From August 3 to September 22, 2023, Artnutri Gallery held a joint exhibition titled "The Shelter of the Most High," featuring works by four artists: Tseng Yanyi (Shenti Shandao), Liu Wenqi, Hugh Clemons, and Thomas Devaux.
Tseng Yanyi (Shenti Shandao) often creates three-dimensional works centered around human figures, using materials such as wood carving and ceramic sculpture, with occasional additions of metal. In choosing materials, Zeng Yanyi first considers not the potential of form but the temperature felt by the skin when touching the surface. For him, the temperature of wood is closest to human body temperature, while ceramic, having been fired, retains a sense of heat. Thus, these two materials more readily evoke warmth and vitality. The works exhibited this time are themed around "stillness." The figures, as in past works, have elongated forms with high necks and sloping shoulders, and downcast eyes. Birds landing on fingertips display gentle movement; their wings unfurled contrast with the figure's refined features and tranquil expression, bringing a delicate inner resonance to the viewer.
Liu Wenqi also chose ceramic as her medium, but instead of three-dimensional works, she creates shallow reliefs that are between flat and three-dimensional. The works are often suspended on the wall like framed paintings and presented as rectangular planes. Ceramic clay is easier to shape than wooden frames, so the edges of the planes often use a rectangular base, with slight variations at some corners. These corner shapes recall decorative panels in classical architecture and frames in classical painting that resemble window frames. Occasionally, the ceramic plates exhibit imprints resembling the mottled traces on ancient marble buildings, with weathered, worn edges that resemble remnants of ancient architecture. The surfaces often feature reliefs simplified from flowers or indoor spaces, with shadows of branches or window frames, creating a sense of shifting reality and illusion.
Hugh Clemons, inspired by the "Vanitas" still life paintings from the Baroque period in the Netherlands, began to self-study painting. His works employ a multi-layered glazing technique learned from traditional oil painting, creating a transparent and clear spatial effect that feels as if preserving air. The paintings have a glossy, enamel-like finish. The works exhibited depict square chairs at the center of the canvas. The empty chair implies the absence of a person. Even if a person were seated on the chair, the solid and durable-looking chair, made of materials like concrete, stone, or wood, still implies an anticipated absence of the person in the future. Light often comes from the upper left, and the long shadows stretch from the front-right of the chair toward the viewer, seemingly reminding viewers of a shared human fate.
Thomas Devaux uses photography as his medium but presents works closer to abstract painting. He attempts to capture the silhouettes of consumers projecting their desires on supermarket shelves and uses programmatic calculations or color-separating glass to blur the images into color blocks. Commercial images produced to stimulate consumption compete for clarity to capture the consumer's limited attention in an instant. However, Thomas Devaux takes the opposite approach. He retains vividly contrasting colors but blurs the contours of the images to dissolve any recognizable shapes until everything seems to merge into a halo. He creates a visual path that leads simultaneously to the sacred and the profane. Viewers moving through this path can contemplate their inner desires and fervor.
Overall, the works of the four artists in this exhibition include Zeng Yanyi and Liu Wenqi, who create three-dimensional works, and Hugh Clemons and Thomas Devaux, who use flat media. However, both Tseng Yanyi and Hugh Clemons aim to transcend the physical forms or material representations of their creations to explore deeper meanings—whether it be the pursuit of a warm, tranquil soul or the fragile essence of life. In contrast, Liu Wenqi and Thomas Devaux prefer to create works that blur the boundaries of "material" and "visual image." The difference is that Liu Wenqi's blurring evokes a harmonious feeling, while Thomas Devaux's blurring brings a meditative calm after fervor. As the works of the four artists each reflect values that are difficult to articulate through various aspects of tranquility, loss, harmony, and reflection, the exhibition is titled "The Shelter of the Most High." It aims to evoke each viewer's inner experiences that they have lived through but never attempted to articulate.
