A 1985~2006
1~ 1985 ''Improvised Painting-I'' Jen-Chen Gallery, Taipei
2~ 1987 ''Improvised Painting-II'' AIT
3~ 2001 ''Gravity Release'' series, Sanyi, Miaoly, Taiwan
4~ 2002 '' Flying '' series, Unique Art Gallery, Taichung,
5~ 2006 ''Fertile Soil'' series, Eslite Xin Yi Store, Taipei
1~ 1985 Solo Show ''Improvised Painting-I''. Jen-Chen Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
1985People's livelihood
Journalist Huang Paoping 黃寶萍
Improvisation Until Satisfaction
Liang Ping-Cheng Becomes Artist-in-Residence in Jia-ren Gallery
Liang Ping-Cheng, the winner of the EighthLion Art New Artist Award, had a high-profile relocation of his studio to Jia-ren Gallery today. He continues his improvisational painting on the walls, the ceilings and the floors until he is happy with the works. From today to the 11th next month, he will be painting over all Jia-ren Gallery, as his whims take him to. Liang said that he will paint by living the most liberal lifestyle, day and night. This creative process is open to all the lovers of art.
Liang indicates that everybody has his own personality and creative art can be done in different environments. He is currently on improvisational painting, revealing his studio and living by painting. At this juncture, he is not sure what he is able to come up with. This totally depends on the environment and the moment of thinking. He said that painting is a risky endeavor and success is in no way guaranteed.
However, Liang believes his odds of success are 70-80%. He was graduated from Department of Fine Arts, Chinese Culture University in June this year. Many of his classmates are involved in improvisational painting. The trend is going for bigger sizes. Sometimes he has troubles understanding his urge to fill the whole wall with painting. However, he thinks the current attempt may be a better style. It is said that Liang’s improvisational painting on the walls and floors of an art gallery is the first ever in Taiwan. During this period, Liang also showcases his past works so that people can better understand his creative process.
How to Paint. What to Paint. All for Your Eyes. Both the Process and the Outcome.
Art workers can choose what and how they create, but Liang seems even more different in how he does it. He said that improvisational painting on the walls, on the ceilings and on the floors take on a different meaning for him. Some people would lock themselves up to painting, away from other people. Others choose to hide away in the mountains and forests in order to think and create. However, Liang takes on a worldly approach by openly displaying his creative process. After all, creative art needs to speak and connect with the outside world. He had the idea long time ago about painting on the walls of an art gallery. A classmate of his suggested that they should paint on the school bus, but Liang believes that he needs to be responsible for his own behavior. Spray painting graffiti on New York subways and playing hide-and-seek with the police is not a good idea. Finally, Jia-ren Gallery allowed him to “evade” their own walls. This gives Liang a creative space. For him, painting is an absolute express. It feels good and smooth. Impulsive beauty is more captivating than rational painting. Liang compares the process of painting to the pulse of cultural heritage. The circulation of artworks to the future generations is nothing but a visual intuition across generations. Therefore, he wants to discard the preservation of his works but focuses on the process of creation. That said, this does not imply the process is more important than the outcome. His improvisation must come to fruition, and he needs to accomplish this creative endeavor. Of course, the process of painting is an adventure and a challenge. He is ready for it. The more ordeals, the better. Some may say, “This is probably following an arty trend overseas” when they hear about Liang’s exhibition. In fact, he was astonished when he saw graffiti in the undergrounds overseas. How come the works are so familiar! He had no prior knowledge or information about it. “This is probably because I received the formal training in Western arts. After all, all roads lead to Rome.” Liang emphasizes the differences in nature despite the similarity in forms. This is because of different cultural backgrounds. “Painting is nothing complicated. Just paint it. Think it.” Liang is putting his foot down for this exhibition. He hopes the public pays less attention in how he does it. What matters is what he achieves.
Jen-Chen Galleryinterior230 meters square~Draw on the ground & wall & ceiling
Bèn niǎo Painting Club
The solo exhibition of spontaneous painting at Jia-ren Gallery was not a traditional art exhibition, in which paintings were hung and displayed. Instead, the whole gallery space was turned into one painting. According to Liang himself, he took a couple of Kaoliang and a few boxes of paint, and locked himself in the gallery. When doing spontaneous artistic creation, one had to be freewheeling first. A bunch of reporters came to the site, hoping to know more about this artistic precedence. They stood behind the artist to watch the "performance." There were no references or preliminary sketches for the spontaneous painting. His only idea was to fill the entire exhibition space with painting, from the first inch to the last. The floor, walls, and ceiling would be covered in painting; one could not tell the beginning from the end, the left from the right, the ceiling from the floor. The entire space was one giant work. Liang's "spontaneous sculpture," which he was to fully develop later, could already be detected here. He used twenty-seven days to complete this massive work. It took nearly one month to create, and was on view for one month. On the opening day, the same group of reporters came back to report on the exhibition and its repercussion. It was a special case that the exhibition was covered twice by media. From the second group exhibition of Ban Niao, in which the trans-avantgarde began to take effect, to the maturing spontaneous painting at Jia-ren Gallery, which was still not counted as climbing to the top of the world, to the third and fourth Ban Niao group exhibitions at Nan Gallery and Taipei Culture Center, which were merely two of the "hundred peaks," the solo exhibition of spontaneous painting at Jia-ren Gallery hinted at the fact that Liang was close to complete the "hundred-peak test." After conquering the challenge of the three-thousand-meter mountains, he now was confident enough to take on the five-thousand-meter challenge.
I just graduated from college that year, and held an exhibition of spontaneous painting at Jia-ren Gallery. I did not rely on any single picture or sketch but my own imagination. In twenty-seven days, I freely painted the entire space of the gallery, including the floor, walls, and ceiling, which was more than 231 m2. Decades later, I now make wood sculptures, and am still do it without reference or sketch. Instead, I follow the nature of the wood and create a dialogue with the life the wood used to have. Humbly speaking, such an approach to carve according to the nature of the wood is unique and forms personal characteristics.
Finish Improvisational painting~Jen-Chen Gallery Lobby
2~ 1987 ''Improvised Painting-II'' AIT
Another tunnel 1987 oil painting 194x260cm
The last "hundred-peak challenge" in Taiwan was the solo exhibition at the American CulturalCenter. The showcased works included seven No. 240 paintings, one No. 480 painting, and dozens of paintings in various sizes. These works were painted when he was teaching at Fu-Hsin Trade and Arts School, and could be taken as a conclusive result of Liang's painting as well as an end to his teaching career. From the winning of the New Artist Award to this moment, what was left for Liang was to face himself. The hundred peaks he had conquered over the years were leftbehind now. There were higher mountains that awaited him in the world, quietly calling his name on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. Ended his teaching career at Fu-Hsin Trade and Arts School and accompanied by his wife, Liang took whatever possession he had and entered New York University to start another challenge in the US. All the best and most talented people have always been going to New York. Without spending time there, one could not claim that he knew art and had seenChhogori, the peak of K2.
Princess 1987 oil painting 194x130cm
Dog shadow 1987 oil painting 194x130cm
Pig. Dog. Old man 1987 oil painting 194x130cm
Another cake 1987 oil painting 194x260cm
紫河車(placenta ) 1987 oil painting 194x130x4cm
dark mountain 1987 oil painting 194x260cm
3~ ''2001 Gravity Release'' series, Sanyi, Miaoly, Taiwan
Liang moved to and away from Sanyi three times. From the glamorous world to the simple, mountainous town immersed in the scent of wood, he not only hoped to retrieve the truth, goodness, and beauty of art, but also contemplated upon the meaning of being an artist and the purpose of artistic creation. This was a transformation and transition for him. Apart from the pure sense of beauty and the exploration of aesthetics, what meaning did artistic creation convey?
In mid-1997, Liang had an opportunity to visit Sanyi. He looked just like what everybody would imagine an artist look like, sloppy and careless about his appearance. He would wander on the streets of Sanyi with a bottle of wine in hand, breathing alcohol. The lowest point of his life coincided with the depression of Sanyi, whose wood sculpture industry had fallen to the bottom from its peak for quite some time. Local artisans gathered together all day, drinking tea and chatting, trying to find a new possibility for Sanyi through "discussing about it." Liang's arrival simply offered them a new perspective: what could an academically trained
original warehouse gallery
artist who had studied abroad do in Sanyi? Aside from his decadent lifestyle, what else could this group of wood sculpture artisans, who started their career as pupils after graduating junior high schools or vocational schools, see in Liang? Through this opportunity, instead of diving directly into sharpening his woodcarving skills, Liang took his time to reflect more and see the bigger picture. After all, he had survived living in the Big Apple. Not only had he diagnosed the symptoms of Sanyi's woodcarvingindustry, he also "lectured" theseartisans about Sanyi's potentiality, which he had foresaw.
original warehouse gallery
Liang had always been relatively quick in making his work, now he was producing sculptures even faster since he was not distracted. In no time, he held his first solo exhibition in Sanyi at Original Art World at the end of 2001, which also marked the official beginning of the Gravity ReleaseSeries.
Gravity Release was the first series that Liang set out to develop. The title did not merely refer to release physical weight but psychological burden as well. People living on this island have not only been burdened by living and financial pressure, they also pressured by the task of making the country stronger, establishing its historical position, resolving conflicts between ethnic groups, and finding solutions for political differences. Every Taiwanese, from politician to ordinary citizen, was buried under pressure since birth; and each household was faced with difficulties of its own. Therefore, every person carried weight on his or her mind that needed to be released. Through Liang's Gravity ReleaseSeries, each piece of wood block became light and thin with a sense of levitating beauty. Upon viewing the series, the body and mind became weightless to the point that one felt to be able to fly. This was undoubtedly the psychological freedom that Taiwanese people needed the most.
The solo exhibition at Original Art World did not just showcase wooden sculptures but also avantgarde art installations that incorporated lighting and digital technologies. Mixed media installations were not uncommon or groundbreaking in Taiwan; however, it was new to the people in Sanyi. In this exhibition, one could already see works that possessed characteristics of void spaces and hairpins, which would eventually lead to the series of Integral and Taiwan Matrix.
original warehouse gallery
4~ 2002 '' Flying '' series, Unique Art Gallery, Taichung,
Unique Art Gallery
In 2002, Liang soon presented the FlyingSeries at Galerie Pierre in Taichung. It was the first time he showed works of thin structure and laid down the foundation for the husk and pod structure in the Integral and Taiwan Matrix Series that were to come later. The FlyingSeries originated from Gravity Release, and through the approach adopted in this series, Liang was able to release the heaviness in wood to create a sense of lightness, thinness and floating beauty. As a matter of fact, Liang observedand detected the tremendous pressure of modern people in New York, Kaohsiung, and Taipei. The phenomenon was universal in modern society, and required a sort of psychological release. The power of Gravity Release lay in the fact that each carving and removal of wood that rendered the wood thinner andlighter would create a sense of gratification. It was a unique experience, and Liang believed that viewers would have the same feeling when seeing his works.
pig ears
Taiwan maternal and fetal
5~ 2006 ''Fertile Soil'' series, Eslite Xin Yi Store, Taipei
Nonetheless, Liang did not hold many exhibitions during this prolific period. The only exhibition that took place was Fertile Land at the store of Herb 24 in Eslite Xinyi Store in 2005. The exhibition title was inspired by two pieces showcased in the exhibition, Fertile Land I and Fertile Land II. The surface texture of these two works reminded the viewers of fields. Sanyi was surrounded by fields, and the earth nurtured all kinds of crops as well as different insects, worms, birds, and animals. Liang also grew up in the countryside and had a deep understanding of what earth meant to farmers. Fertile earth was a basic element to harvests, and these two works were like terraced fields observed from an aerial view.
Niuniu Trojan 2006 Hinoki 190x120x60cm
Triangular fertile soil 2006 camphor wood&Hinoki 135x80x70cm
That was why they were named Fertile Land. Many of the works displayed in this exhibition embodied similar vocabulary that was reminiscent of field landscape. Later, this vocabulary would gradually become the diamond pattern and other morphed shapes in Liang's work. In addition, more than two third of the sculptures showcased in the exhibition had "legs"; they might have four or three legs, making them look like tables, chairs, or benches. However, they were not made to be "furniture." This dialectic concept was typical of the Post-Sanyi Period, and was embodied in series such as Non-Objects and Non-Books.
Although Fertile Land was not an "official art exhibition" in a gallery space, it delivered a significant meaning. It was like an overture announcing Liang's return to the art scene in Taipei and foretold his Taipei Period. After this, his climbing challenge in artistic creation no longer started at three thousand meters but five thousand.
saddle 2006 Xiaonan Wood 110x60x60cm