Venue | Messe Basel (Messeplatz 10, 4058 Basel, Switzerland)
Galleries Booth | E13
Participating Artists | Wu Dayu (1903–1988), George Chann (1913–1995), Su Xiaobai (b. 1949), Sopheap Pich (b. 1971)
Opening Hours |
Unlimited Opening
06.16 (Mon.) 4:00-8:00 p.m.
VIP Preview
06.17 (Tue.), 06.18 (Wed.) 11:00 a.m.-8:00 p.m.
Vernissage
06.18 (Wed.) 4:00-8:00 p.m.
Unlimited Vernissage
06.19 (Thurs.) 7:00-10:00 p.m.
Public Days
06.19 (Thurs.) -06.22 (Sun.) 11:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m.
Tina Keng Gallery in Galleries |
"Abstraction Contextualized: The Essence of Eastern Abstract Art"
For the 2025 edition of Art Basel in Basel, Tina Keng Gallery is pleased to present Wu Dayu , George Chan, Su Xiaobai, and Sopheap Pich in a curated project that foregrounds the divide and continuation of Eastern abstract art in the past century. By tracing a hundred years of shifting cultural sensibilities, material experimentation, and conceptual vantage points, this presentation articulates an Eastern abstract aesthetic grounded in materiality, spiritual introspection, and a distinct artistic ethos that privileges essence over likeness — retaining spirit while shedding form.
In the early 20th century when diverse modern art movements thrived, Wu Dayu (1903–1988) went to Paris — the art hub where avant-garde artists from all over the world gathered — and immersed himself in Impressionism, Cubism, and Fauvism. Fusing color theories with expressions of form, Chinese calligraphy with literati painting, Wu evinced the idea of shixiang, or Dynamic Expressionism, which amalgamated light and color, tone and hue. This profoundly influenced a generation of disciples who would later become iconic abstract painters, such as Zao Wou-Ki, Chu Teh-Chun, and Wu Guanzhong. Wu Dayu’s pioneering approach helped shape the postwar Eastern abstract art scene, aligning it with Western trends, cementing his position as a founding figure in Chinese abstract art.
In contrast, George Chann (1913–1995), who broke out on the American art scene in the 1940s, took a different approach from Wu’s European style that was deeply rooted in Chinese heritage. Chann’s early body of work exuded a sense of humanitarian concern for the underclass before he shifted toward abstraction. Ancient Chinese artifacts and inscriptions served as his inspirations, and his layering and deconstruction of Chinese characters, ink, and paper became his tribute to and re-imagination of Chinese legacy, while he was oceans away from home. Verdigris blooming across ancient bronze and the timeworn etchings on stone tablets conjure the fading traces of civilization. In Chann’s work, abstracted characters emerge as metaphors for cultural remnants, anchoring a distinctive style of abstract expressionism that reimagines Han character traditions through a fusion of Chinese philology and Western painterly abstraction.
The Düsseldorf-based abstract artist Su Xiaobai (b. 1949) creates a visual vocabulary with traditional mediums — oil paint, lacquer, and linen — which embody Eastern history, tinged with wabi-sabi aesthetics. His work emanates a sense of time, with the texture of lacquer exuding a warm luster. The sensuous and rounded edges, the weathered and cracked surfaces, all speak of a unity of humanity and nature, transforming the dialogue between traditional craftsmanship and contemporary art into a transcultural experience.
For Cambodian artist Sopheap Pich (b. 1971), nature and memory serve as profound sources of creative inspiration, allowing him to deepen his connection with traditional culture. Through the use of natural materials from Cambodian everyday life, from bamboo, rattan, burlap, mineral pigments, to metals, rendered with traditional weaving techniques, he imbues concrete forms with solidity and ethereal qualities within an abstract composition. A sultry atmosphere of the tropical forest permeates his sculptures, transporting the viewer to an ancient terrain of cultural memory, where whispers of bamboo and rattan echo and linger.
From Wu Da-Yu’s shixiang, which fused Eastern and Western painting sensibilities, to George Chann’s abstraction rooted in the deconstruction of calligraphy and the semiotics of Chinese characters; from Su Xiaobai’s sculptural works that distill historical symbolism through a dialogue with traditional lacquer, to Sopheap Pich’s biomorphic abstractions born from natural materials and cultural craft traditions — these diverse practices trace a century of Eastern abstraction. Through these trajectories, Tina Keng Gallery reflects on the intersecting points of Eastern and Western modernisms, while presenting its ongoing exploration of Asia’s cultural heritage. For Western audiences, this curatorial journey opens new dimensions where Eastern abstract aesthetics and contemporary artistic thought converge.