Cheng Tsai-Tung
Cheng Tsai-Tung: Beyond The Horizon
2023.04.08 - 05.14
TRIUMPH GALLERY is pleased to announce the latest solo exhibition, Beyond The Horizon,by artist Cheng Tsai-Tung (Pinyin: Zheng Zaidong, b. 1953) from April 8th to May 14th, 2023. The title of the exhibition, Beyond The Horizon (Pinyin：Tian Ya), was personally chosen by Cheng Tsai-Tung, inspired by a famous five-character quatrain (one of the sentence structures of ancient Chinese poems ) Tian-Ya (Chinese characters: 天涯, which means beyond the horizon) by the prominent poet Li Shangyin (About 813-858) of the late Tang Dynasty. The exhibition aims to recreate the magnificent mood expressed in Li Shangyin's poem and express a splendid artistic conception.
In the past thirty years, Cheng Tsai-Tung's artistic career has continued the elegance of Chinese Literati Painting (文人画, Pinyin: Wen Ren Hua) and Mountains-and-Waters Painting (山水画, Pinyin: Shan Shui Hua) in traditional Chinese ink paintings, but using acrylic and oil paints as mediums.
In the exhibited works of Cheng Tsai-Tung's paintings, the multiple layers of acrylic illustrate trickling water, meandering streams, and auspicious clouds, giving the images an added dynamic and fluidity in their layered thickness. In Cheng Tsai-Tung's paintings, traditional Chinese elements, such as stones, waterfalls, pavilions, and buildings, are combined with highly saturated acrylic brushes reminiscent of mineral pigments in traditional Chinese paintings. The unique result is a dynamic and hybrid style that weaves through and flashback classical and modern painting styles.
Cheng Tsai-Tung collects antiques and has extensive knowledge of ancient paintings, porcelain, and Chinese architecture, as a contemporary literati who lives in a modern metropolis and expresses his inner landscapes through his paintings.
The exhibition will showcase over ten acrylic paintings by artist Cheng Tsai-Tung, conveying his exploration and reconstruction of Eastern culture, his grand and magnificent vision of the vast mountains and rivers, and the transforming tranquil and beautiful landscape of southeast China in the artist's mind.
In the past thirty years, Cheng Tsai-Tung's artistic career has continued the elegance of Chinese Literati Painting (文人画, Pinyin: Wen Ren Hua) and Mountains-and-Waters Painting (山水画, Pinyin: Shan Shui Hua) in traditional Chinese ink paintings, but using acrylic and oil paints as mediums.
In the exhibited works of Cheng Tsai-Tung's paintings, the multiple layers of acrylic illustrate trickling water, meandering streams, and auspicious clouds, giving the images an added dynamic and fluidity in their layered thickness. In Cheng Tsai-Tung's paintings, traditional Chinese elements, such as stones, waterfalls, pavilions, and buildings, are combined with highly saturated acrylic brushes reminiscent of mineral pigments in traditional Chinese paintings. The unique result is a dynamic and hybrid style that weaves through and flashback classical and modern painting styles.
Cheng Tsai-Tung collects antiques and has extensive knowledge of ancient paintings, porcelain, and Chinese architecture, as a contemporary literati who lives in a modern metropolis and expresses his inner landscapes through his paintings.
The exhibition will showcase over ten acrylic paintings by artist Cheng Tsai-Tung, conveying his exploration and reconstruction of Eastern culture, his grand and magnificent vision of the vast mountains and rivers, and the transforming tranquil and beautiful landscape of southeast China in the artist's mind.
Cheng Tsai-Tung
Cheng Tsai-Tung (Zheng Zaidong) was born in Taipei in 1953, currently lives and works in Shanghai. As a self-taught artist, Cheng’s practice freely navigates through the traditions of both Chinese and Western art by engaging with a series of divergent and sometimes even contradictory concepts and styles—including Modern and historical, imaginary and real, collective and personal, and sensual and innocent. Cheng's works are closely tied to notions of dislocation and periphery stemming from his cross-cultural ties to Shanghai, where he currently lives and works, New York City, where he spent a considerable amount of time in his youth, and Taipei, where he was born.
Cheng is widely acclaimed for his free-style landscape paintings in vivid colors, exploring the artist’s inner quest for an ideal place to reside and ruminate, and ways in which all these conflicting ideas and beliefs could reconcile with each other. Elegant, ethereal and with a touch of playfulness, his works offer the contemporary viewers a spiritual home to dwell in, wander around, and to enjoy a temporary shelter from this boisterous and complicated modern world.
Cheng Tsai-Tung has had extensive international solo exhibitions and projects including How can we live without this gentleman: Cheng Tsai-Tung Solo Exhibition, Yi Yun Art, Taipei, 2022; The Realm of Dreamland: Zheng Zai Dong Solo Exhibition, Aurora Museum, Shanghai, 2022; Literati’s Peach Blossom Spring: Zheng Zaidong Solo Exhibition, Powerlong Museum, Shanghai, 2021; Such Fellowship Shall Endure Despite Our Parted Ways: Zheng Zaidong Solo Exhibition, Tofukuji Temple, Kyoto, 2019; Flower Series, Liang Project, Shanghai, 2017; The City Wanderer, Jewelvary, Shanghai, 2016; Mountains, Water, Moon, Matthew Liu Fine Arts, Shanghai, 2015; Refulgence of Solitude, Long Museum, Shanghai, 2014; My Mind in Unsullied Languor: Revisiting Then and There, ARTMIA Foundation, Beijing, 2013; Ranging in France—Cheng Tsai-Tung’s solo exhibition, Red Bridge Gallery, Shanghai, 2007; Moon and Shadow Cheer Me Through, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai, 2006; Ink Paintings by Cheng Tsai-Tung, Hanart Gallery, Hong Kong, 2005; Verdant Hill Semiveiled, Lin and Keng Gallery, Taipei, 2003. His works have also been featured in notable group exhibitions including Interpretation Traditional—Contemporary Paintings Four Artists Exhibition, Xuhui Art Museum, Shanghai, 2012; Time Games: Contemporary Appropriations of the Past, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, 2012; Mountain and Running Water, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, 2004; Cheng Tsai-Tung, Zhou Chunya, Liu Wei Group Show, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai, 2004; Paris/Peking, Pierre Cardin Art Center, Paris, 2002; Towards a New Image—Twenty Years of Contemporary Chinese Painting, National Art Museum, Beijing, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, Sichuan Art Museum, Chengdu, Guangdong Art Museum, Guangzhou, 2001.
Cheng is widely acclaimed for his free-style landscape paintings in vivid colors, exploring the artist’s inner quest for an ideal place to reside and ruminate, and ways in which all these conflicting ideas and beliefs could reconcile with each other. Elegant, ethereal and with a touch of playfulness, his works offer the contemporary viewers a spiritual home to dwell in, wander around, and to enjoy a temporary shelter from this boisterous and complicated modern world.
Cheng Tsai-Tung has had extensive international solo exhibitions and projects including How can we live without this gentleman: Cheng Tsai-Tung Solo Exhibition, Yi Yun Art, Taipei, 2022; The Realm of Dreamland: Zheng Zai Dong Solo Exhibition, Aurora Museum, Shanghai, 2022; Literati’s Peach Blossom Spring: Zheng Zaidong Solo Exhibition, Powerlong Museum, Shanghai, 2021; Such Fellowship Shall Endure Despite Our Parted Ways: Zheng Zaidong Solo Exhibition, Tofukuji Temple, Kyoto, 2019; Flower Series, Liang Project, Shanghai, 2017; The City Wanderer, Jewelvary, Shanghai, 2016; Mountains, Water, Moon, Matthew Liu Fine Arts, Shanghai, 2015; Refulgence of Solitude, Long Museum, Shanghai, 2014; My Mind in Unsullied Languor: Revisiting Then and There, ARTMIA Foundation, Beijing, 2013; Ranging in France—Cheng Tsai-Tung’s solo exhibition, Red Bridge Gallery, Shanghai, 2007; Moon and Shadow Cheer Me Through, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai, 2006; Ink Paintings by Cheng Tsai-Tung, Hanart Gallery, Hong Kong, 2005; Verdant Hill Semiveiled, Lin and Keng Gallery, Taipei, 2003. His works have also been featured in notable group exhibitions including Interpretation Traditional—Contemporary Paintings Four Artists Exhibition, Xuhui Art Museum, Shanghai, 2012; Time Games: Contemporary Appropriations of the Past, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, 2012; Mountain and Running Water, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, 2004; Cheng Tsai-Tung, Zhou Chunya, Liu Wei Group Show, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai, 2004; Paris/Peking, Pierre Cardin Art Center, Paris, 2002; Towards a New Image—Twenty Years of Contemporary Chinese Painting, National Art Museum, Beijing, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, Sichuan Art Museum, Chengdu, Guangdong Art Museum, Guangzhou, 2001.
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