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SU MENG-HUNG 蘇 孟 鴻 |
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Su Meng-Hung, born in Taipei, Taiwan in 1976. Lives and works in Taipei, Taiwan Su Meng-Hung graduated from the National Changhua University of Education, Taiwan, and Goldsmiths College, University of London. He received his PhD from the Tainan National University of the Arts, Taiwan. His 2003 solo exhibition Kai Dao Tu Mi at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, garnered critical attention. In 2008, he participated in Expenditure: Busan Biennale (Busan, Korea). Su Meng-Hung works across such mediums as painting, silkscreen printing, installation, and sculpture in a creative process that manifests his attempt to transform traditional Chinese imagery of flowers and birds into a visual vocabulary of gaudy and grandiose icons, or into a cultural language of sensuous and appealing symbols. He often adapts elements of flowers and birds from the work of late Qing-dynasty painters. These visual symbols are not merely driven by the artist’s desire to ridicule social codes, or to popularize the symbols in mass culture. Instead of merely representing the taste of the aristocracy and literati instantiated by these flowers and birds, he blends the contradictory forces of contemporary visual experience. This allows the viewer, while identifying cultural symbols, to enter an open or closed system, engaged in a way of thinking that hearkens back to a historical era that has long gone. If we see the blending of East and West in Giuseppe Castiglione’s painting style, then Su Meng-Hung, on the other hand, grapples with the materiality of pigments using techniques such as simulation, xipi (literally meaning rhinoceros hide, a term describing marbled lacquer surface, formed by layers of differently colored lacquer applied to an uneven surface), mother-of-pearl inlay, even cloisonné. His work ultimately responds to the re-amalgamation of Eastern and Western craft histories, while interrogating the production of art within capitalism. Su’s notable solo exhibitions include Self-Exoticism, Tina Keng Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan (2021); Xiang Nai Er, Tina Keng Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan (2019); A Painter of the Empire, Tina Keng Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan (2016); Poppy, Golden Lotus, Dopamine, Tina Keng Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan (2012); and Unreachable Blooming, IT Park, Taipei, Taiwan (2007). He has also participated in international exhibitions and biennials, including Dialogue on Printmaking — The Taiwan-U.S. Exchange Exhibition, Taiwan Academy, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York, New York, U.S. (2016); Taipei Biennial (2014), Taiwan; and Jam — Cultural Congestions in Contemporary Asian Art, South Hill Park Art Centre, Bracknell, U.K. (2009). 蘇孟鴻，1976年出生於台灣台北，現居、創作於台灣台北
畢業於彰化師範大學美術系、英國倫敦藝術大學金匠學院，畢業於台南藝術大學藝術創作理論博士班。2007年於韓國高陽藝術村駐村期間被當地美術館與策展人注意，所創作的《開到荼靡之變形記》參加2008年釜山雙年展，是國內少數以繪畫見長受邀參展的年輕藝術家。2003年應邀於台北當代藝術館以個展形式展出挪用明清花鳥畫的「開到荼靡」系列。 從蘇孟鴻的繪畫、絹印版畫、裝置與雕塑的創作歷程，可看出他試圖將中國傳統的花鳥畫和其裝飾紋改造成一種艷俗浮誇的視覺圖象；或者用立體裝置的方式，將它們變成一種近似感官訴求的文化符號。作品中經常挪用清代中晚期畫家的花鳥元素，其圖像符號並不單純是社會符碼的嘲諷與普普化，而是將這些花鳥代表的貴族與文人品味，與當代視覺經驗異質且矛盾的作用力融合；令觀者於辨識文化與符號的同時，以回到當下的歷史思考方式進入開放或封閉的系統。如果說人們在郎世寧的畫風中看見中西合筆，蘇孟鴻則是從模擬變塗、螺鈿，甚至掐絲琺瑯等工藝技法處理顏料的物質性呈現，回應東西方工藝歷史的重新配種，也對資本主義中的藝術生產畫上一個問號。 個展經歷包括「異己國情調」（耿畫廊，台北，2021）、「香．奈．兒」（耿畫廊，台北，2019）、「帝國畫師」（耿畫廊，台北，2016）、「罌粟．金蓮．多巴胺」（耿畫廊，台北，2012）、「開不到荼靡 — 以蘇孟鴻為名」（伊通公園，台北，2007）；聯展經歷包括「版面．對話 — 台美版畫交流展」（紐約台灣書院，駐紐約台北文化中心，紐約，2016）、台北雙年展（2014）、「反堵：亞洲當代藝術的壅塞文化」（南坡公園藝術中心，布拉克內爾，英國，2009）。 |
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