Meaning & Materiality

MEANING& MATERIALITY

MEANING& MATERIALITY

ART OF AND INSPIRED BY ASIA AND THE SUBCONTINENT

APRIL 29 – JUNE 10, 2023

SUNDARAM TAGORE NEW YORK

Weare pleased to present calligraphy, installations, paintings and sculptures with an Eastern focus. The show foregrounds themes of cultural multiplicity, language, dislocation and the natural world.

Each of the artists in this exhibition takes a process-driven approach to create works layered with meaning. Whether it’s scoring sheets of paper swollen with ink, slathering canvases with thick layers of paint or hand-welding small pieces of stainless steel together to form a chainmail-like sculpture, the materiality of the work is immediately apparent.

Encountering such highly tactile pieces in person is particularly impactful in this time of disembodiment—a digital era in which much of our experience and interaction with images takes place in a flat, virtual realm. Seen together the works offer a distinctly corporeal experience that not only engages the senses but also invites sustained contemplation and reflection.

ANILA QUAYYUM AGHA

Anila Quayyum Agha (b. 1965, Pakistan) is internationally recognized for her large-scale cube installations that use light and pattern to immerse viewers in shared experiences and inclusive spaces. The patterns Agha laser cuts into the steel cubes are a reinterpretation of floral and geometric motifs found in Islamic art and architecture in Asia and Africa. The elaborate shadows allude to the ornamented public spaces such as mosques Agha was excluded from as a female growing up in Lahore.

Agha’s two-dimensional works include vividly colored resin paintings in which she builds up the surface in stages, with layers of colored resin applied over a substrate. Her complex compositions are turned into a digital template and incised into the resin-coated panels in a manner similar to engraving. The process can take from twelve to sixteen hours per design. Color is then delicately poured by hand to fill the precisely incised grooves. After approximately 24 hours, when the resin has hardened, the surface is leveled, and the process begins again with the next color. Each work is composed of six to twelve colors.

Since 2019 Agha’s cube installations and two-dimensional works have been featured in multiple solo museum exhibitions. Her work has been on view at Asia Society, New York; Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts; Dallas Contemporary Art Museum, Texas; Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio; the Columbia Museum of Art, South Carolina; the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas; Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville, Florida. Her work is currently on view at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Small White Refuge!, 2021, painted stainless steel, 17 x 11.5 x 14 inches/43.2 x 29.2 x 35.6 cm

Paradise (Mughal Gardens/Patterned Cube) I, 2022, resin, 47 x 47 inches/119.4 x 119.4 cm

Paradise (Mughal Gardens/Patterned Cube) II, 2022, resin, 47 x 47 inches/119.4 x 119.4 cm

MIYA ANDO

New York-based artist Miya Ando (b. 1973, California) investigates fleeting natural phenomena including clouds and the night sky, capturing precise moments in time. Ando uses watercolor-like techniques to layer translucent washes of ink and pigment mixed with urethane on metal canvases. Leaving some areas bare, she allows the reflective metal to shine amid passages of muted color creating a sense of depth and movement. In many works she also embeds micronized pure silver, a fine dust-like material, which adds further sheen. Her work, which relies on keen observation, is rooted in the Japanese concept of mono-no-aware, which is commonly translated as “the pathos of things,” a bittersweet sentiment often linked to nature and the passage of time.

“It’s a wistful recognition of a fleeting moment but I don’t see it in a nihilistic sense where everything is impermanent including myself. It’s more an appreciation and awareness of the present moment,” says Ando. “My thought process behind chronicling changes in the environment stems from a yearning to pay homage to and to be connected to the natural world.”

Ando’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at The Asia Society Texas, Houston; The Noguchi Museum, New York; Savannah College of Art and Design Museum, Georgia; and The American University Museum, Washington D.C.

Morning Cloud (Asagumo) March 19 2023 7:11 AM NYC, 2023, dye, ink, pure micronized silver, resin & urethane on aluminum composite, 48 x 96 inches/122 x 244 cm

Yuugure (Evening) Cloud New York City November 14 2022 4:59 PM NYC, 2022, ink, mica, pure micronized silver, resin & urethane on aluminum composite, 50 x 50 inches/127 x 127 cm

Yuugure (Evening) Cloud New York City November ink, mica, pure micronized silver, resin & urethane on

November 18 2022 4:20 PM NYC, 2022, aluminum composite, 50 x 50 inches/127 x 127 cm

Yuugure (Evening) Cloud New York City November 13 2022 3:57 PM NYC, 2022, ink, mica, pure micronized silver, resin & urethane on aluminum composite, 50 x 50 inches/127 x 127 cm

Yuugure (Evening) Cloud February 3 2023 5:10 PM NYC, 2023, dye, ink, pure micronized silver, resin & urethane on aluminum composite, 60 x 40 inches/152.4 x 101.6 cm

KAREN KNORR

London-based American artist and activist Karen Knorr (b. 1954, Germany) photographs the grand interiors of palaces, temples and museums across Asia and Western Europe into which she digitally fuses exotic animals, exploring issues of gender and class structure rooted in cultural heritage.

Knorr’s most widely recognized series, India Song (2008–2022), began with a 2,000-mile trek across Rajasthan in 2008. The life-changing experience altered the focus of her practice, shifting her gaze to the upper-caste culture of the Rajput in India and its relationship to the “other.”

In these skillfully crafted images, Knorr focuses on the interiors of sacred and secular spaces of Rajasthan. Photographed with a large-format Sinar P3 analogue camera and scanned to very high resolution, the images celebrate the rich visual culture of northern India and the layered, syncretic nature of the architecture, where motifs from Hindu and Islamic culture merge and migrate from room to room.

Knorr’s work is regularly exhibited around the world, including at Tate Britain; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the San Diego Museum of Photography; Kyoto Modern Museum of Art; Seoul Museum of Art; and the Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai. Her work is in the collection of the Tate London and Victoria and Albert Museum; Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and Centre Georges Pompidou; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

The Opium Smoker, Chitrasala, Bundi, 2017, colour pigment print on Canson Infinity Platine Fibre Rag Inkjet Paper, 58 x 72.5 inches/147.3 x 184.2 cm

Shakti, Junha Mahal, Dungarpur, 2013, colour pigment print on Hahnemühle Fine Art Pearl Paper, 48 x 60 inches/122 x 152 cm

A Steadfast Friend, Zanana, Samode Palace, 2022, colour pigment print on Hahnemühle Fine Art Baryta 325gsm, 60 x 48 inches/152.4 x 121.9 cm

The Journey, Hie Torii, Tokyo, 2015, colour pigment print on Hahnemühle Fine Art Photo Rag Baryta 315gsm, 39.9 x 59.8 inches/101.4 x 151.9 cm

JANE LEE

Paint, canvas, frame, orientation and dimension—all are variables in Jane Lee’s hands. Through assiduous processes of layering, mixing, winding, wrapping, kneading, daubing and other acts of physical transformation, the renowned artist (b. 1963, Singapore) redefines paint and painting to produce dynamic, bold forms. Operating in a post-colonial Southeast Asian context, Lee re-examines the significance of Western painting practices while asserting her own culture. Pushing the boundaries of the medium, her work echoes the breakdown of cultural barriers in the era of globalization and affirms the universality of contemporary art.

Lee first gained critical acclaim when her monumental work Raw Canvas was showcased at the Singapore Biennale, curated by Fumio Nanjo, in 2008. Her work was then featured at Collectors’ Stage at the Singapore Art Museum in 2011 and in the Southeast Asia Platform, an exhibition of cutting-edge work from across the region at Art Stage Singapore in 2014. The following year, Lee’s work was selected for Prudential Singapore Eye, one of the largest surveys of Singapore’s contemporary art to date, held at the ArtScience Museum, and Medium at Large, a year-long exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum, where her large-scale installation Status, 2009, was acquired for the museum’s permanent collection. In 2015, Lee also participated in Frontiers Reimagined, at the 56th Venice Biennale. In 2018, Raw Canvas was prominently hung at the National Gallery Singapore. Her work is set to be featured in a solo exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum in 2023.

Jane Lee has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and a Diploma in Fashion from LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore. Lee has participated in numerous art fairs and exhibitions across the globe. Notable exhibitions include Jane Lee: Red States, a critically acclaimed solo exhibition at the Hong Kong Arts Centre in 2018; Meld, a solo Sundaram Tagore Gallery presentation at Art Basel in 2017; and Jane Lee: Freely, Freely at STPI in Singapore in 2016, which followed a 2015 residency.

Mi Se, 2023, mixed acrylic mediums, 47.25 x 39.4 x 3.5 inches/120 x 100 x 9 cm

Go to the Ying, 2023, mixed acrylic mediums, 47.25 x 39.4 x 3.5 inches/120 x 100 x 9 cm

Out of the Yang, 2023, mixed acrylic mediums, 47.25 x 39.4 x 3.5 inches/120 x 100 x 9 cm

Unravel, 2023, mixed acrylic mediums, 70.9 x 59 inches/180 x 150 cm

ZHENG LU

The gravity-defying sculptural works of Beijing-based artist Zheng Lu (b. 1978, Chi Feng, Inner Mongolia) are installed in public spaces throughout China, including a monumental work at the National Center for Performing Arts in Beijing. Pulsing with movement, they evoke splashes of water in mid-air. They are technically astonishing; their fluid, animated forms are charged with the energy (qi) of the universe, belying their steel composite. Many are deeply influenced by his study of traditional Chinese philosophy, and often calligraphy, an art form he practiced growing up in a literary family. Zheng Lu is known for using language as a pictorial element, composing the surface of stainless-steel sculptures out of thousands of Chinese characters derived from texts and poems of historical significance.

With recent work, the artist continues to explore water, long a subject of fascination. Early Chinese philosophers used physical principles of the natural world to better understand the mysteries of the cosmos and the nature of man. Water, a shapeless medium that can be potent or supple, dynamic or latent, can take on abundant meaning and serve as a tangible model embedded with ideas. For Zheng, it is not only an element essential to existence, but a substance symbolic of change, self-reflection and the passage of time.

Zheng Lu graduated from Lu Xun Fine Art Academy, Shenyang, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in sculpture in 2003. In 2007, he completed a 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.

The artist has participated in numerous museum exhibitions in China and abroad, including at the National Museum of China, Beijing; Long Museum, Shanghai, and Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art; Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem; Musée Océanographique, Monaco; Musée Maillol, Paris; and The Ekaterina Cultural Foundation, Moscow. In 2015, the artist’s work was featured in a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, one of the leading institutions in the region. His work is currently on view at Asia Society Texas in Houston in the exhibition Summoning Memories: Art Beyond Chinese Traditions.

Water in Dripping – Clear Sound, 2020, stainless steel, 114.1 x 78.75 x 66.9 inches/290 x 200 x 170 cm

Spring Breeze, 2023, stainless steel, 29.9 x 20.9 x 17.75 inches/76 x 53 x 45 cm

Yan Fei, 2019, stainless steel, 29.9 x 25.6 x 43.3 inches/76 x 65 x 110 cm

Silver River, 2023, stainless steel, 47.25 x 27.5 x 19.75 inches/120 x 70 x 50 cm

Ripple, 2023, stainless steel, 29.9 x 23.6 x 20.5 inches/76 x 60 x 52 cm

Water in Dripping – Waterfall, 2021, stainless steel, 80.75 x 55.1 x 54 inches/205 x 140 x 137 cm

SOHAN QADRI

Artist, poet and Tantric guru Sohan Qadri (b. 1932 India–d. 2011 Toronto) 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. 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; Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts; Brooklyn Museum and The Rubin Museum of Art, New York; National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; 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.

A solo exhibition of the artist’s work is currently on view at Sundaram Tagore Gallery London at Cromwell Place in South Kensington.

Amrita IV, 2007, ink and dye on paper, 55 x 39 inches/139.7 x 99.1 cm

Abhasa I, 2008, ink and dye on paper, 55 x 39 inches/139.7 x 99.1 cm

HIROSHI SENJU

Hiroshi Senju (b. 1958, Tokyo) is noted for his sublime waterfall and cliff images, often monumental in scale, which are installed in museums and public spaces around the world. Senju combines a minimalist visual language rooted in Abstract Expressionism with elements of traditional Japanese painting.

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 Asia Society, New York, 2002; Paintings on Fusuma at the Tokyo National Museum, 2003; and Frontiers Reimagined at the Venice Biennale, 2015. In 2021, Senju produced a monumental, site-specific fluorescent waterfall installation for The Art Institute of Chicago. It was on view for eight months in a gallery in the Asian wing designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Tadao Ando. The 50-foot-wide folding screens are now part of the museum’s permanent collection. Among his many honors, Senju was awarded the Foreign Minister’s Commendation from the Japanese government for contributions to art in 2017, and in the same year, was honored with the Isamu Noguchi Award.

Public installations include waterfall paintings at Tokyo International Airport, at The Benesse Art Site of Naoshima Island, and cliff and waterfall paintings at the Kongobuji Temple at Koyasan, Japan—a UNESCO World Heritage site. Senju’s work is in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Brooklyn Museum, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; The Art Institute of Chicago; the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri; and the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. The Hiroshi Senju Museum Karuizawa in Japan opened in 2011.

The exhibition Hiroshi Senju: There Is Still a Light will be on view at Sundaram Tagore Gallery London at Cromwell Place in South Kensington beginning May 3, 2023.

Falling Water (Byobu Screen), 2013, acrylic and fluorescent pigments on Japanese mulberry paper, 66.1 x 146.5 inches/168 x 372 cm

Waterfall I, 2007, pure pigment on rice paper mounted on board, 63.5 x 177.5 inches/161.3 x 450.9 cm

ROBERT YASUDA

Robert Yasuda is an American painter born in Lihue, Kauai, Hawaii in 1940. He is known for his subtle paintings exploring ephemeral qualities of light and visual perception. Yasuda moved from Hawaii to New York City in 1958 where he attended Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, completing a BFA and MFA and immersing himself in the work of New York School artists.

Early in his career, Yasuda sought to create distinctly sculptural works that functioned more as objects in space than flat, illusionary surfaces. His first major exhibitions as a young artist include solo shows at Galerie Bruno Bischofberger (Zurich and St. Moritz), 1968 and 1969, and in 1975, the first of five shows at Betty Parsons Gallery, New York. He went on to install monumental site-specific works at P.S.1Contemporary Art Center (now MoMA PS1), New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Clocktower Gallery, New York; the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and most recently at MoMA PS1 in the 2016 exhibition Forty.

Yasuda has been recognized with awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His works are in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, New York; the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; The New York Public Library; Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; and The McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas among others.

Yasuda works and lives in New York City and Sugarloaf Key, Florida.

Boundary, 2010-2020, acrylic on fabric on wood, 80 x 50 inches/203.2 x 127 cm

Transport, 2023, acrylic on fabric on wood, 5 x 79.5 inches/12.7 x 202 cm

Sustain, 2020, acrylic on fabric on wood, 92 x 2.5 inches/233.7 x 6.4 cm

CHUN KWANG YOUNG

The work of Chun Kwang Young (b. 1944, Korea) incorporates elements of both painting and sculpture. He is best known for his acclaimed Aggregation series: freestanding and wall-hung amalgamations of small, triangular forms wrapped in antique mulberry paper, which he often tints with teas or pigment.

The development of Chun’s 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 doctor’s office. He became intrigued with the idea of merging the techniques, materials and sentiment of his Korean heritage with the conceptual freedom he experienced during his Western education.

Over the years, Chun’s Aggregations have become more colorful and evolved in complexity and scale, but the use of mulberry paper remains at the core of his practice. Although imbued with the spirit of Korean tradition and history, Chun’s work, with its intricate, abstract compositions, is grounded in a purely contemporary context.

Chun Kwang Young’s work is regularly exhibited around the world, most recently at a major solo presentation titled Times Reimagined at the 59th Venice Biennale, 2022. His work is in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, New York; the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, and the Seoul Museum of Art; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

Aggregation 18 – JA006 (Star 1), 2018, mixed media with Korean mulberry paper, 63 inches/160 cm tondo

Aggregation 20 – AU050 (Star 11), 2020, mixed media with Korean mulberry paper, 39 inches/100 cm tondo

SUNDARAM TAGORE GALLERIES

The gallery has been representing established and emerging artists from around the world since 2000, showing work that is aesthetically and intellectually rigorous, infused with humanism and art historically significant. The gallery specializes in paintings, drawings, sculptures and installations with a strong emphasis on materiality. Our artists cross cultural and national boundaries, synthesizing Western visual language with forms, techniques and philosophies from Asia, the Subcontinent and the Middle East. We show this work alongside important work by underrepresented women from the New York School. The gallery also has a robust photography program that includes some of the world’s most noted photographers.

NEW YORK

Chelsea: 542 West 26th Street, New York, NY 10001 • tel 1 212 677 4520 gallery@sundaramtagore.com

SINGAPORE

5 Lock Road 01-05, Gillman Barracks, Singapore 108933 • tel 65 6694 3378 singapore@sundaramtagore.com

LONDON

4 Cromwell Place, Gallery 8, London, SW7 2JE • tel 44 2080 570789 gallery@sundaramtagore.com

President and curator: Sundaram Tagore

Senior Director, New York: Susan McCaffrey

Director, Singapore: Melanie Taylor

Director, New York: Kathryn McSweeney

Associate Director, New York: Eric Chelman

Registrar: Julia Occhiogrosso

Designer: Russell Whitehead

Editorial support: Kieran Doherty

WWW.SUNDARAMTAGORE.COM

Text © 2023 Sundaram Tagore Gallery

Photographs © 2023 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.

Cover: Zheng Lu, Yan Fei (detail), 2019, stainless steel, 29.9 x 25.6 x 43.3 inches/76 x 65 x 110 cm