Tong Yangtze

The exhibition is the latest offering from one of Asia's most audacious and innovative calligraphers, Tong Yangtze. Comprising a selection of sixteen works by the artist, all of which are ink on gilded paper, the exhibition offers insight into one of the most dynamic areas of the Chinese contemporary art scene.

Tong Yangtze (b. 1942 in Shanghai) is part of a small, but important, group of modernist ink painters who are breaking the mold of traditional calligraphic painting by creating works that reflect both a deep understanding of the Chinese aesthetic past while boldly exploring the modernist abstractionist possibilities inherent in calligraphy as a supremely visual language.

Tong Yangtze studied oil painting both in China and in the United States, and her work manifests this cross-cultural education. The relevance of her work to contemporary society derives from her sure grasp of classical calligraphy on the one hand, and her wide exposure to the main currents of Western aesthetics on the other. Drawing inspiration from philosophical works while adhering to the beauty of line inherent in this ancient art, Tong has heightened the dramatic possibilities of calligraphy by making it as expressive of its textual meaning as it is visually arresting in form. Beauty and meaning are inextricably linked in Tong's work, and the dismantling of these classical characters to convey new meaning through gesture and form reveals a dimension of understanding that challenges the conventional precepts of the medium.

Tong Yangtze's work is represented in numerous museums and important private collections throughout the world.