Artist: Han Dong
Curator: He Yongmiao
Duration: 2024.1.12 - 2.25
Venue: Renke Art, No.1 North Zhongshan Rd., Hangzhou
This exhibition marks the seventh solo exhibition by Han Dong held at Renke Art , featuring a curated selection of three representative oil paintings by the artist as well as 37 new works created over the past two years, totaling over 41 pieces.
Artist Han Dong initially created portraits using oil paint on canvas in his early years. After 2010, he shifted towards expressing everyday scenes through ink wash. This change in creative direction reflects Han Dong's evolving perspective on the world. As a devout Buddhist, Han Dong, with a tranquil heart, perceives the often overlooked everyday objects, capturing their inherent vitality and creating a spiritual naturalism imbued with boundless flavors. With a mind imbued with Buddhist teachings, he crafts marvelous scenes, reflecting his profound reverence for life within the vibrant depictions of flowers, birds, insects, and animals.
Preface
Yangzhou Guanyin Mountain Zen Temple
Hangzhou Renke Art
The origin of the dual-city exhibition lies in a shared faith
Twelve parchment ink wash works
Preface to“The Unity of Myriad Virtues”
One should not grasp emptiness and neglect existence, nor should one forsake reality and follow nothingness. To release expedient means, thus returning to the true aspect. With expedience and reality fulfilled, emptiness can be preserved.
Hence, the theme of this dual-city exhibition emerged:
The Unity of Myriad Virtues
As I carefully observe,
Ah, a shepherd’s purse flower
Blooms by the fence!
Basho was a poet of nature, like most Eastern poets, they loved nature so deeply that they felt as one with it, sensing every pulse in the bloodstream of nature.
I understand the profound emotions in Basho’s poem.
I also pay attention to things people use to project emotions, like branches, grass, butterflies, wild rabbits, quails, and doves. The minutiae does not imply boredom and lack of emotion. The attitude of contemplation entails recognition and acceptance of the inevitable laws of life, though it offers little consolation.
My intention in painting is nothing more than, with utmost freedom, using a vivid, feasible method to blend together contrasting, contradictory, and discordant elements, arranging them visually to create a pure land.
The moment the feathers of the pheasant are depicted, I set the painting aside. Seeing the image as simple, gentle, profound, and subtle, it softens rigid shells, boundaries, and attachments.
I only hope that my exhibition can bring joy to people’s hearts and reflect and transmit that joy to everyone.
Han Dong
November 2023
Written in Yangzhou
Han Dong
Han Dong was born in 1958 in Dafeng, Jiangsu Province. In 1986, he graduated from the Department of Arts and Crafts at the Nanjing Art Institute and currently lives and works in Yangzhou. Han Dong emerged in the contemporary art scene in his early years. In 1986, his lacquer painting "Green Fruit" was selected for the "First China Lacquer Painting Exhibition" and won an award of excellence. In 1990, his work "Listening to Qin" was selected for the "Hong Kong Chinese Art Exhibition." In 1992, his oil painting "Indoor Figures" was selected for the "Guangzhou · First 90s Art Biennale" and won third prize. In 1995, his oil painting "Indoor Sandalwood" was selected for the "Third China Oil Painting Annual Exhibition" at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing. In 2009, he participated in the contemporary art exhibition "Yi Pai · Century Thinking" curated by Gao Minglu at the Today Art Museum in Beijing. Han Dong's art has been featured in specialized publications such as Jiangsu Painting Magazine, Art Literature, and National Art.
