New York MOMA - Sol LeWitt: Wall Drawing

Working as a flight attendant offers myself chances to visit different exhibition and gallery. The MOMA museum in New York City is one of my favorite places to go. This museum of modern art contains a worldwide collection of modern arts from the late 19th century and continues to the current contemporary works of art. Despite the permanent collections like the Salvador Dalí's The Persistence of Memory and Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night. (This two works, however is now on loan to the Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí and Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.), the MOMA also held different kind of exhibitions, which involve all forms of visual expression. In the role of a modern art museum, the MOMA plays an important role in transcending the national boundaries, bringing all forms of art together to create a dialogue between the established and the experimental, the past and the present.

In this review, I will focus on 3 temporary exhibition in the MOMA, they are the Sol LeWitt: Wall Drawing, Marlene Dumas: Measuring Your Own Grave and Artist Choice + Vik Muniz = REBUS.

Sol LeWitt: Wall Drawing

Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #260, Crayon on painted wall, 1975

Drawn by Charles Allen, Andrew Colbert, Anthony Sansotta, and Nobuto Suga

Sol LeWitt is one of the early artists who explores the possibility of art to go beyond the canvas and paper. Sol LeWitt produces more than 1200 paintings, which draw directly onto the wall. In this exhibition, his Wall Drawing #260, 1975 is installed on one of the gallery space in MOMA. In this wall drawing, Sol LeWitt had drawn numerous white arcs from corner and side, and also white straight, non-straight and broken lines on a black wall. Like what Sol LeWitt said, “The white lines maintain their grid and by changing offer clues to the system. The plan is always presented so that the viewer will know that the changes are not capricious but systematic, becoming a language and a narrative of shapes.” Besides the systematic idea, Sol LeWitt ‘s wall drawing also evokes the questioning of the gallery space. Instead of hanging the paintings or drawing on the wall of the gallery, he intentionally put his drawing onto the wall of the gallery, which shows a mergence of the gallery space and the artwork itself. As a conceptual artist, Sol LeWitt offers the priority of an idea and concept than the physical appearance of an artwork. Experiencing an artwork like this is therefore not a two dimension one, but a three-dimensional perception.

Focus: Sol LeWitt
December 5, 2008–June 29, 2009
Fourth floor, MOMA, NYC

IN • ATTIC

If one was being asked about his/her feeling towards Hong Kong, what would be his/her possibly answer? Energetic? Monetary? Or crowded? To me, I would say the most impressive element of Hong Kong is definitely the extremely crowded street. In this small but delicate city, every single inch of space cost thousands of money. Four or even five family members living together in a flat about 500 ft is very common. However, the lack of space is not only a social problem but also affecting every individual’s sensation about the concept of space, the use of space and also their own interpretation of space.

Damon Tong and Stephanie Sin are two freshly graduated artists from the Hong Kong Art School. The exhibition “in • attic” is their first show to appear on the stage, in a sense. As Tong and Sin were my classmate when I was in the art school, therefore, to attend this exhibition is somehow a retrospect experience. In this exhibition, both Tong and Sin show a continuous development of their artworks. Since the school day, both of them were very much interested in the investigation of space already, and now their works had arrived in a much more mature level.

Damon’s painting is about his own sensation of a particular space, one of the most significant inspiration was the table with legs but no top in his studio. He then extended the question of “what is a table” and “how does the table communicates with its own space” as the starting point. Unlike all other paintings, the presentation of his work is not a formal one. Tong puts all his small painting on a rack which every single piece of painting is in a horizontal level. Therefore the audiences can now looking at all these painting from the artist perspective, go deeper to the artist’s working environment. Tong successfully bring his audience to his working studio, even though they are actually in a fine gallery.

Sin’s paintings are all about her own experience of a place which she passed by everyday – the Hong Kong Art School. Like all the ordinary people, Sin lives in a tiny space with all her family members. In this tiny space, she transforms what she had seen and experienced into her abstract painting. And later on, after she graduated from the art school, she then extend her inspiration one step further to the window lattice and its surrounding space. Sin walked through the lobby in art school everyday, and it becomes part of her memory. she wants to trace all these repetitive memories and response to these memories on her canvas.

The development of both Tong and Sin ‘s paintings are evoked from their personal everyday life. As a citizen in Hong Kong, Tong and Sin feel the same as you and I do. Their works are not only response to their personal issue, but also to the social issues, the social problem which everybody living in this tiny city are facing. From their paintings, one can see the local artist’s concernment about the social issue and their endeavors of using art as a medium to response to it.

"in • attic"

Exhibition Opening Reception: January 8, 2009, 6–9pm

Exhibition Duration: January 8 - February 21, 2009

Venue: Sin Sin Annex, 53, Sai Street, Central

Pictures of the opening ceremony from Damon Tong:

即興 / Ad Lib

即興 / Ad Lib is an exhibition organized by nine fine arts students whose is currently studying in the Hong Kong Arts School. They are: Bonnie Mak, Candy Cheung, Chris Chan, Jasmine Wong, Joey Chung, Simona Lam, Trix Wong, Vincent Yan, Yin Lo.

To most of the fine arts students, organizing exhibition is definitely a challenging experience. Hong Kong Art Center provides a small but delicate venue –White Tube for the students to exhibit their artworks before they become a real artist. White Tube is located on the 10/F in HKAC. It ‘s actually a corridor in front of school administration office. Because of its completely white decoration and its circulating structure, therefore, the name White Tube was born.

The title of every single exhibition tells the attitude and the gesture of artist(s) or movement. In this group exhibitioon, they use the phase “Ad Lib” to signify themselves. So what kind of attitude of these nine students are telling the public? Inside the leaflet of this exhibition, they says ‘"Ad-lib" is an exhibition in improvisational form, where each student unfolds his / her current creative concepts and artistic expression without prior planning. Through spur-of-the-moment improvisation, they explore individual and collective artistic ideas, thus providing inspiration to themselves and to other people.’ Therefore, this exhibition is not merely a show, but a process of self-realisation and self-understanding. It offers an oppurtunity for the student to step back and review their artistic development, and the most important thing, to coorobate future direction of their particular art.

Attending an exhibition like this one, is different from any other exhibition. Because every piece of artwork which shown in the gallery is not yet completed in certain sense. What being hanged on the wall is the concept which developed by these young students throughout their study, like what they have said – improvisation. It is a transformation of what they have seen in everyday life; what they had experienced; and what they are questioning for. All these elements gradually merged with every individuals personality. This exhibition, thus, works as a platform for them to make immediate response to their own afflatus. As an audience working through the gallery, what one can see is not only the artwork, but an illimitable creativeness sphereof these young artists.

Trix Wong
Painting on the air II & III 2008
Stained glass and fishing line
Size Variable

Chris Chan
Control 3 & 4 2008
Acrylic & Charcoal on Canvas
140 x 100 cm

Exhibition: Ad Lib

Exhibition Date: 2009.1. 5 - 1.24

Exhibition Venue: White Tube Gallery, 10/F, Hong Kong Art Centre

Phone:60752348
Email:kamsanyan@hotmail.com