Spark: Chiang Yomei Solo Exhibition

The Tina Keng Gallery is pleased to present Spark – Chiang Yomei, the artist’s first solo exhibition in Taiwan at the gallery. The exhibition will be on view at our space in Neihu from September 3-25 (opening reception: September 3, 4:30pm-7:00pm). Chiang Yomei’s first solo exhibition in Taiwan opens with focus and maturity, though she has been exploring many creative mediums like poetry, drawing and installation from early on. For Chiang, the making of art is parallel to the heart’s path. The “impermanence” of life itself, and the twists and turns of life’s journey inspire her work. A practicing Buddhist, her work presents the “raw power of the Feminine” as a source of creation and destruction. Chiang stresses the process of transformation in her work, from the pain of attachment, destruction of illusions, and the rebirth of the soul, while also as a metaphor of the heart’s path—one of chaos, pain, clarity and wisdom.

This exhibition includes many new works from 2009 to 2011. Chiang’s work features oil painting and works on paper, with surfaces often incorporated with hair, feathers, tissue paper, and salt. The expression of the work often come close to abstract and free of bonds, alluding to the allegorical sources like “Kali” and “Lilith”. Chiang applies materialistic form and matter, to express her understanding of emptiness and impermanence, evoking the immaterial with material. The first layers of her paintings always start out as very dark, and through a process of working and re-working the surface, Chiang gradually teases out “the light”, creating and destroying it over and over again, the knot (of desire and attachment) is cut, and clarity and light abound.

Chiang Yomei

Born in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1961, and she now lives and works in London. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Kent at Canterbury in 1984, double-majoring in History and Theory of Art and English Literature. After Kent, Yomei continued studies in Chinese Art History at the School of Oriental Studies, University of London.  From 1989, she began to practice fine art in a more concentrated capacity, also producing a collection of short stories and poetry.  She obtained another Bachelor's degree, this time in Fine Art, from Winchester School of Art in 1994. Notable exhibitions and performances in recent years include: Solo Exhibition On Board the Lotus Express(2007) at Maya Gallery, London; Panorama of a New Generation(2001) at Bernard Chauchet Contemporary Art, London; Falling Out of Time(1996) installation and performance in London; Heal Me(1994) installation and performance in Taipei.