After a 20-year hiatus, New York-based Taiwanese artist Kuo Shi-da (郭旭達), 51, returns to painting with 15 abstract acrylic-on-canvas works that are currently on display, along with 11 of his sculptures, one of which dates back to 1999, at Eslite Gallery. The show runs until June 27.
Known as a ceramicist and sculptor, Kuo originally studied painting at university, but later switched mediums because he had “always liked structures” and “three-dimensional objects.”
But three years ago he wandered into an art shop and discovered “all these new kinds of acrylic paint that contain different kinds of materials: mica flecks in them or sand. As a sculptor, I want something with texture and weight. Not just paint,” Kuo said.
The works in Kuo’s show are the products of the artist’s attempt to find ideal or archetypal forms. The sculptures are formalist compositions, balancing geometrical shapes with organic curved lines. The paintings are an extension of the ceramic works and explore their interior spaces. He calls them “flat sculptures.”
Kuo’s sculptures tap into a legacy of human creativity that dates back to antiquity. Architecture, archeology, ritual vessels, nature and household ornaments are all subsumed into three-dimensional objects of simple and visceral beauty, which are rendered in glazes of gray, white and charcoal that draw attention to the outlines.
Untitled/No. 04-06 (無題/No. 04-06), with its elongated tube sticking out of an igloo-like base, looks like an ancient kiln or a pipe, while Untitled/ No. 09-02 (無題/No. 09-02) resembles bunny ears emerging from a top hat. On further reflection, however, the latter piece could reference the World Trade Center’s twin towers. The desiccated trunk of a tree that protrudes from a pot in Untitled/No. 09-01 (無題/ No. 09-01) evokes environmental forms.
Other sculptures reference modern knickknacks. With its matrix of nine holes, the egg-shaped Untitled/No. 02-03 (無題/No. 02-03) brings to mind a saltshaker, while Untitled/No. 06-06 (無題/ No. 06-06) resembles a cookie jar.
Though Kuo’s ceramic works possess a shapely originality, the paintings come off as repetitive
case studies of his sculptures. He said that these “wall pieces,” the canvases of which were
painted on the ground using a palette knife, are meant to draw attention to the interior of three-dimensional forms.
“Ceramics have drawn my attention to the fact that the interior space is important,” Kuo said.
True, but perhaps that revelation should stay in the three-dimensional field. The paintings, though bold in their coloring and shapes, too often resemble the outlines of cartoon characters.
Untitled/P-101 (無題/P-101), for example, is almost a facsimile of Mickey Mouse’s ears and hat. The crimson background doesn’t help as Disney hats are labeled with red tags. I couldn’t stop thinking of South Park’s Kenny while looking at the hooded shape of Untitled/P-109 (無題/P-109).
Though those comments are the product of a particular set of cultural references, it’s hard not to think that Untitled/P-110 (無題/P-110), its protuberances and goblin colors, came straight out of an episode of Ren and Stimpy.
Though some of Kuo’s paintings do successfully evoke (albeit somewhat amateurishly) the universal forms he seeks to distill and represent, all too often they come across as preliminary sketches for his more significant ceramic sculptures.
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