“磅礴：杨识宏作品展”是艺术家杨识宏在广东美术馆的首次集中展示，也是继2015年东京上野之森美术馆个展之后的又一次创作梳理与深度呈现。本次展览由广东美术馆主办，亚洲艺术中心为支持机构，美国探索频道（Discovery Channel）作为视频提供，王绍强馆长担任策划，殷双喜、王端廷、彭锋担任学术支持，共计展出二十余件巨幅画作，涵盖艺术家近年来的绘画创作和文献史料，包括有关创作之珍贵信札、手稿、照片以及七八十年代报刊杂志，立体地呈现了杨识宏的绘画发展轨迹及抽象创作历程。
杨识宏1947年出生于台湾，1968年毕业于台湾艺专美术科（现台湾艺术大学），1979年移居美国。他是第一位获得纽约现代艺术博物馆（MoMA）P.S.1当代艺术中心“国家工作室”计划奖助的华人艺术家。1989年获得“杰出亚裔艺术家奖”。杨识宏的艺术创作涵盖摄影、版画、素描、水墨、陶瓷、绘画等诸多领域。其对“生命意义的探讨”是创作思考的主轴。他的艺术经历了一个从具象到抽象的发展历程：从最初对自我“存在”的反思；到“都市文化”的批判；及80年代旅美后涉及“后现代的浪漫与象征主义”；至90年代开启以“植物美学”为抽象绘画创作风格；2000年以后则开始于内在世界的精神性探讨。
本次展出的巨幅画作气韵生动、气势磅礴，展现了东方绘画的含蓄与诗意，杨识宏对于中国书法的理解亦转化为抽象艺术的用笔源泉，其创作体现出一种东方式的深厚内蕴与精神平衡。
在创作的同时，杨识宏也担任传播艺术知识的重任，他所撰写的《现代美术新潮》于1987年出版，介绍西方艺坛最新的思潮、理论，为许多艺术家提供了深度的介绍及启发。2013年美国Discovery Channel探索频道邀请杨识宏为华人艺术绘画类的代表人物，以他的创作生命为题摄制《华人艺术纪》专题节目，于全球播放。其作品曾被美国阿尔德里奇当代艺术博物馆、亨廷顿美术馆、阿肯色艺术中心、纽约市立大学、新加坡美术馆、台湾美术馆、台北市立美术馆、广东美术馆等重要机构收藏。杨识宏几十年来的绘画创作对抽象与具象、东方与西方、传统及当下的辩证与思索，不仅在其创作生涯留下深刻轨迹，同时也成就了他极富个人特色的绘画美学。
“This is the longest course, returning to where we started.” ––Parangalan (De-Fu HU), ‘The Longest Course’
Etan Pavavalung’s solo exhibition Mountain Winds Remain Sweetly Fragrant at Asia Art Center (Taipei) from September 14 to November 10, 2024, continues the concept from his solo show The Fragrant Mountain Winds at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM) in 2014. That exhibition was Etan’s first solo exhibition after Typhoon Morakot, and was also the first large-scale and coherent solo exhibition in his artistic career.
After a decade, the solo exhibition Mountain Winds Remain Sweetly Fragrant uses “winds” and “spiritual birds” as metaphors to represent Etan’s aesthetic worldview. In Etan’s aesthetic, spiritual birds symbolize a kind of eternal existence. Even as time brings irresistible change, vitality, and decline to all things, spiritual birds still guide us a path and ensure that the winds from the mountains remain fragrant, just as they have always been.
Typhoon Morakot in 2009 severely destroyed the Paridrayan tribe where Etan lived, and the resettlement after the disaster also caused him to reflect the bond between humans and the natural environment. For Etan, Typhoon Morakot impacted him deeply; even though he had long utilized his art to advocate for indigenous rights, the typhoon damage leading him to embrace art as a means of spiritual rebuilding—not only for his original Paridrayan tribe but also to maintain spiritual belonging after the disaster. After Morakot, Etan and his community relocated to the Rinari Permanent Housing Community, which combining three tribes from different groups of Paridrayan, Makazayazaya and Kucapungane. Although they now lived in “permanent” housings, many, including Etan, still longed to return to their original homes in the mountains. “Water from the tribal homeland, tasty so very! Along the creek as the wind picks up, how fragrant it is!” Inspired by an elder’s ancient chant that recalled the fragrance of the wind on the mountain, Etan used his unique “Trace Layer Carve Paint” technique to transform traditional Paiwan patterns into a contemporary visual and narrative system. This process, akin to the accumulation of ancient language and cultural education, Tjasiumalj tjasiumalj (means repetition after repetition), allows Etan to communicate with the past while bringing those ideas into the contemporary.
Since Etan’s 2014 solo exhibition at TFAM, “winds” have consistently been a fundamental element in Etan Pavavalung’s art. Winds are like messengers, bringing hope, sustaining life and soothing pain. The path guided by the spiritual bird is also hidden within the wind. Like the scent brought by the wind in the ancient chant, the meticulous wind patterns connect each narrative in his works, intricately linked and inseparable. Inspired by that ancient chant, Etan wrote a poem capturing the essence of the wind’s message:
These sights, these events
They are engraved into a typhoon-ravaged land
I want to head up the mountains
Letting my heart follow the wind
Chasing the musical notes in my souls
Notes that compose the odes of the creeks
I want to be cloaked once more
By the colorful singing winds
Lingering in my dreams
The ever-fragrant winds of the mountains.
The exhibition title Mountain Winds Remain Sweetly Fragrant echoes Etan’s poem and serves as a response to the elder’s reminder, reflecting his desire for spiritual reconstruction over the past decade. Through this exhibition, Etan not only reconstructs the spiritual and cultural path in his heart but also maintains a connection to his homeland through art and action.
This exhibition spans nearly a decade of Etan’s artistic thoughts, guided by the dual concepts of “winds” and “spiritual birds,” leading viewers to search their own sacred mountains. The works on display include his most well-known “Trace Layer Carve Paint” pieces, newly created mixed media works and slate carvings, as well as several pieces that were part of the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in Australia in 2021. And a remarkable large-scale work Flyng, created in 2017, which has toured internationally. This piece, with its clear and concise composition, depicts a spiritual bird flying in the wind, reflecting the primary imagery in Etan’s artistic journey and is a hallmark of his “Trace Layer Carve Paint” aesthetic. The word “Remain” in the exhibition title not only reflects Etan Pavavalung’s artistic origins but also symbolizes that the tribe in the mountain that once blew the fragrant wind is no longer an unreachable place. Thought time flied, Etan seeks to convey through this exhibition that the mountain winds remain sweetly fragrant.
