Wong Chung Yu: The Endless Beauty of Ink

EVENT DESCRIPTION

a.m. space is pleased to present Wong Chung Yu Solo Exhibition “The Endless Beauty of Ink”. The exhibition will run from May 21 to June 18 and exhibits Wong Chung Yu’s handcrafted ink paintings in recent years, as well as the digital ink paintings created by Pure ink, a painting software developed by the artist with a mission to bridge the gap between this traditional Asian art form and digital media. The traditional craftsmanship and the technology meet in this moment and this place. It expresses the respect toward traditional ink art and the anxiety and excitement about technology intervention.

Wong Chung Yu’s nearly 20 years of artistic creation has become a fingerprint on the thumb, which is clearly stamped on this node. His art inherits the traditional spirits of Chinese brush, ink, paper, and silk, and extends the exploration to the edge of technology. He has been the first artist to explore digital ink art since 2005. In recent years, Wong Chung Yu has fine-tuned his direction and mobilized all his energy to establish an ink painting software, namely Pure ink, by integrating his experiences and knowledge gained in these 20 years of art creation. This software is open to the public for use and it is the way he passes his digital brush from his hand to the hand of everyone else. This is not only another level of creation, but it also shows what a person standing on this node can do and should do in this era.

The show also marks the official launch of Wong’s very first NFT art on Open Sea. The work “Farewell the Winter, the Spring Arrives Jiangnan”, created with Pure Ink, portrayed the poetic scenery in Jiangnan when Spring arrived and the revival of nature. The work is semi-abstracted and rendered in broad strokes with partial detailing, all of the wet stains, brush strokes, and paper textures on the screen are created by the software. The dimension of the painting is 11812 x 3544 px with 300 dpi.

From tradition to technology, from the past to the future, there is probably always such a node in time and space, which is not only the convergence of the past but also the starting point to project the future. This is just like looking back at the life of a butterfly. We can always find such a chrysalis. It is a turning point between a silkworm and a butterfly. It once allowed the silkworm and butterfly to coexist in it at the same time.

ABOUT THE ARTIST / ORGANISER

Wong Chung Yu embarked on his ink and digital art journey in 2005. He is the first artist to create digital ink art in the Hong Kong art scene. His works are collected by various institutions, such as the Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMOA), M+, Hubei Museum of Art, and University Museum Art Gallery HKU. He then launched Pure ink, a painting software that compiled what he has learned in the past 20 years of art practice. Pure ink received Hong Kong ICT Award in 2021 and Wong was invited to hold a solo exhibition at Hong Kong Art Centre with works created with the software in the same year.