Transforming the aesthetics of traditional
Chinese landscape painting, Yao Jui-Chung’s (b. 1969) idiosyncratic landscape
paintings boast resplendent landscapes, accentuating absurd narratives, which
rebel against classic ink painting. The use of technical pens supersedes the
traditional calligraphy brush, shaping a unique style of Yao’s reinterpretation
of painting tradition. As if in contrast with the upheaval during today’s grim
times, the artist translates ancient masterpieces into witty, trivial personal
anecdotes in the form of faux “shanshui”, ultimately upending the
orthodoxy that undergirds literati painting.