"A Contemporary Dialogue with Xuan Paper"

January 5 - February 3, 2002
15 Cranleigh Drive, Markham, Ontario
Canada L3R 8L3  Tel: 905-474-2633 
Artists: Changtien, David Cheung, Henry Ho, Mafu, Johnny Koo, Doris Sung

For more than one thousand years the seemingly fragile xuan paper is the vehicle on which Chinese literate express emotion and elaborate philosophical thoughts in writing, painting and calligraphy. They have instilled into the xuan paper an undeniable spirit of humanism.

The artists in this exhibition currently reside in Canada but were from Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. They have been educated in both Chinese and Western traditions but most of them choose to use xuan paper as the main medium in their work. Their decision to use this medium was not driven by the burden to carry on the tradition of Chinese scholar’s painting, in fact they felt compelled to adopt this medium because of their creative need.

In this exhibition, they expressed their ideas through their own contemporary visual language and gave xuan paper a facelift. They realize that despite its flimsiness, xuan paper is an extremely strong and flexible medium. They have demonstrated that there could be endless possibilities working with xuan paper and have given new life to this traditional yet powerful medium.

Henry Ho
Director/Curator
January 5th, 2002

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