Emerging artist Yang-Tsung Fan (范揚宗) explores nightlife in a series of paintings that will be
introduced at Aki Gallery (也趣藝廊) in Taipei
on Saturday.
Photo Courtesy of Aki Gallery
Fan, whose Towards a Dreamy and Glittery Place — Yang-Tsung Fan Solo Exhibition (前往迷離閃爍的地方．范揚宗個展) runs through July 3, will present 17 new works from his Inside the Car (車內) series and six pieces from the Night Life (夜店) series. The latter will be presented on the third floor of the gallery with neon lights to simulate a nightclub environment. DJ M@rio will perform at the opening, which starts at 6pm on Saturday.
In one of the Night Life paintings, a female go-go dancer is seen hanging upside down from a pole on the left half of the painting while six buff men dance under a disco light on the right. In one Inside the Car painting, a view through a car windshield shows several betel nut vending stalls on a rainy day.
“My paintings are about city life because that’s what fascinates me,” Fan told the Taipei Times last week. “Nightclubs, driving, washing your car and mowing the lawn are all scenes particular to the urban landscape.”
In the Night Life series, figures of male homosexual couples and sometimes heterosexual couples hug under glittering disco lights in search of warmth and human connection. The glossy surface and geometric shapes give the works a psychological tension.
“Nightclubs are places where people temporary let go of their inhibitions and find solace in one another,” Fan said. “However, I’m not wholesale gung-ho about these places. Some of the figures are shown drunk or sitting alone.”
Fan’s Car Wash (洗車) and Mowing (割草) paintings employ huge blocks of evenly applied colors and geometric shapes combined with fluid human figures, in a style that is somewhat reminiscent of British painter David Hockney.
“I became obsessed with Hockney in my sophomore year in college and have been trying to shake off his influence ever since,” Fan said.
Despite the stylistic resemblance to Hockney, Fan’s thematic concerns are decidedly local and centered on Taiwan. A native of Hsinchu, Fan has lived in Taipei for 11 years and currently lives in the artist-populated area of Bali District (八里). His life and artistic vision are divided between the two extremes of the glamorous, sexualized world of Taipei nightclubs and the down-and-dirty suburb of Bali. The commuting experience gave birth to his Car Wash and the new Inside the Car series.
“I like to observe people from a safe distance, such as from behind my driving wheel or in the darkness of nightclubs,” Fan explained. “This distance makes me safe to observe human behaviors.”
Fan’s status as an outsider in the capital gives him a fresh perspective on some things that many Taipei residents might take for granted.
“I come from a small town where my home is perched in the middle of the farming field,” Fan said. “The city fascinates me.”
The 29-year-old painter won the Young Art Award at last month’s Young Art Taipei exhibition for one of his new paintings from the Inside the Car series. Fan won an honorable mention in the Taipei Arts Award and an award at the Exhibition of New Perspective Art in Taiwan, both in 2007.
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