Artist Statement
Catherine Jao is full-time painter currently living in Kyoto, Japan. Her primary genre is oriental ink painting, a painting style which like its sibling art‚ Eastern calligraphy‚ uses a traditional fude brush to apply sumi ink on handmade paper. By synthesizing her own personal and contemporary touch with various medieval and modern influences from Japan and China, she strives to contribute to bringing this Tang Dynasty tradition back to life.
Exhibit Title: ReStart
Exhibit Summary
This exhibition focuses on the personal but universal experience of re-starting‚ beginning anew after a point of crisis. The artist will delve into the various stages, facets, and manifestations of this deeply personal phenomenon, beginning with the experience of crisis and conflict, and then to the stage of complete inner deadlock, and finally to the point of breakthrough, where one is able to overcome one's situation and re-start.
This exhibit will feature oriental ink-paintings, with careful gradations of black sumi-ink calligraphically applied to handmade paper mounted on traditional Japanese shikishi board. Traditional influences from medieval Zen Sumi-e paintings, to early-modern Ukiyo-e from the likes of Katsushika Hokusai, to modern Japanese paintings such as those from Kaburaki Kiyokata and Kayama Matazo, meet a Filipina-Chinese with a contemporary rendition of timeless human narratives.
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