The two newest artists showing at the gallery are Sammi Mak and Tian Rossana Wong.
In very different ways these emerging artists dramatise the meeting of paint with paper, the myriad possibilities of brushwork, line and tone. Different types of paper – whether rice paper from the ancient Chinese tradition, or Somerset soft velvet paper made of 100% cotton – can create very different effects, as you can see here.
Sammi has just gained her MA in Fine Art from the University of the Arts London, and Tian is undertaking her degree at the Slade School of Fine Art since completing her foundation course.
On Sammi Mak:
In some paintings Sammi Mak will paint all the way to the border, creating immersion. Take the molecular magnificence of ‘Mist’ or the substance of ‘Chaos’. In both paint registers the imprint of feeling, transversing the canvas like weather.
With delicacy, through a restrained but vibrant palette, the painter gives an atmosphere’s chemical pigmentation. In this respect they recollect the super-temporality of Anselm Kiefer’s nature paintings. The paper gives an effect of softness: a transient scrolling, in particular in her horizontal works. In fact, these could be read from left to right, recalling antique painting scrolls.
On Tian Rossana Wong:
The rhythmic structure of the mountain in Tian Rossana Wong’s painting ‘Rite of Spring Part 1’ is at once taut and slack, like the spine of a semi-dormant animal. As this title referencing Stravinsky suggests, her most recent work has explored the relation between visual art and music. Depth will be understood as a feature of surface, an observation that derives from the artist’s calligraphy skills.
Sometimes she’ll work on rice paper, which has an ancient and essential part in the history of Chinese painting and calligraphy. In Tian’s work there is always an awareness of how paint relates to various papers: directed to theatrical effect. Whether the drama of a mountain or tree’s structure within its environment, or the moment of dissolution when the singer hits the perfect note.
You can browse all 2022 graduates here.
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