Starting this year, the Taipei Fine Arts Museum will only accept five applicants for exhibitions at the museum, which is a dramatic reduction from the previous 25. The goal in this move is quality enhancement, more careful screening of the applicants and a larger budget for each exhibition.
Chen Luoke (
His paintings reflect his passion for travel, with a mixture of vague outlines of the human body and strokes that suggest the structures of a city.
PHOTO COURTESY OF TFAM
Chen's human figures are not the ones usually seen in paintings, they have no vivid features and appear decapitated. Despite the deceiving title of Figure Landscape, the 31 paintings on view are entirely abstract. The sinuous curves outlining the figures are sliced by Chen's characteristic short strokes, so that viewers need time to visualize the person depicted.
Chen, who was born in Taipei and has been living in Wuppertal since 1985, said he preferred not to draw heads because they are too easily recognizable. "Figurative painting is no fun," Chen said at the opening of his show on Thursday. He prefers viewers to "read between the lines," and to visually solve the image puzzle of the concealed silhouette of the body he tries to draw.
On view at the show are two series that reflect his recollections of the cities of Montreal and his adopted city of Wuppertal.
PHOTO COURTESY OF TFAM
The Montreal series is based on slanted lines that Chen said were inspired by the unique design of fire escapes that impressed him during his visits there. Upon closer observation, one can recognize a prostrate body with a bare abdomen or a luscious thigh in each painting.
Contrary to the brightly-toned Montreal series, the Wuppertal series has a sharp and colder look. Chen said he remembers Montreal as a lively city with a spring-like atmosphere, whereas Wuppertal is a rainy industrial city. The colors of his new home inspired Chen to choose greyish tones in his Wuppertal series. The images are also centered around a unique structure in the city, the Schwebebahn, or cable car, which has an intriguing triangular structure. Chen blends this structure with images of a leg bent at the knee.
The exhibition also features three large unframed paintings on rice paper, each concealing more than one body. Try to find them in the blur. Several of Chen's paintings are also on exhibit at the Howard Plaza Hotel until Aug. 15.
Art Notes:
What: Figure Landscape: Solo Exhibition by Luoke Chen (人體風景：陳羅克個展)
Where: Gallery 3C, Taipei Fine Arts Museum (台北市立美術館3C展場), 181 Chungshan N. Rd., Sec. 3, Taipei (台北市中山北路三段181號)
When: Until Oct.7
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