Finger on the Void: Lin Ju Solo Exhibition

The Tina Keng Gallery is pleased to present the first solo exhibition of Lin Ju at the Tina Keng Gallery, Finger on the Void—Lin Ju Solo Exhibition, on view from November 17 to December 16 (opening reception: November 17, 4:30-7pm). Adept at employing “non-realistic symbolic icons,” Lin Ju works as if each painting is a hieroglyphic, an iconic conundrum to be contemplated, with the negation of negation (double negations), like the death of death (double deaths), referencing the Buddhist and Taoist dialectic of “[a] mystery within a mystery” and “banishment of banishment” in his work— The exhibition will feature 19 recent works, among them are terrains with non-humans and non-Buddhas, sometimes present, other times absent; most of the scenery painted are of forests, some fictional, while others, liken to the wooded hills near his home.

Lin Ju’s images affect the viewer with their exposure, wildness, rawness, alienation, and mutilation, while many are flipped upside-down, distorted, or off-colored. These characteristics accumulate into the prelude of Lin Ju’s paintings. He adopts a wizard-like escape, turning himself into wild vines that creep up trees, sending tendrils wherever the tree branches. Eventually the winding vines and tree become inseparable and indistinguishable. The contents of these paintings lie beyond his rational, conceptual grasp. Out of Lin Ju’s sensitive, intuitive personal traits, images like the shrouded scholar and such interpretations as well-nigh lies involuntarily pop up. Beyond exploring the way to go, looking around at the scenery is quite invariably, the real purpose.

Lin Ju

Lin Ju was born in Yilan, Taiwan (b. 1959), and currently lives and works in Taipei, Taiwan. Lin has participated in group exhibitions in Taipei, Taichung, Beijing, New York, Madrid, and Lisbon, including the Taiwan Contemporary Art 1988-1999 Exhibition at the National Art Museum of China, Beijing (1999) and The Quest for Identity at the Taipei Biennial, Taipei (1996), and has held various solo exhibitions, including The House of Wuchi III: State of Severance—Paintings and Performance at the Taipei Fine Art Museum (2002).