Catherine S.J. Zhang's solo show, Ink Brush - Flowers - Photography presents 30 multimedia artworks and carves out a new creative arena with nature and flowers as her main themes. She boldly exploits the essence of traditional Chinese ink brush painting, Japanese flower installation and her passion for photography.
Zhang has been longing to create such a series. She has been a photographer for 10 years, is greatly attracted to the Ikebana flower installation of Sogetsu School and also studied traditional flowers-and-birds under the late great master Zhao Shao-ang.
"I want to explore an exciting territory of new possibility, to strike a harmonious balance in beauty while utilizing two very different media (photography and ink brush painting) that cross over the passage of time for centuries," she says.
She has achieved a delicate balance between graphical composition, colors/shades and the symbiotic interaction between the two media. She reveals the power of simplicity and the fathomless beauty of crossing over the aesthetic cultures of the East and West. And such a combination imparts upon the audience a feeling of grandness, timelessness and elegance.
10 am-5 pm, until Nov 25
Beijing Wan Fung Art Gallery, 35-37 Guanyintang Art Avenue, 2A Wangsiying, Chaoyang district
6523-3319
(China Daily November 21, 2008)