Beneath Current-IChin Liao Solo Exhibition

2022.12.3-2023.1.15

Only selected by the press last month, Ichin Liao, a cutting-edge artist worthy of attention, was born in New Taipei City, Taiwan in 1987 and graduated from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. It is a rare new generation of artist who can get rid of the inherent form and is full of contemporary vitality.

While Ichin Liao was studying in San Francisco, she was inspired by the automatism pursued in American abstract expressionist action painting. "Freedom" and "sensibility" have become the essence of her painting style. Never deliberately designing the layout of the screen or using a certain form of painting to present it, the artist no longer expresses lines and shapes only, but a record of personal intuition and emotional feelings at the moment.

For Ichin Liao, painting is like a record of his own life trajectory. Besides record, we can see the endless exploration and persistence of art workers. The artist's style of painting and use of color leave turmoil and uncertainty with the change of mood. Sometimes the picture is a messy line drawn in one stroke, sometimes it is full of thick blocks, and the color is casual and slightly insolent. This transformation ushers in Ichin Liao 's latest solo exhibition "Beneath Current" in 2022.

Ichin Liao’s studio is on the fourth floor of an independent building near the sea in Hsinchu, where the environment is spacious and peaceful. For the artist, the sea is an important background in her growth. Memories from childhood to adulthood are accompanied by the sea. While the quiet years left space for the artist to read literature and think about philosophy, it also became the source of her creative ideas. Like the torment, loneliness and despair experienced by Franz Kafka in "The Metamorphosis", Ichin Liao will transform this feeling into the power of painting. Other writers she likes include: John Berger's "Ways of Seeing", Albert Camus 's "The Stranger" and Susan Sontag's "On Photography" and so on. The sea, life experience, reading and music are indispensable elements in her paintings.

In the process of constantly exploring abstract painting, the artist has slowly shifted from the early lyrical abstract drive to a strong abstract direction. In addition to emphasizing the use of color texture and stacking, he also has a primitive mentality of venting and graffiti. Behind what seems to be smearing and pushing, it is full of rich feelings and entanglements. Sometimes with childlike doubts, very sincere and sensual. I remember chatting with Ichin once, she asked politely, can you still recognize me with such a change in my painting style? I think this is the trajectory for artists to seek breakthroughs in painting, giving up and trying is the only way to break through. With Ichin's thirst for knowledge and self-requirement, she can constantly examine her painting process and keep moving forward.

We believe that Ichin Liao 's "Beneath Current" solo exhibition will show the artist's interpretation of creation and the sea. I also believe that this series of works will bring us a new space for imagination and a deeper experience of abstract art.

Beneath Current-IChin Liao Solo Exhibition
Date丨2022.12.3-2023.1.15
Opening丨2022.12.3 Sat 16:00
Venue丨YIART/沂藝術 5F-4, No.150, Sec.1, Heping W. Rd., Taipei.
Opening Hour丨Thur to Sat 13:00-19:00

# More art works are coming online soon

Curator: Lingyi Cheng YIART/沂藝術