1955  Born in Brasschaat, Belgium
1978  Graduated from Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, Belgium
1979  Studied in UMPRUM in Prague, Czechoslovakia with Rudolf Broulim
1981  Graduated from National Higher Institute Antwerp, Belgium
1984  Professor of Lithography at Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, Belgium
Currently lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium

Ingrid Ledent studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, the UMPRUM in Prague and the National Higher Institute Antwerp where she received her MFA in printmaking in 1981. Since 1984 she is professor lithography at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp. Since September 2017 she is a distinguished professor at the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts. Ledent is also a member of the Council of the Internationale Senefelder-Stiftung in Offenbach (Germany) and chairman of the International Adviser Board at IPOA (International Printmaking Organisation Alliance) based in Guanlan, China.

She gave workshops and lectures at many international organizations and institutions. Her work has been exhibited around the world in over 20 solo exhibitions and many group exhibitions. She has received 12 national and 14 international awards in the field of Graphic Arts including the Grand Prix at the 3rd International Triennial in Prague, the 8th International Biennial of Drawing and Graphic Arts Györ, the International Print Triennial Krakow, the 5th Splitgraphic International Biennial, etc.

 

Lin Yan (b.1961)

1961 Born in Beijing, China
1984 Graduated from Department of Oil Painting, Central Academy of Art, Beijing, China (B.F.A)
1986 Graduated from Atelier of Technique of Painting, L’École Nationale supérieur des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France
1989 Graduated from Department of Studio Art, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, Bloomsburg, United States (M.A)
Currently lives and works in New York, United States
Lin Yan, lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, grew up in Beijing. She followed her grandfather and mother’s footsteps to Paris continuing her studies in art in 1985. A year later, she came to the US. Her first solo show “Tai Chi in Painting” at graduate school infused Chinese philosophy into her own “constructing paintings.”

In 1993, she moved to New York with her painter husband Wei Jia and their young son. Taoist thought remains in her life and art. She seeks the simplest possible use of elements in her work. Though her forms are quite minimal and mostly quiet, they are filled with complex impulses and nuances. The foundation of LinYan’s large sculptural paper collage is a variety of hand-made paper which has been used for Chinese traditional painting and calligraphy. The crumbled layers of soft handmade papers with ink create a paradoxical effect of strong, post-industrial feeling. Inspired by old Beijing architecture in her memory and industrial elements in her Brooklyn home, LinYan blur boundaries, embrace conflict, bring histories, past and present together. Aware of the struggle and resistance in the world, she balances this restlessness with the tranquility of her materials. Her images investigate the interrelation of Chinese traditional painting and modernist abstraction, and postmodern appropriation and ancient technical rigor.

Lin Yan’s works have been widely shown in the galleries and museums, reviewed and featured in New York Times, Art News, Art in America, Art Asia Pacific, Architecture and Art, Elle China, Women of China, World Journal and CCTV, among others. Her works are in public collection of the National Art Museum of China, the Pang Xunqin Museum, the Chengdu Contemporary Art Museum, the Museum of the Central Academy of Fine Art in China and Deutsche Bank Art.

 

 

 

 

展览前言

狮語画廊上海空间将于 2018 年 7 月 8 日，隆重呈现“锵锵 2018 | 女性艺术家联展”，展览也是狮語画廊十周年重要活动之一。

“锵锵”是狮語画廊自 2011 年来为女性艺术家举办的系列群展，今年是 Soft Power 主题展的第 6 回，此次展出两位女性艺术家：英格里德·勒登特（Ingrid Ledent）与林延的艺术创作与思考。

当代著名版画艺术家、国际版画联盟主席英格里德·勒登特（Ingrid Ledent）挑战了传统版画的边界，她将传统的印刷技术与计算机印刷、视频和音频相结合，从而延展了其创作的范围。“重复性”是印刷技术的特性，她长期运用印刷这一特性，但又不是简单的重复，而是将此生成为自己独特的艺术表现元素，她将传统版画的技法用于当代观念表达中，在印刷的过程中，这种“重复”被彼此分层，从而形成新的视觉形式。

受到柏格森的时间观念的影响，“时间”也是勒登特的主题，她一直试图抓住“延续的时间”。“重复性”与“时间性”带来的感知，正如艺术家本人为此次展览主题特别创造的单词“Mindscapes”一样，“Mindscapes”这一并不存在的单词，既可视为是艺术家的一次 “语言的游戏”，又指向艺术家心灵不同状态的多重风景。

自九十年代起，林延就长期工作、居住在纽约，游走在中西文化之间，她试图串联起中西文化之间与古老东方的记忆与文化情感。她的艺术蕴含着中国道家思想，来自于东方哲学的精神与意象表达，以传统书画中必不可少的材料“宣纸”为材质，她打破传统架上绘画和雕塑的界限，将宣纸从线、面、体三维空间进行重新解构进行创作。

层层幻化后的宣纸装置，最为简单的黑白两色，借由身处空间和光线释放出个性而神秘的动态姿态，展现其自由呼吸之感。细腻柔软的宣纸成为全新生命体，诠释艺术家对于自然与文化、社会变迁动荡中的挣扎与生命力。

林延所有作品的主题灵感都来自于每年在中国的短暂停留，正如本次展览的主题“反映 Inverted Shadow”所展现的一样，如果说在中国北方，她更多的是亲近天与地，而江南湿润的空气让她重新认识生命中另一个不可缺少的自然资源——水。

作品中反复出现的主题是来自于空间与建筑、人与自然关系的探索，但她却刻意模糊着地域、历史、过去与当下。在她自己看来，其作品最有价值、最有意思的是 sensibility（感觉）和 spirituality（精神性），如何“把握住那些摸不着的”？这使其艺术作品呈现出独特与自由的气息。

女性的审美体验和视角、对于人生和生命的体味，构建了女性艺术家在创作中传递出的特殊符号，这两位女性艺术家都尝试从自身经验出发，将视线内移，在自我探寻的创作过程展现出个人化、心灵化的一面，这种来自女性艺术家独特艺术语言的自我追寻与展现也是狮語画廊在“锵锵”系列展览中期待观看并探讨的课题。

 

 

艺术家自述

时间是我创作的基本主题，它也存在于过程之中。我深受亨利·柏格森对时间的论述的影响，尤其是他关于“绵延”的哲学思考，这是一种将过去带入现实的绵延不断的记忆形态。从我体验时间的方式出发，我强调了那些在可被测量的时间内所不能被理解为有形的事物，正因在时间的限制下，灵魂无法将经验理解为一种现象。这是我所创作的图像的基础，是一个不透明的，重复出现的古老的形式。在内容中，对过程的操纵、矩阵现象、受控制的巧合或偶然性也很重要。时间也涉及到人体以及人体所采取的行动。因此，我经常用我自己的皮肤和身体部位作为参考，以此将时间转译至视觉的维度。
——英格里德·勒登特

 

如果说在北方我更多地亲近天与地，那么到南方- 江南，湿润的空气让我认识了水，生命中另一个不可缺少的自然资源。“林延：反映”展是秀美的江南对我在北方做的装置作品北斗七星系列第三颗星“天玑”的清影，也是我对水墨，现代人类对自然的态度的反应。
——林延

 

 

英格里德·勒登特 (b.1955)

1955，生于比利时布拉斯哈特
1978，毕业于比利时安特卫普皇家艺术学院 自由图像专业
1979，就读于捷克斯洛伐克布拉格 UMPRUM 应用艺术学院，师从当代石版画之父 Rudolf Broulim
1981，就读于比利时国家高等艺术类研究所
1984-，比利时安特卫普皇家艺术学院 石版画教授
现工作生活于比利时安特卫普

英格里德·勒登特（Ingrid Ledent），1955 年 5 月 27 日出生于比利时-布拉斯哈特，现任上海美术学院特聘教授，国际版画联盟主席。1973-1978 年期间，她在安特卫普皇家艺术学院学习自由图像专业。在比利时版画大师高登（G . Gaudaen）、范雷默特尔（W . Van Remoortel）和范鲁斯梵（J . Van Ruysseveldt）等人的指导下学习木版画、石版画和蚀刻。1978-1979 年期间，她来到捷克斯洛伐克的布拉格，受鲁道夫·布洛林
（Rudolf Broulim）的指导，在应用艺术学院（u.m.p.r.u.m）专攻石版画学习。1981 年在安特卫普获得国家高等艺术类研究所奖。从 1984 年至 2016 年，担任比利时安特卫普皇家艺术学院版画系教授，并任纯艺术部门主任。

她是国家和国际比赛的评审团成员，在世界各地举办了个人和团体展览。除了比利时，她还在奥地利、巴西、加拿大、中国、克罗地亚、捷克、爱沙尼亚、芬兰、法国、德国、匈牙利、日本、波兰、罗马尼亚、俄罗斯、斯洛文尼亚、南非、韩国、瑞典、乌克兰、英国、美国等国家展出过自己的作品。

 

林延 (b.1961)

1961，生于中国北京
1984，毕业于中央美术学院 油画系，获艺术学士学位
1986，就读于法国巴黎国立高等美术学院 绘画材料研究室
1989，毕业于美国布鲁姆斯堡宾夕法尼亚州立大学 视觉艺术系
现工作生活于美国纽约

林延 1961 年出生于中国北京，中央美院油画系毕业后，1985 年前往巴黎美院绘画材料研究室进修，后于宾州布鲁斯堡大学视觉艺术系取得硕士学位。林延以宣纸为主要媒材，创造出具有建筑性格的装置和绘画雕塑。宣纸不再只能是平面绘画的载体，而能被塑造为极富重量感和层次感的形态。黑与白、刚与柔的并置如同虚实相容的太极，呼应中国传统哲学思想中的阴阳平衡。以空间为起点、与建筑形式相结合、赋予极简主义以东方美学的纬度，林延近年制作许多大型的现地装置，作品庞大的气势与其近距离的触感、手工感形成微妙对比。在包罗万象的当代艺术中，林延以最古老简朴的材料，简明有力的独特语言平静地表现出社会变迁动荡中的自然和文化的挣扎与生命力，美与创伤。

1988 年毕业前即举办首次个展「林延：绘画中的太极」。1994 年在中央美院联展「泣、弃、契、弃？气」中，林延以大型黑色装置表达对城市变迁的忧虑，随即展开长达十年的「黑色时期」创作。1998 年，林延策划「三代中国女艺术家：丘堤，庞壔，林延」联展，以女性角度呈现中国艺术百年来的变化，分别在纽约、北京、温哥华三地展出。近期重要展览包括：2016 年「林延」、2014 年「林延：不一样的宣」和「林延：空－气」、2013 年「林延：知止」等个展，分别于台北诚品画廊、布鲁塞尔 Officina、纽约天理文化中心、纽约熨斗大厦艺术公共空间展出，联展包括 2014 年美国布鲁斯博物馆「双城记：纽约与北京」和｢2012 纸上艺术双年展｣等。作品获纽约德意志银行、上海龙美术馆、北京中国美术馆等机构收藏。