Lin Kuei Hua

we present “Re-Visiting Virtual Window” as the topic of Lin’s sole exhibition, expressing the paintings, the frames, and the topic. Exhibited works include two topics: before 2017, which is mainly using plants, flowers as themes, such as Kite, Flowing Light and “Commencement”, etc… These works use acrylic colors, templates and syringe, to let the paints naturally cumulate, duplicate and cover on canvas, producing rich layers of paints. Another topic is after 2017, mainly focusing on people. However, instead of portrait paintings, she locates the figures in particular scenery, especially the people who are using mobile phones and tablets, with extending techniques.

– Curator╱Gary Lee

Every morning, I feel a sense of anxiety and excitement, wanting to go to the studio, checking how the work I finished the day before turns out. Has the paint dried up yet? Are the colors accurate? The layers connect in the right way? What should I do afterwards? The anxiety repeatedly gives me the impulse, driving me to work.

My father is a low-ranked government employee, with an income barely keeping a family of six. After work, he always got together with neighbors from the Taiwan Power Company, complaining about work. Sometimes he practiced calligraphy, plants orchids or takes pictures everywhere, as if a lost artist. So I knew how to use a camera at the age of five. I discussed with my father about aperture, photographic angle, composition, …etc.; this might be why I started to love technical products.

In 1980, Taiwan’s economy is turning better, Lin started working in international trade, spending a great amount of time typing typewriter processing business papers. When personal computers come out, due to efficiency improvement and curiosity toward technology, she started learning computer and coding. She was passionately all the way. Since year 2000, internet and mobile phone develop in light speed. People’s lives are inseparable with electronic devices and mobile phones. This phenomenon intrigued me and inspired me to paint about this topic. I also paint my daily life routines. The main theme of this exhibition originates from my background, life and work experience. For me, life is art and art is life.

The figures, characters in the paintings are mostly my friends. The children in the paintings, although cannot speak and read, can quickly find pictures and animation in their parents’ mobile phones. It is common to see crying babies would quiet down once they get in contact with mobile phones or iPads. This really shocks me. As they grow, these technical products influence in an unexpected way. It is no exception for grown-ups. No matter when or where, everyone always has a phone in hand, staring at the screen like there are no others. Some of them are thinking, some of them are exchanging information, some contacting others, some replying emails…etc.. There is one huge company CEO, who concentrates on his mobile phone working even when guests surrounding him are singing karaoke. I like to paint figures, even when they are in parties, I’d still remember their professional side. As I paint, I keep thinking the connection of human and technology in the future.

The accomplishment of every work has to go through four turning points. At first, choose a topic, construct an image in my brain, and excitedly hope for it to come true. After fast drafting, coloring and polishing, a painting can be considered good. But the other me, who is less settled, would jump out and ask, how is this painting different from others? Is there anything special? Is it meaningful?

Then I would calm down and pack up my habitual casual logic and start to change. This change is either good or bad. Should I take the risk? Yes, there’s no other choice.

The unfortunate thing is that it usually goes bad; therefore pain is produced. There’s at least 10 days to half a month that I bear the endless anxiety. I cannot discard the painting because it goes bad, otherwise the next painting would face the same problem. In the unsettled and uncertain status, you have to keep trying to improve the image. In this process, sometimes I have to cogitate and sketch. Sometimes, I have to paint quickly without using my brain. It is surprising that inspiration always come in blindness and chaos. After these actions, I’d always encounter an amazingly good painting.

Finally, I would spend several days to sit in front of the finished work, think about what has happened, check every detail, and finish the last polish. Sometimes, I would paint another similar piece to make sure the technique used can be copied. That is why I usually have two similar pieces of work. I would paint more for fun.
When review, I need to consider many aspects, such as,
Is the topic strong enough? (Can I make adjustment in the next painting?) Should the flawed parts be improved? (Too perfect is might make people out of breath) How much should I keep to make it lively and interesting? Are the contrary elements enough? For example, straight and curved lines, fast and slow, color bocks, bright and dark, hue,…etc.. The more the contrary elements are, the livelier it becomes. There is no such thing as perfect in this world, only contradiction, conflict, and the co-existence of fortunate and unfortunate.

I like to go back to zero for the cognition of objects, and then restart, trying all the possibilities. When I paint a certain topic, I might go back to the traditional techniques. This repetition keeps my thoughts fresh, jumping out of the box to avoid self-duplication.

Art looks easy, but when you look at it closely, you get lost. I yearned to be a professional artist. Only when I am full time, putting all the effort it in, I can encounter professionals in the art industry and learning all aspects in art. I like to work, like to be with people who work hard. Only when you love your work, you can proceed when encountering obstacles and barriers.

“Don‘t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad. While they are deciding, make even more art。”

Through practice, I gradually understand the criteria to become a professional artist, and realize the challenge I might face. At the same time, this simulate more curiosity, what is truly art? As this phrase, I can only keep on creating. Just like the American Artist, Andy Warhol once said, ““Don‘t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad. While they are deciding, make even more art。”

The drastic variation of human’s visual experiences caused by development of technology and changing lifestyle often influences the artistic expression we create. Consequently, artistic practice – or “the freedom of expression” as how we usually define it – celebrates not only the individual’s inner reaction but also the interrelation among one’s cultural experience, artistic context, the materiality of media, and the life journey of an individual. Similarly, the effects of three different visual experiences can be discovered in Kuei-Hua Lin’s works: first of all, the context of “painterliness” in the tradition of painting; secondly, the camera angle in photography; thirdly, the dislocation of printing or superimposition in the image-base art history.

To begin with, “painterliness” is a term commonly used in art history, opposite to the concept of linearity. Art historian Heinrich Wölfflin (1864-1945） has characterized the artistic transformation from Renaissance to Baroque as change of style from linearity to painterliness. According to him, linearity describes the clear and flat linear design popular in Renaissance art, while painterliness allow Baroque art to create a three-dimensional quality with curves, obscure contours, and a stronger chiaroscuro effect. The contrast somewhat summarizes the spectrum of Western art – the former is more classical and restrained while the latter is more emotional and expressive. In this respect, Lin”s art is close to the painterely concept. In her artmaking, she not only freedom of painting executed by her hand. Therefore, most of her previous works feature a greater spontaneity thanks to the flowing lines and dripping =effect of water-based pigments.

The second visual experience is related to photography. Her favorite composition is either an upward view or a close-up, a result of her habit of modeling photos of flora which she has taken in her journey. In fact, the increasing accessibility to photography has make it a tool in painting, but the real impact on the practice of painting is in its cultural and visual aspect that photography provides a new camera-based perspective beyond the traditional composition in painting. As a result, it is no longer required for painting to establish a well-developed storytelling scene but encourages it to focus on the fragmented, partial, instant, photographic image. Meanwhile, the detailed, close-up partial view further highlights the quality of painting as a form.

The third visual experience comes from the dislocation of printing and superimposition. Nowadays, we may feel familiar with these kinds of effects caused by printing errors, chromatic errors, photographic multiple exposure of intentional superimposition. Whether intentional or by mistake, the effects reveal the thin, flat, and accumulative quality of image itself. Examples can be found in the artmaking process of Lin’s recent works where she chooses various images of silhouette and makes them into several shaping plates, while she later applies layers of thick or thin acrylic paints on them. The direction of the strokes and shapes is often intersecting the shaping plate’s composition, crating three layers of images, including the one painted with the plate covering, with it half covering, and with it removes. The artmaking process reflects the thin-versus-thick relation between images and paints. With an intentional emphasis on its e=texture, it highlights a relief-like thickness variation between the part with plate covering and part without.

Lin’s artistic practice is inspired by her life. Simple subjects are her favorite, while the overall scene depiction in her earlier works is gradually replaced by partial views of flowers and fruits. Similar to Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)’s dedication to still life painting and Mont Sainte-Victoire, Lin also adopts simple scenes and objects to elaborate her exploration of shapes. Through the layers and artmaking procedure of her works, such as the techniques of emboss, fretwork, brushing, and reserving the background, we are invited into a dialogue between the layered painting and image itself.

– Curator╱Jian Liting

Curator╱Wu Shu-An

As thin and transparent as a cicada’s wing, the glaze base featured in Kuei-Hua’s composition is a vivid contrast to its strong and powerful subject, reminiscent of Ma Yuan and Shia Kuei’s “one-corner composition.” Polished like a jade, rough like a rock, stirred like bubbles – it is not only our first impression of Lin’s works but also the charm of them, a series of paintings finished with precision, intensity, contemporaneity, and clever subtlety.

Although how we paint is always based on how we plan, Lin, like Gille Deleuze’s analysis Francis Bacon, begins with destroying any pre-established rules concerning the image itself and her own imagination, allowing her hand to lead the action. After rounds of adjustments, the work is finally completed. She seldom abandons what she has already finished. No one can imagine what she has been through and what measures she has taken throughout the whole artmaking process. For her, painting is her labor-intensive work. The days spent in her studio, where she takes advantage of the color spectrum of natural lighting, crystalize her labor into a precious gem. The great amount of water-based pigments used in her works such as watercolor or acrylic paint reveals her eagerness to express herself through art and to establish her signature. She also utilized a palette knife to scratch and flatten the base paint, making it a thin transparent membrane, on which the artist creates a layered plane of splendid visual intensity characterized with splash, script, and scrape. The subject of the paintings does not seem to be a priority to Lin, After all, it is quite impossible to find an untouched subject in the category of figurative painting. Therefore, Lin focused more on the techniques. She lets her eyes and hands to replace mind and brain. The paint’s spontaneous flow follows the movement of the hand, establishing a unique artistic style different from any painter before her.

Allowing the had to move before thought does not suggest that the artist reject any consciousness in painting. Instead, she lets the strokes and paint to stretch freely on the canvas, while the result of what they grow into is again polished and adjusted carefully by the artist. Lin’s paintings are complicated for that they have been through laps and twists. However, it is the only possible way for the artist to locate herself and to establish her artistic signature, just like those great painters before her.

The reward of her technique-exploring is the surprising and unexpected artmaking process demonstrated on her works. Examples include needle splash, the use of palette knives, or the transformative and diverse textures crated on the dried flat acrylic maintaining a rich, solid, flowing, and organic visual quality. The simple elements are carefully arranged with Lin’s perfect subtlety, while the randomness is the interaction between consciousness and spontaneity. “Thought before strokes,” it is not to say that her works ack consciousness, but the random brush walking is the only way to fight against a tradition of painting which is heading toward its own end and to establish a unique artistic expression. Lin’s painting is lively and spontaneous while it is also rational and discreet. I am not suggesting the artist’s works are overwhelmed by contradictions, but the balance between the two helps achieve the most satisfying consequence – brisk but yet modest personality, highlighted with the strongest visual impression as her tour de force.

The artist often rejects the conventional practice of chiaroscuro. Instead, she utilizes a large scale of strong colors to visualize intensive shapes, creating a double-edged effect as the abstract expression captures the spirit of the object. In other words, we see the tree, and we also see the forest. She loves painting flowers and fruits, but she does not follow the traditional still-life composition which we have been familiar with. The partial view of the close-up makes the image more abstract, and the powerful contrast harmonized with nature is the most precious source, just like the natural breeze and light hidden beneath the sculpted layers.

Lin’s art is bright and precise, but the diverse potentialities also demonstrate her adventurous determination. She pursues the enchanting visual experience, while she also attempts to visualize a vigorousness in her paintings. The dominant portion of strong colors seems menacing, but you will soon find in it a perfect execution of subtle and rapid strokes if you take a closer look. The visual effect is sober and yet rich, like a lively waltz in the brisk breeze, revealing both the excitement and sweetness of flowers and fruits. The most distinguishable is the almost primitive vitality, the labor-intensive process of the painting gathering the effort of mind, hands, brain, and eyes. The artist believes that to begin with actions (“painting strokes” to be precise) is the only way to achieve originality. Such a trick rule she sets up for herself is how she avoids repetition and insipidity, while it also allows her to create a conflicting but yet balanced image.

The risk-taking journey to search for one’s uniqueness encourages the artist to keep exploring new styles and expressions every time when she finishes several paintings in a series. It is never easy quite challenging and risky indeed. However, Lin’s uncompromised artistic practice and dedication has made the adventure conquerable, replacing obstacles with a continuity of constant diversity. Here, we see a different Lin – a brave and fearless challenger that no threat of failure will stop her in this journey toward absolute originality. The painting brush silence our eyes, offering a moment of meditative serenity between viewers and paintings. Meanwhile, viewing becomes a pleasant experience for viewers to hit the road with the painter. Her artistic journey continues, as she rejects to give up her experiment and the attempt to make a breakthrough. We surely will wait for her to make a new turn, where we may be welcomed by a totally different vision, though derived from the same narrative – the style without a style, the determination to take challenges, the experimental techniques, and the surfacing to a wonderful vision.,

In 1995 when I was 42 years old, I moved to the sunny Southern California because of some health problem. One day, I received a program about adult education from Pasadena Community College and I saw that they offered a course “Life Drawing.” I thought that it was about still life drawing, so I registered for the class and paid the fee right away, hoping to learn some basic painting techniques. When the class began, the teacher gestured a female model to walk into the classroom and asked us to draw her. Suddenly, I saw her taking off clothes. What happened? It was so shocking. I did not even know where to look at. It turned out that “life drawing” was about human figure drawing! It was a lucky accident for me to walk into the world of painting!

Not only the year of 2006 did I start to liberate myself from the pre-existing conventions and to freely express myself. I have gradually found the main concept of my artistic practice – “lines.” In addition to the exploration of related materials and tools, I also focus on several concepts as mentioned below:

1. Watercolor paint: In order to highlight the strength, speed, direction, equaled width and other qualities of watercolor paint, I use needle tubes to paint. Since watercolor paint is easy to be mixed and dried while it also has high fluidity, I usually put the frequently-used colors in several jars, and use needle tubes to pump in, mixing the colors in the needle tubes. Then I use needle tube as brushes to paint on paper. Sometimes the paint is splashed on paper as if it were out of control, while sometimes the undried lines are added with different colors as if I were mixing colors on paper. These techniques indeed help create totally different strokes from using brushes.

2. Pastel paint: With its low transparency and fluidity, pastel paint is a wonderful material for drawing. I take advantage of its unique quality and different strokes in my still life drawing.

3. Oil paint: Oil paint is thicker and stickier. It is quite impossible to find a proper tool to smoothly paint the handwriting-like silky lines. Therefore, I mix paint thinner and oil paint in proper proportion, using needle tube to randomly squeeze the long lines. Such a method visualizes the realistic subjects in a more fluent and natural way. Sometimes I use less paint thinner to mix, creating a stronger three-dimensional quality. Before the lines are completely dried, I slide the palette on the lines horizontally to create smooth lines with equal thickness.

1. To master the linear essence of tools: Sometimes the painting material will create a totally opposite effect against its essence. Therefore, the first thing I do is always to understand the quality and the limitation of materials, regarding tools, techniques, and the lines as a whole. My exploration bases on my life experiences such as the ink-related ones (including marker, sign pen, fountain pen, and etc.), oil-related or powder-like ones such as charcoal, and crayons of various colors.
A new line-painting tool can help painters to challenge their old habit while it also forces them to use their hands in a different way. In other words, compared with the familiar and predictable tool one used to use, a new line-painting tool might come up with a different way to visualize the ideal painting.

2. The controlled lines and the out-of-control lines: I always adopt lines to demonstrate various new concepts. One might say that lines have always been the main concept of my artistic practice. The “lines” in my works can be generally divided as the controlled lines and the out-of-control lines. Similar to our lives, some things in our life can be planned in advance while some things are not anticipated. For me, being out-of-control signifies a wonderful accident in aesthetics. The freely roaming lines in the image evoke human beings’ primitive secret power and remind us of the happy drawing in our childhood. However, the essence of lines is infinite and experimental. Lines can be contoured, organic, geometric, architectural, lyrical, conditioned, aggressive, handwriting, and etc. Sometimes they move rapidly while sometimes they proceed slowly. Sometimes they are delicately splendid while sometimes they are violently rustic. The controlled lines and the out-of-control lines are intertwined, perfectly creating a harmonious but yet vivid spirit in the image. Lines are the most basic unit to represent a space, to form an idea, or to create a concept. It is the most economical index. In painting, lines function as deconstructive analysis while it also demonstrates the integral meaning human minds fail to reach. Ideally, a single line can transform the three-dimensional space into a two-dimensional image. Between the media’s surface and the image exist all the possible special relationships, including the transformation between the abstract thoughts and the visual forms.

I had been stuck in an office for a long period of time. Every day, I looked out from the window to see the sunrise and the sunset. From dawn to dusk, I could not help wondering how wonderful it might be to keep the outdoor scene inside the room. Sunlight always fascinates me. I have a deep feeling for those scenes in backlight. I used to see the most beautiful scene in my dream – the blue ocean and the inexplicably beautiful red light. Sunlight penetrates the window and offers the most amazing colors to the scenes. The still life in backlight and the shadow on the table become the reoccurring theme in my paintings.