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GALLERY MISSION Sundaram Tagore Gallery is devoted to examining the exchange of ideas between Western and non-Western cultures. With spaces in Hong Kong, Singapore and New York City (in Chelsea and on Madison Avenue), the gallery was the first to focus exclusively on the rise of globalization in contemporary art. The gallery represents painters, sculptors and photographers from around the world. They each work in different mediums and use diverse techniques, but share a passion for cross-cultural dialogue. The gallery is renowned for its support of cultural activities—including poetry readings, book launches, music performances and film screenings—that further its mission of East-West exchange.
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MIYA ANDO Miya Ando is an American artist known for her metal paintings that encapsulate both ephemerality and permanence. A descendant of Bizen sword makers, Ando spent her childhood among Buddhist priests in a temple in Okayama, Japan, and later, in California. She combines the traditional techniques of her ancestry with modern industrial technology, skillfully transforming sheets of metal into ephemeral, abstract paintings suffused with color. Working across two and three dimensions, Ando’s oeuvre contains abstract painting and sculpture, including large-scale public art pieces that reflect the transitory essence of life. Miya Ando has a Bachelor of Arts degree in East Asian studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and attended Yale University and Stanford University to study Buddhist iconography and imagery. She apprenticed with the master metalsmith Hattori Studio in Japan, followed by a residency at Northern California’s Public Art Academy. Her work has been the subject of recent solo exhibitions, including at The Noguchi Museum, New York; Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) Museum, Savannah, Georgia; The Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, New York; and the American University Museum, Washington D.C. Her work has also been included in extensive group exhibitions at institutions such as Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), California; Bronx Museum and Queens Museum of Art, New York; and The Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, New York. In 2015, her work was exhibited in Frontiers Reimagined at the 56th Venice Biennale. Ando is included in the public collections of Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Detroit Institute of Arts Museum (DIA), Luft Museum in Germany, as well as numerous private collections. She has been the recipient of several grants and awards, including the prestigious Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant Award. Ando has produced several public commissions, most notably a thirty-foot-tall sculpture in London built from World Trade Center steel to mark the ten-year anniversary of 9/11, for which she was nominated for a DARC Award in Best Light Art Installation, as well as for The Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut, designed by renowned architect Philip Johnson, which is now a museum and National Historic Landmark. 4
Born in Los Angeles, 1973 | Lives and works in New York
Tasogare (Dusk) 9.19.4.4.2.M.1.2.3.4.9.47.G.1, 2019, mineral dust, pigment, resin and urethane on aluminum, 48 x 48 inches/121.9 x 121.9 cm 5
Kumo (Cloud) Tondo 4.19.4.2, 2019, ink on aluminum composite, 48 inches/122 cm 6
Blue Green Pink Moon 9.19.42.1.M.1.2.3.G.1.L.20, 2019, pigment, resin and urethane on aluminum,42 inches/106.7 cm tondo 7
Purple Green Blue Shift 8.19.2.4.1.M.1.2.3.4.G.1.L, 2019, dye, pigment, resin and urethane on aluminum, 24 x 48 inches/61 x 121.9 cm
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Blue Green 5.19.3.3.1, 2019, pigment, resin and urethane on aluminum, 36 x 36 inches/91.4 x 91.4 cm 10
Vermillion Crimson, 8.19.40.40.1.M.1.2. G.1.L, 2019, pigment and urethane on aluminum, 40 x 40 inches/101.6 x 101.6 cm 11
GOLNAZ FATHI Drawing on her extensive training as a calligrapher, Golnaz Fathi uses texts and letters as formal elements, transforming traditional calligraphy into a personal artistic language. She studied classical calligraphy before she established her own style of working, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Graphics from Azad Art University, Tehran, and completing further studies at the Iranian Society of Calligraphy. Fathi works in fine pen, mostly on varnished raw, rectangular, polyptych canvases, in a limited palette of white, black, red and yellow. She layers the surface of the canvas with thousands of minute marks that echo the curvilinear forms of calligraphic letters and words. These intricate lines coalesce into minimalist compositions that can be read in multiple ways—as landscapes, electronic transmissions or atmospheric phenomena. She refrains from titling her works, which allows the viewer free reign to assign his or her own interpretation. The basis of Fathi’s practice is siah-mashq, a traditional exercise in which the calligrapher writes cursive letters across the page in a dense, semi-abstract formation. The letters aren’t meant to form words or convey meaning, but rather strengthen the skill of the scribe. Fathi reinterprets this technique, drawing inspiration from Western and Eastern sources, including American Abstract Expressionism, as well as the work of Iranian and Middle Eastern modernists who pioneered the use of the written word as a pictorial element in the late 1950s and early 1960s. By skillfully combining these various elements, she has created a unique visual language with universal appeal. Golnaz Fathi’s works are in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Brighton & Hove Museum, East Sussex, England; Carnegie Mellon University, Doha; the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur; the Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore; the British Museum, London; the Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi; and The Farjam Collection, Dubai. In 2011, Fathi was chosen as a Young Global Leader Honoree by the World Economic Forum and in 2015, her painting Every Breaking Wave (1) was included in Frontiers Reimagined, a collateral event of the 56th Venice Biennale. Born in Tehran, 1972 | Lives and works in Tehran and Paris 12
Untitled (triptych), 2015, acrylic, pen and varnish on canvas, 70.9 x 53.2 inches/180 x 135 cm 13
KAREN KNORR Through her photography and videos, American/British artist Karen Knorr explores the dynamics of power and its influence on cultural heritage, from the patriarchal structures of the English aristocracy to the roles and representations of animals in art. Born in Frankfurt in 1954 and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Knorr is best known for her seminal photographic series, India Song, a body of work that focuses on the interiors of significant architectural spaces of Rajasthan. Within these lavish rooms—symbolic of wealth and societal power structures—Knorr digitally imposes images of live tigers, elephants, peacocks and monkeys, which she photographed separately in reserves and zoos. Lush and playful, these vibrantly colorful images appear to be photographic renderings of Indian folklore, in which the line between reality and illusion is blurred. Yet Knorr’s work, which is influenced by surrealism and the mystical realism of Latin America, delves below the surface to consider issues of colonialism, exoticism, appropriation, societal hierarchies, and femininity as it relates to the animal world. Karen Knorr has exhibited her work at venues such as the Museum of London, United Kingdom; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; San Diego Museum of Photography, California; Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow; Kyoto Modern Museum of Art, Japan; Seoul Museum of Art, Korea; and the Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai. Her work is in prestigious collections such as Tate London, Victoria and Albert Museum, and the United Kingdom Government Art Collection, England; Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and Centre Georges Pompidou, France; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Folkwang Museum, Essen, Germany; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; and the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan, among others. Knorr was awarded the Photography Pilar Citoler Prize in 2010 and she was nominated for the Deutsche Börse in both 2011 and 2012. She also received nominations for the Prix Pictet in 2012 and 2018. As an advocate for women in photography, she was made an Honorary Fellow at the Royal Photographic Society in 2018, as well as Honorary Chair of Women in Photography. Born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1954 | Lives and works in London 14
The Opium Smoker, Chitrasala, Bundi, 2017, colour pigment print on HahnemĂźhle Fine Art Pearl Paper, 23.6 x 30 inches/60 x 76.2 cm 15
Homage to Ustad Mansur, Red Fort, Agra, 2017, colour pigment print on HahnemĂźhle Fine Art Pearl Paper, 48 x 60 inches/122 x 152 cm 16
Brief Encounter, Palazzina Cinese, 2018, colour pigment print on HahnemĂźhle Fine Art Pearl Paper, 48 x 60 inches/122 x 152 cm 17
The Way of Ishq, Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi, 2019, colour pigment print on HahnemĂźhle Fine Art Pearl Paper, 23.6 x 30 inches/60 x 76.2 cm 18
The Wedding Guests, Belgravia Room, 2015, colour pigment print on HahnemĂźhle Fine Art Pearl Paper, 48 x 60 inches/122 x 152 cm 19
TAYEBA BEGUM LIPI Bangladeshi artist Tayeba Begum Lipi creates paintings, prints, videos and installations articulating themes of female marginality and the female body. Her sculptural works re-creating everyday objects including beds, bathtubs, strollers, wheelchairs, dressing tables and women’s undergarments use unexpected materials, such as safety pins and razor blades. This purposeful and provocative choice of materials speaks to the violence facing women in Bangladesh, as well as referencing tools used in childbirth in the more underdeveloped parts of the country. Lipi has exhibited across the globe at venues such as the Shanghai Modern Art Museum, China; Museum Arnhem, Netherlands; the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, Michigan; and the Taiwan National Museum of Fine Art, Taiwan. She participated in the 14th Jakarta Biennale in 2011; the 2012 Colombo Art Biennale, Sri Lanka; and the 2012 Dhaka Art Summit. In 2015, Lipi’s work featured prominently in Frontiers Reimagined, a Collateral Event of the 56th Venice Biennale. Her work is in the collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts; LO-FTF Council, Denmark; Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Sydney; Bengal Foundation, Dhaka; the National Art Gallery of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Segunbagicha; Samdani Art Foundation, Bangladesh; Devi Art Foundation, Gurugram, Haryana; Floodlight Foundation, New Delhi; JSW Foundation and the Harmony Art Foundation/Reliance Group, Mumbai, India. Tayeba Begum Lipi lives and works in Dhaka.
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Once Upon A Time, 2018, stainless steel made razor blades, 37.4 x 48.4 x 23.2 inches/95 x 122.9 x 58.9 cm 21
Replicated 1, 2019, stainless steel, 20 x 11 x 8 inches/50.8 x 27.9 x 20.3 cm
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My Leather Slippers, 2019, stainless steel 3.6 x 11 x 6 inches, 9.1 x 27.9 x 15.2 cm 24
Replicated 4, 2019, gold plated brass, 16 x 11 x 7 inches/40.6 x 27.9 x 17.8 cm 25
Her Stilettos 1, 2019, stainless steel 26
Her Stilettos 2, 2019, stainless steel 27
ZHENG LU The gravity-defying sculptural works of Zheng Lu are deeply influenced by his study of traditional Chinese calligraphy, an art form he practiced growing up in a literary family. Zheng Lu uses language as a pictorial element, inscribing the surface of his stainless-steel sculptures with thousands of Chinese characters derived from texts and poems of historical significance. To create his metal sculptures, the artist begins with a plaster base. He then laser-cuts characters into metal, and in a fashion similar to linking chainmail, uses heat to connect the pictographs so that they can be shaped to the support. The resulting works are technically astonishing; their fluid, animated forms are charged with the energy (qi) of the universe, belying their steel composite. Zheng Lu graduated from Lu Xun Fine Art Academy, Shenyang, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in sculpture in 2003. In 2007, he received his Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture from the Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, while also attending an advanced study program at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts in Paris. Zheng Lu has participated in numerous exhibitions in China and abroad, including at the Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem; the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation, Moscow; Musée Océanographique, Monaco; Musée Maillol, Paris; the National Museum of China, Beijing; the Long Museum and the Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai. In 2015, the artist had a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, one of the leading institutions in the region. Born in Chi Feng, Inner Mongolia, 1978 | Lives and works in Beijing
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Jin Bo [special edition], 2019, stainless steel, 75.98 x 47.24 x 32.28 inches/193 x 120 x 82 cm 29
Water in Dripping - Spatter, 2017, stainless steel, 27.6 x 11.81 x 15 inches/70 x 30 x 38 cm 30
Ni, 2019, stainless steel, 59.1 x 66.9 x 49 inches/150 x 170 x 124.5 cm 31
Yan Fei, 2019, stainless steel, 43.31 x 29.13 x 25.59 inches/110 x 74 x 65 cm
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RICARDO MAZAL Ricardo Mazal, one of Mexico’s most prominent contemporary artists, is known for his lush abstract oil paintings in which he explores spiritual themes. He is perhaps best known for his near decade-long investigations into the sacred burial rituals of diverse cultures, from the Mayan tomb of The Red Queen in Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico, to the Buddhist prayer flags of Bhutan. These studies yielded a succession of large, multidisciplinary bodies of work reflective of the artist’s observations. However, his most recent series, Violeta and Prague, are imbued with a more personal narrative, increasingly transitioning Mazal from witness to author. Ricardo Mazal has exhibited extensively in galleries and museums throughout the Americas, Asia and Europe. Since 2000, he has had fourteen individual museum exhibitions in Mexico and the United States, including five retrospectives of his work at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Monterrey (2000), the Museo de Arte Moderno de la Ciudad de México (2006), the Museo de Arte de Querétaro (2009), the Museo de Arte Abstracto Manuel Felguerez (2010) and the Center for Contemporary Arts Santa Fe, as well as thematic exhibitions in the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (2006), the Museo Nacional de Antropología (2004-2005) and the Centro Cultural Estación Indianilla, among others. In 2015 Mazal’s work was included in Frontiers Reimagined, a Collateral Event of the 56th Venice Biennale. Mazal’s work is included in the permanent collections of The Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnesota; Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Arizona; Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City; Museo de Arte Abstracto Manuel Felguérez, Zacatecas, Mexico; Maeght Foundation, Paris; Centro de las Artes, Monterrey, Mexico; Cirque du Soleil, Montreal; the Peninsula Hotel, Shanghai; and Deutsche Bank, New York and Germany.
Born in Mexico City, 1950 | Lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico and New York 34
Prague 1, 2019, oil on linen, 86 x 94 inches/218.4 x 238.8 cm 35
UDO NOGER Udo Nöger creates luminous monochrome paintings that capture light, movement and energy expressed in highly minimalistic compositions. To produce works that appear to emanate light from within, Nöger employs an almost architectural approach. The paintings comprise three layers of canvas mounted on stretchers set at a distance from one another. The interior canvas, from which the artist cuts out simplified biomorphic forms, functions as the actual pictorial plane. Once the internal composition is complete, the outermost surface is treated with mineral oil to amplify translucency and visually bring the composition to the forefront. The resulting works are subtle and atmospheric, both in the visual nature of the paintings and in how they interact with the surrounding space—the kind of light, the quality of light, even the time of day can impact the viewing experience. While the paintings are rendered in a restrained palette of soft whites and grays, depending on the light that illuminates the work, faint shades of blue, purple and green can emerge. Udo Nöger has exhibited extensively across the globe, including at Siegerlandmuseum, Siegen, and the Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum, Hagen, Germany; Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, Missouri; Museum of Art Honolulu, Hawaii; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, Colorado. His work is in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver; Art Institute of Chicago; Bass Museum, Miami; and Haus der Kunst, Munich, among others. Born in Enger, Westfalen, Germany in 1961 | Works between San Diego, Miami, and Geneva.
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Zeit - Fliessend 3, 2019, mixed media on canvas, 89 x 72 inches/226.1 x 182.9 cm 37
Zermissend 13, 2018, mixed media on canvas, 33 x 36 inches/83.8 x 91.4 cm 38
Zermissend 14, 2018, mixed media on canvas, 33 x 36 inches/83.8 x 91.4 cm 39
SOHAN QADRI The late artist, poet and Tantric guru Sohan Qadri was one of the few modern painters of note deeply engaged with spirituality. He abandoned representation early on, incorporating Tantric symbolism and philosophy into his vibrantly colored minimalist works. He began his process by covering the surface of heavy paper with structural effects by soaking it in liquid and carving it in stages with sharp tools while applying inks and dyes. As a result, he transformed the paper from a flat surface into a three-dimensional medium. The repetition of careful incisions on the paper was an integral part of his meditation. Having lived and worked in more than a dozen countries, Qadri was one of India’s many post-Independence artists who formed a sprawling diaspora. He once said, “I did not want to confine myself to one place, nation and community….My approach to life has been universal, and so is my art.” Qadri was initiated into yogic practice at age seven in India, his birthplace. In 1965, he left India and began a series of travels that took him to East Africa, North America and Europe. After settling in Copenhagen in the 1970s, Qadri participated in more than forty solo shows, in Mumbai, Vienna, Brussels, London, Oslo, Stockholm, Montreal, Toronto, Los Angeles and New York. Sohan Qadri’s works are included in the British Museum, London; the Peabody Essex Museum, Massachusetts; the Rubin Museum of Art, New York; the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto; as well as the private collections of Cirque du Soleil, Heinrich Böll and Dr. Robert Thurman. In 2011, Skira Editore published the monograph Sohan Qadri: The Seer. Born in Chachoki, Punjab, India, 1932; died 2011 | Lived and worked in Copenhagen and Toronto
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Lalita II, 2007, ink and dye on paper, 55 x 39 inches/139.7 x 99.1 cm 41
HIROSHI SENJU Japanese-born painter Hiroshi Senju is noted worldwide for his sublime waterfall and cliff images, which are often monumental in scale. He combines a minimalist visual language rooted in Abstract Expressionism with ancient painting techniques unique to Japan. Senju is widely recognized as one of the few contemporary masters of the thousand-year-old nihonga style of painting, using pigments made from minerals, ground stone, shell and corals suspended in animal-hide glue. Hiroshi Senju was the first Asian artist to receive an Honorable Mention Award at the Venice Biennale (1995), and has participated in numerous exhibitions including The New Way of Tea, curated by Alexandra Munroe, at the Japan Society and the Asia Society in New York, 2002; Paintings on Fusuma at the Tokyo National Museum, 2003; and Frontiers Reimagined at the Venice Biennale, 2015. He was recently awarded the Foreign Minister’s Commendation from the Japanese government for contributions to art. In May 2017 he was honored with the Isamu Noguchi Award. Public installations include seventy-seven murals at Juko-in, a sub-temple of Daitoku-ji, a Zen Buddhist temple in Japan, and a monumental waterfall at Haneda Airport in Tokyo. The Benesse Art Site of Naoshima Island also houses two large-scale installations. Most recently, Senju completed two monumental paintings for Kongobuji Temple at Koyasan. The temple is a sacred site in Japanese Buddhism and the works—a waterfall and a cliff—were commissioned to celebrate Koyasan’s 1,200th anniversary. Ahead of the dedication at Kongobuji, the paintings will be on view in several major museums throughout Japan until they are installed as fusuma (sliding doors) in the summer of 2020. Senju’s work is in The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Brooklyn Museum, New York; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri; the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto; the Museum of Modern Art, Toyama, Japan; the Yamatane Museum of Art, Tokyo; Tokyo University of the Arts; and the Kushiro Art Museum, Hokkaido. In 2009, Skira Editore published a monograph of his work titled Hiroshi Senju. The Hiroshi Senju Museum Karuizawa in Japan opened in 2011. 42
Born in Tokyo, 1958 | Lives and works in New York
Waterfall, 2019, natural pigments on Japanese mulberry paper mounted on board, 76.3 x 63.8 inches/194 x 162 cm 43
Waterfall, 2019, natural pigments on Japanese mulberry paper mounted on board, 51.3 x 76.3 inches/130 x 194 cm 44
At World’s End #29, 2019, natural and acrylic pigments on Japanese mulberry paper mounted on board, 51.3 x 76.3 inches/130.3 x 193.9 cm 45
CHUN KWANG YOUNG Korean artist Chun Kwang Young incorporates elements of both painting and sculpture in his practice. He is best known for his acclaimed Aggregation series. Chun’s assemblages, made from countless triangular forms wrapped in antique mulberry paper tinted with teas or pigment, merge the techniques, materials and sentiment of his Korean heritage with the conceptual freedom he experienced during his Western education. Born in Hongchun, South Korea, in 1944, Chun grew up during the end of Japanese colonization and the brutality of the Korean War. In the early 1970s, he moved to the United States to pursue a Master’s Degree at Philadelphia College of Art, where he was deeply drawn to Abstract Expressionism. Over time, he became disillusioned with the materialistic drive that seemed to fuel the American dream and feelings of loneliness intensified his longing for home. Chun decided to return to Korea and focus on his own methodology, one that was wholly unique and reflective of his history and cultural identity. The development of his signature technique was sparked by childhood memories of seeing medicinal herbs wrapped in mulberry paper, tied into small packages and hung from the ceiling of the local Chinese medicine doctor’s apothecary. Chun Kwang Young received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from Hongik University, Seoul, and a Master of Fine Arts from the Philadelphia College of Art, Pennsylvania. His work is in numerous public collections, including The Rockefeller Foundation and the United Nations, New York; the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D. C.; the Philadelphia Society Building, Pennsylvania; the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, and the Seoul Museum of Art; the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and the National Museum of Fine Arts, Malta. In 2009, Chun was awarded the Presidential Prize in the 41st Korean Culture and Art Prize by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
Born in Hongchun, Korea, 1944 | Lives in works in Seongnam, Korea
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Aggregation 12 - MY020 Blue & Red, 2012, mixed media with Korean mulberry paper, 51.6 x 64.2 inches/131 x 163 cm 47
Aggregation 18 - JU036, 2018, mixed media with Korean mulberry paper, 73.2 x 61.8 inches/186 x 157 cm
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Aggregation 16 - JA302, 2017, mixed media with Korean mulberry paper, 46.5 x 36.2 inches/118 x 92 cm
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SUNDARAM TAGORE GALLERIES new york new york hong kong singapore
547 West 27th Street, New York, NY 10001 • tel 212 677 4520 • gallery@sundaramtagore.com 1100 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10028 • tel 212 288 2889 4/F, 57-59 Hollywood Road, Central, Hong Kong • tel 852 2581 9678 • hongkong@sundaramtagore.com 5 Lock Road 01-05, Gillman Barracks, Singapore 108933 • tel 65 6694 3378 • singapore@sundaramtagore.com
President and curator: Sundaram Tagore Director, New York: Susan McCaffrey Director, Singapore: Melanie Taylor Registrar: Julia Occhiogrosso Designer: Russell Whitehead Editor: Kieran Doherty
WWW.SUNDARAMTAGORE.COM Text © 2019 Sundaram Tagore Gallery Photographs © 2019 Sundaram Tagore Gallery All rights reserved under international copyright conventions. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.