As the thermometer creeps ever upward and hair goes limp, I encourage a visit to FIU’s Frost Museum for a jolt of cool.
Now on view through Oct. 19, the first of Florida International University’s “3 Giants of Chinese Contemporary Art” exhibitions gallops into gear with Simon Ma’s Heart-Water-Ink, a world tour presentation commencing at the venerated FIU Patricia and Philip Frost Art Museum.
Frost Museum Chief Curator and Director Carol Damian with Emmett Young, Marketing & Communications, Simon Ma’s Dragon Colt Chairs (photo by Irene Sperber)
I met with the museum’s Director and Chief Curator Carol Damian to view and discuss the internationally acclaimed artist Simon Ma adorning walls and floor of the main gallery. A charming and insightful exploration of the exhibition led to more abstruse thoughts of integral Chinese sensibility and experience vis a vis the larger world the planet now parses.
Hong Kong born Simon Ma employs his comprehensive background in traditional Chinese arts, bringing the world into play, opening up to pieces of life’s puzzle reflecting a culturally layered sensibility. Dedicating this exhibition as a tribute to Chinese Master Xu Beihong (1895- 1953), Heart-Water-Ink clearly recognizes Xu’s lifelong movement to reform and revive Chinese art through Western style painting. Mr Xu believed in preserving the finest characteristics of traditional Chinese painting by modernizing the genre, taking Chinese techniques into the outside world.
Artist Simon Ma
Simon Ma at work
“Simon Ma trained in calligraphy,” explained Damian as we began perusing the exhibit.
The black and white pen and ink drawings before me clearly indicate his background, nature being a predominant inspiration; music and myriad interests are perceptible as one peers deeper into the works. Traditional Chinese brush painting techniques swoop across beautiful rice paper; definitive ink slashes mirror the subtle movement of the paper’s plant fibers visible as a shadow patterning of Ma’s ink gestures. (Factoid: paper making as we know it began in China around 105A.D.) "Ma also trained in London," Damian continued, pointing out nods to abstraction, Kandinsky, Klee, Miro.
The ink markings, while carefully traditional, gather to form Rorschach test-like shapes; further inspection of ink lines reveal secrets of nature. Damian pointed out “Inserts are made up words and references (put into) a Chinese context.”
On the opposite side of the gallery, the same brush techniques are utilized, but with color, a surprising twist from the stark black and white of the opposing wall.
Ma with Horses
Recurring themes of this exhibition are the four elements: water, air, fire earth with a predominance of the important Chinese symbols of Dragon and Horse. Ma was born in the Chinese astrological (artistic) sign of the Horse. The Chinese pictogram of the Horse is pronounced “Ma.” This is the year, not coincidentally, of the Horse; from Jan. 3, 2014 to Feb. 18, 2015.
Mid exhibition, large sculptural pieces erupt from the museum floor; wild horses rear up to lord over us, overwhelming with power and strength. Paint drips from their haunches as Ma reflects the wildness in his treatment of hurled pigment.
The exhibit includes drawings, paintings, sculpture, furniture and design. Two large 3-D video inclusions spin Ma’s recurring images past our senses. Copper windswept sculptures punctuate the gallery’s middle ground with Wind in Bray. A glass horse stands on a pedestal changing up emotional explication with its switch of element as an example of artist Ma’s study of Murano glass.
Wind in Bray sculpture (foreground), Flames of War painting (background). (Photo by Irene Sperber)
I asked Damian what was the most unexpected element of the show in her opinion: “The variety, especially the works on paper. I was struck by the elegant beauty of work on paper.... (they are) much more Asian, less bravura.”
She is referring to the large sculptural pieces depicting the horse predominantly, often with a dragon’s element inserted into the animal’s facade, creating the artistic nature of the horse with the dramatic, yet benevolent vision of the Chinese dragon symbol of their people.
Heart-Water-Ink shares Ma’s painting from the heart to “touch and arouse peoples feelings” his statement interprets....an emotion well executed.
All work was done over the past two years, the FIU exhibition is a kind of debut in the U.S., though he has had very large exhibitions in Europe previous to this kick off tour.
The 3 Giants of Chinese Contemporary Arts exhibition trilogy opening in the next year include:
Nov. 8, 2014 to Jan. 18, 2015
Wang Qingsong: ADinfinitum - One of China’s most innovative artists, “gigantic photographic masterpieces” of earthshaking changes in China.Feb. 14, 2015 to May 24, 2015
Xu Bing: Writing between Heaven and Earth- “Masterpieces demonstrating the art of writing as image.....the fusion of eastern and western cultures into one harmony.”Also at the Frost, be sure to catch the Leonel Matheu exhibition titled “Crossroads of the Dystopia” through Sept. 14. thefrost.fiu.edu/exhibitions.htm
A first major survey exhibition of Cuban born Matheu includes twenty years of his work. Eerie dome-shaped heads predominate representing “a collective portrayal of a Cuban nation marked by displacement and dystopia.”
Patricia and Philip Frost Museum
Florida International University
10975 SW 17th Street
Miami 33199
thefrost.fiu.edu
Museum Hours
Tuesday - Saturday 10am-5pm
Sunday noon - 5pm
Closed Monday
