A splendid exhibition of paintings by Mo Chen entitled “Mountain and Water” opened December 2, 2017 at the Research House for Asian Art in Chicago (RHAA). RHAA has introduced many superb artists from China and elsewhere in Asia to the Chicago cultural community. Mo Chen, a graduate of SAIC, has presented an exhibition that demonstrates a high quality. I was astonished by the brilliance of this exhibition.

Ms. Chen demonstrates a delicacy of judgment that guides her spontaneous but practiced, exacting hand. It is a quality of judgment informed by her knowing eye. Her artistry reveals a sensibility rooted in Eastern art – in Chinese landscape painting and precise Zen gesture. Yet she has also assimilated qualities found in American Abstract Expressionist painting. East and West are fused in her work just at the place where these qualities are most naturally confluent.

One long wall of the gallery featured a suite of large, fluid paintings, where her full improvisational gesture was given room to breathe. Her delicate strokes of color create an atmosphere that lends her paintings the depth of misty landscapes. These spaces are populated with eccentricities that suggest habitation. The images evoke a fantastical and surreal world in which one simultaneously feels aloft in the air and submerged underwater.

On the opposite wall was a series of small works that were more succinct and immediate.

These pieces conveyed visual wit, much like Zen koans—enigmatic, cunning, and sometimes humorous.

At the rear of the gallery, a recurring video by Mo Chen enveloped the entire wall. Slowly shifting, sometimes zooming images of her paintings dissolved into one another almost seamlessly, evoking a sense of water or moisture-laden air. Interwoven into this fluid world were small floating elements that suggested birds soaring through the atmosphere or fish gliding through an aquatic expanse.

The overall effect of the exhibition was stunning. It functioned as a cohesive, integrated whole.

Mo Chen is already a force to be reckoned with—a young artist with a very promising future.

Tony Phillips

Professor

School of the Art Institute of Chicago

aphillips@saic.edu

2017年12月2日，在芝加哥亚洲艺术研究所（RHAA）举办了陈默的首场个人画展，名为 “屴沧”. 此前RHAA已向芝加哥艺术界介绍了许多来自中国和其它亚太地区的优秀艺术家们 。毕业于芝加哥艺术学院的陈默，向大家呈现了一场极高质量的展览。 我为这次展览的精彩而震惊！

陈默展现出一种精致敏锐的判断力，引导着她那自发而严谨熟练的手。她画作的质量体现在她的“判断力”，透过她知晓一切的眼睛。她的艺术性向观众揭示了东方艺术中与生俱来的一种感性——蕴藏在中国山水画中的澹然禅意。而与此同时，她也吸收了美国抽象表现主义绘画中丰富的特质。东西方品质以最自然融汇的状态，贯通在她的作品中。

在画廊的一面长墙上挂着一系列数幅以水性媒介绘成的大幅画作。她的即兴创作姿态在这些作品里被赋予了呼吸的空间。她的每一笔色彩笔触变化精微，营造出一种空气，一种氛围，使她的画面像迷雾中的风景一般具有深度。这些奇形异态的空间被古怪地刻画，表明其中有生灵居住。画面显示了一个奇妙而超现实的世界。在这个世界里，人们有一种飘悬于空中的感觉；与此同时，也有一种置身于水下的感觉。

在对面的长墙上陈列了一系列更简洁、更直接的小作品。这些小品表达了视觉上的智慧，就像禅宗公案一样——神秘而狡黠，有时很戏谑。

环抱画廊后面一整面墙的是反复播放的一段由陈默制作的视频。我们看到她的画慢慢移动，时远时近，无缝地衔接产生了水的感觉，或者可能是潮湿的空气。进入这个环境的是一些细小的漂浮物，仿佛是在暗示鸟儿在大气中翱翔，或者是鱼儿在她流动的视野中游动。

整个展览的效果令人惊叹！它是一个综合的整体，完整展现了陈默。作为一位前程远大的青年艺术家，陈默展现出让人重视的力量。

Tony Phillips

芝加哥艺术学院教授

aphillips@saic.edu