Flying with Wild Geese & Bird of passage - LIU Keng-I Oil Painting & Oil Pastels Solo Exhibition

Flying with wild geese＆Bird of passage - LIU Keng-I Oil Paintings & Oil Pastels Solo Exhibirion

Part 1 Flying with wild geese - Solo Exhibition by LIU Keng-I
Duration |
2024.04.11 – 05.11
Opening |
2024.04.13 Sat. 15:00

Part 2 Bird of passage - LIU Keng-I Oil Pastels Paintings Solo Exhibition
Duration |
2024.05.16 – 06.15
Opening & Talking.
2024.05.18 Sat. 15:00

Taiwanese senior artist LIU Keng-I, with a lifetime of artistic accomplishments and exhibition experiences, will hold his first solo exhibition featuring oil paintings and oil pastels at the Apollo Art Gallery.

After resigning from his teaching position in 1981, Liu Gengyi embarked on the path of a full-time artist. In the early stages, his work primarily focused on the sentiments of home, portraying the emotions he couldn't express in words or language towards his beloved wife, family, and homeland. Around 1990, Taiwan faced the societal changes post-martial law, during which he transitioned from a calm observer to a creator with a sense of social responsibility. He created a series of artworks depicting social scenes to express his ideas and emotions. Starting from 1998, he spent over a decade shuttling between New Zealand and Taiwan, leading a life split between two countries with his wife. The diverse social cultures and natural environments expanded his experiential scope, providing fertile ground for his creativity. This period resembled a return to youth, marking another developmental phase in his life where his creations delved into deeper emotional expressions and explored spiritual needs. Upon recently resettling in southern Taiwan, he once again seeks artistic inspiration from the wilderness of nature.

In his recent works, birds have become a prominent element, carrying with them beautiful memories or hopes for the future, sometimes symbolizing dangerous situations. This corresponds to his artistic statement: "My creations and exhibitions are, on one hand, responses to the uncompromising realities of the present, while on the other hand, they aim to transcend reality. I hope to break free from the constraints and confusion of current times, as well as the daily burdens and frustrations, entering into a realm of broad freedom of the spirit. The works undoubtedly serve as mirrors reflecting the activities of my inner self, indicating the direction of my spirit. They reflect my ongoing yearning and desire for a simple, tranquil world, contrasting sharply with the deceptive tumult of reality."

The solo exhibition held at the Apollo Gallery in 2024 featured a total of 25 artworks created between 2001 and 2023. The exhibition was divided into two sections: the first section titled "Flying with wild geese," showcasing works in oil paint and charcoal, and the second section titled "Bird of passage," featuring works exclusively in oil pastels.

About Artist → LIU Keng-I
Voice of Han Broadcasting Network → Listening

The Flight of Eyes - Flying with wild geese & Bird of passage - LIU Keng-I Solo Exhibition
Writing by Chen Yuchun

Liu Keng-I, who has spent half his life migrating like a bird, settled at the Apollo Gallery this spring, unveiling two recent exhibitions: 'Flying with Wild Geese' and 'Bird of Passage.' Simultaneously, many of Liu Keng-I's earlier and mid-career works were showcased at the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts in the exhibition 'Youthful Impressions: Collector Gong Yuye and Her Artist Friends.' Our eyes now follow Liu Keng-I's artworks from different periods, migrating north and south, flying in sync, exploring his direction of flight."

The majority of the content in both exhibitions, 'Flying with Wild Geese' and 'Bird of Passage,' maintains the imagery of migratory birds, elucidating Liu Keng-I's state of existence. Born in Japan, Liu Keng-I, now in his eighties, spent his childhood enduring World War II, and eventually settled in Tainan, Taiwan, after traversing between Japan, Taiwan, and New Zealand. Through his artworks, he documents the impact of environmental transitions on him, representing the historical traces of his journey through time and space, as well as his reflections on the broader environment."

Birds serve as significant motifs in Liu Keng-I's artworks, reflecting his desire for flight and freedom. He has likened himself to migratory birds, seeing his years of wandering between New Zealand and Taiwan as a reflection of their migratory patterns. In his works after 2020, birds appear even more frequently, symbolizing the circumstances of existence. They represent not only beautiful memories or aspirations but also metaphors for perilous situations. For instance, crows and other migratory birds frequently appear in his recent works.

Memory simultaneously draws Liu Keng-I towards the past and the future. A nursery rhyme taught by his Japanese mother, "Yūyake Koyake (Sunset)," brings back melodies to his mind, with lyrics that say, "The sun is setting, everyone hand in hand, following the crows back home together." He incorporates this memory of living through the turmoil of Tokyo during the war into his painting "Reunion of birds," where in a valley, he and the crows from his memories return home together. This is childhood continuing to live within him, yet it is also a childhood whose meaning constantly evolves.

Continuing, we follow the flock of crows in the dazzling twilight of "Evening mist," once a common sight in southern Taiwan, as remembered by Liu Keng-I. Now, due to significant environmental changes, they have almost vanished. In every era, certain things disappear, and old age bears witness to such disappearance. Witnessing the ecological changes, the ensuing sense of loss prompted him to record "Evening mist" Through these two memories/paintings, we reexperience the presence of crows. For him, it's both a revisiting and a representation of unease towards the unknown.

We also soar with the figures in "Flying with Wild Geese" and "Interwoven Time," feeling the painter's strong desire to float freely like birds. In "Time interwoven " the figure lying below suggests a resting place, where our gaze briefly halts, watching the painter floating in the sky, seemingly contemplating life's questions about birth, death, love, the body, and the soul.

Whether it's the silhouette of two figures soaring with the black geese in the twilight, or the hands spread like wings, floating in the coexisting time of dusk and dawn, we can see the intertwining of life imagery between humans and flying creatures (birds), conveying a sense of liberation. Take, for instance, "Bird of Passage, IV" where the black birds overhead cast enormous shadows over the buildings, a sense of oppression crossing the foreground, almost becoming an ominous hint of lurking threat. We begin to grasp the painter's fantasy of existence, built on the desire to escape from the heavy constraints of the world. Regardless of the form it takes, it reflects a burning desire for immortality or expresses the ultimate ideal through flight.

In his depictions, scenes, characters, and animals resemble colorful masses, with abundant contrasts and nearly fluorescent hues, adhering to the intense transformations of light and color. They are both emotional and anxious, manic yet sensitive. This allows us to clearly see the painter's contemplation and struggle. He feels like a transient bird passing through, with time he can describe shrinking while historical time expands. Faced with the passage of time, it ignites a certain inner tremor in him, as writer Henry James said: "Art is the struggle we display

Our eyes have taken a journey alongside this artist spanning the length of his life, witnessing his uninterrupted self-transformation within his paintings. Finally, we arrive at the "Bridge," where the sky is an extraordinary brick-red color. As we gaze towards the end of this "Bridge," we might anticipate what lies beyond, yet all we see is the unknown. This unknown stitches together imaginings from distant times and spaces. The artist has created this "Bridge," and we each interpret it based on our own experiences, memories, or illusions. Whether artist or viewer, we both reexperience existence through such connected imagery, as cultural historian Jacques Barzun suggests, "Rather than saying the artist discovers reality, it is better to say the artist creates reality.