Into the Woods: Tree in Photography (2017) -
11 December 2017
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Victoria and Albert Museum
18 November 2017 - 22 April 2018
Trees have been a source for all kinds of artistic creations for a long time. This is an exhibition showing photographs of trees by artists all around the world. This display explores the diverse representation of trees in photography.
I visited the exhibition in middle-December 2017. The first work I saw in the exhibition was Tokihiro Sato's Hakkoda #2. Although the photo is in black and white, it is still as overwhelming as if it has colour. Tokihiro Sato is a Japanese photographer and is best known for the abnormal playful expression of lights and space. In Sato's photos, there are always circle light dots, they look like fairy lights. The lights in Hakkoda #2 is surrounding the bottom of the tree, they sound like fireflies. The unnatural light lights up the whole woods and makes it feel mysterious. All the artwork added with man-made lights are so impressive, and they create spaces only without our mind.
Another work shown in the exhibition that impressed me a lot is SNM 012H from the series Sonamu (Pine tree) by Bar Bien U. It is a photo of a pine forest in Gyeongju in South Korea. I am fascinated by the depth created in the photo as long as the haziness. I like it a lot, look like a black and white but with a hint of warm pink at the background. The curvy tree trunks make the photo interesting. The whole is thrilling.
The EY Exhibition Impressionists in London French Artists in Exile 1870-1904 (2017) - 14 March 2018
Tate Modern , Millbank, London
2 November 2017 - 7 May 2018
I visited the exhibition on 14 March 2018. The first feeling it gave me is the overwhelming artists. They have a variety of painters later associated with Impressionism Fled Paris and found refuge in London. Leading among them were Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro.
I have done some research after I have visited the exhibition. And discovered that people criticising the inappropriate use of the name for the show in living memory. Some of the famous impressionists didn't make onto the list in the show, such as Degas, Renoir and Cezanne since they don't have London as a subject.
When I was in the exhibition, There is various style of paintings, even though they are impressionism in term of style. Before, I went to the exhibition, impressionist paintings to me are short, thick brushstrokes of paint capturing the essence of the subject or the scenery, rather than its realistic details. However, in the show, there are some seem to be very realistic to me, one of them is The Ball on Shipboard by James Tissot. The ruffle of the gown and the facial expressions of the ladies on board are presented so realistically and lively, with fine details.
One of the paintings that impresses me the most is Westminster painted by Gluseppe De Nittis in 1878. It shows Westminster and people on the Westminster Bridge. The use of deep red and burgundy catch my eyes. The work inspires me to create my work, Abandoned, especially for the use of red in the work. The red used in the painting makes the whole atmosphere very unnatural. It gives a very strong anger and hot emotion. I also like the blurriness of the Westminster in the background. The peek of the sunlight behind the cloud creates a creepy effect too.
All Too Human Bacon, Freud, And A Century of Painting LIfe (2018) - 14 March 2018
Tate Modern , Millbank, London
28 February - 27 August 2018
It is indeed breath-taking visiting the exhibition. From real life drawing, portrait drawing to a mixture of imaginary characters, including Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff. The show is a convergence of portrait artists. In the show, I prefer the created imaginary characters to portrait of a real person. Deeper meaning can be interpreted through the artwork.
One of the most impressive in my opinion is Paula Rego. Paula Rego began working with live models posting in her studio, producing a series of preliminary drawings before beginning her large-scale paintings. I am fascinated by Island of the Lights from Pinocchio, it is a painting of pencil, ink and watercolour on paper laid on masonite. The work shows human beings, donkeys and centaur, which are both mythical creature. The work looks fantasy and unreal. The style of the work appears sketchy but with a cartoony and very similar to comic style. The posture of the character in the artwork is very exaggerated and personified. Through the work, I see the specialty of creating characters and make it into a collage in a painting.
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Lucian Freud, Leigh Bowery 1991 Tate © The Lucian Freud Archive / Bridgeman Images
Rego. P, Island of the LIghts from Pinocchio, (1996)[Painitng], Private collection, Europe
Rego. P, War, (2003) [Painitng], Presented by the artist (Building the Tate Collection) 2005
Rabbit in Gosick (2011)
Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Apart from island of the Lights from Pinocchio, War (2003) by Paula Rego, has become my favorite among her works. Knowing the work is pastel on paper on aluminum, although it is not displayed in the show, I did research about it afterward. The main characters in the painting are rabbits, it is dominated by two rabbit-headed figures in the center. The rabbits remind me of the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, but in an evil style and the rabbit, who is a monstrous guardian in a Japanese anime, Gosick.
The work is drawn using pastel, I like it, the rough surface and how vibrant the colours are and the sharp edges. That inspires me to create my own characters for my coming painting in the next unit, and interpret the use of personification and the choice of animal to represent human.
The Credit Suisse Exhibition Monet & Architecture - 12 April 2018
The National Gallery, London
9 April - 29 July 2018
Claudie Monet,1908, Oil on Canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Claudie Monet, 1899, Oil on Canvas, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid
Claudie Monet, 1904, Oil on Canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs Paul Mellon
Claudie Monet,1908, Oil on Canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The National Gallery offers an exhibition with a handful of Monet's masterpiece. It starts on 9 April and till 9 July 2018. The exhibition is divided into seven parts, which contains Monet's career through the architectures he painted in London, Paris, Venice, Rouen and Normandy. Monet' painted a variety of buildings such as villages and famous monuments.
The first impression I had for the show, I discovered the absence of the use of black in Monet's artwork. The paintings are mostly in pastel colours, like the Grand Canal, London Bridge and Waterloo Bridge. That makes his work so unique without the use of black. His work contains thick and viscous oil paint, showing bunch of hair on a stick from the paintbrush. In Monet's paintings, he emphasizes the powerful effects of changes in hue, which makes him famous. That inspires me to avoid using black in my painting.
One interesting phenomenon I observed during the exhibition is that most of the audiences, viewers are middle-aged. It makes me wonder whether younger ages are interested in classic paintings. One con of the shows is that it was too crowded and the paintings are arranged too close to each other. But since Monet has not had a solo show in London disingenuously for more than 20 years, no wonder it attracts so many art-lovers.
Wimbledon Undergraduate Summer Show 2018 - 20 June 2018
Wimbledon College of Arts, University of the Arts London
14 - 23 June 2018
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Central Saint Martins Degree Show 2018 - 20 June 2018
Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London
20 - 24 June 2018
Chelsea Undergraduate Summer Show 2018 - 21 June 2018
Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London
15 - 23 June 2018
June is the moth of the famous annual degree show of University of the Arts London. I visited the show at three colleges, Wimbledon College of Arts, Central Saint Martins and Chelsea College of Arts. The shows consisted of great varieties of artworks, were very impressive and creative.
The first show I saw was the one in our college. I started by visiting the BA Theatre & Screen's exhibition. It was so stunning and I was fascinated by the most with how they exhibit their portfolios, especially for the handwritten and handmade sketchbooks. The exquisite handicrafts of the costumes caught the most attention. Following with BA Fine Arts' show, the way they installed the show was the most compelling, one of the works was paintings on the wall with installations and a baby doll on a chair. The arrangement of the setup and all the decorations was brilliant and in extreme details. I couldn't believe even the whole wall was covered in wallpaper, couldn't imagine all the effort for preparing the show.
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Wimbledon Undergraduate Summer Show 2018
Central Saint Martins Degree Show 2018
Chelsea Undergraduate Summer Show 2018
On the same day, after school, I paid a visit to Central Saint Martins to support my high school classmate's degree show. She studies Product Design. Most of the courses in CSM are in design basis. Although I am not studying design, seeing their works help me getting inspirations and references on how to arrange and install the exhibition. The works are really of high quality, such as those in Product Design, Jewellery Design and Ceramic Design, had a feeling of seeing in shops and could really sell them. It was one of the most professional shows I have ever been to.
The other day, I went to Chelsea College of Arts for their Undergraduate Summer Show. This time, it was more related to Fine Arts, it got me to know to how the degree show should be. The show was really interesting. In spite of the amusing masterpieces, I found really confusing when visiting the show. The layout of the exhibitions was a little bit messy, the artworks were all of the places. It was difficult to identify which artwork belongs to which artwork. Chelsea felt like a maze to me, probably because I'm not from the college, but it was fun, I felt like treasure hunting.
Talking about art, the work that most attracted my attention was a jungle and animal painting, it felt the most related to my practice. It was six canvases connected together and created into a panel, named "The Jungle of Souls" by Hyeyeon Im. Animals in the painting represent people that live within our society. The animals want freedom, expressed our human nature that is drawn to living a free life. The work depicted the supernatural phenomenon of evil, satan, angel and soul. It expressed the existence of good and evil using allegory and anthropomorphic animals. The artwork reminded me of Hieronymus Bosch's "The Garden of Earthly Delights", the resemblance of the open-and -closable panel. I was also obsessed with the colour scheme of the jungle, the contrast with the eye-catchy orange of the animals and the watery background.
Conclusively, the three degree shows offered a great assortment of artwork to see. I got to know the level and quality peer artists are doing nowadays. It gave me passion and push me in carrying on my art career and becoming better.
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Visit to the Scottish National Gallery - 15 August 2018
In mid-August, I traveled to Edinburgh in Scotland. I visited their Scottish National Gallery. Instead of just randomly look around, I tried to find art pieces and artists that are related to my studio practice and so I can take reference with. I discovered a few paintings which have a similar theme as my work for the degree show. As the slide beside shown, those are "Niagara Falls from the American Side" by Frederic Edwin Church, "South-Western View and North-Western View from Ben Lomond" by John Knox and "Fantastic Landscape" by Paul Bril.
When I was walking in the gallery, I kept spotting and marking down all the paintings that I felt related. I especially looked for fantasy landscapes, mountain and waterfall paintings. I like a natural tone of colour scheme with an additional slightly strange edit, such as the greenish teal in Paul Bril's "Fantastic Landscape". I also like John Knox's work, which I can take reference from for the constructing the background of my painitngs.
Paul Bril Oil on Copper
John Knox Oil on Canvas
Frederic Edwin Church Oil on Canvas
Paul Bril Oil on Copper