Taipei | Peng Kanglong: (In/Ex)haling the Vast Wilderness

INKstudio is excited to announce Peng Kanglong's return to The Historical Grand Courtyard in the Da'an District of Taipei in his first solo exhibition since his American debut during Asia Week New York in the Spring of 2023 and his Mainland Chinese debut at INKstudio, Beijing in the Fall of that same year.  In his New York debut, Peng Kanglong captured the attention of American scholars such as Marc F. Wilson, former Director of the Nelson-Atkins Museum, and the New York Times which observed, "Peng Kanglong, who studied ink painting at Taipei National University of the Arts, [takes] inspiration from 17th-century monks as well as from a more recent predecessor like Huang Binhong (1865-1955); the lush scenes that result feel like contemporary rejoinders to an ancient conversation." Then, in Beijing, his distinctive synthesis of the traditional landscape and flower genres drew focused curatorial attention from Wang Shaoqiang, Director of the Guangdong Museum of Art, Deng Feng, curator at the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC), Alan Yeung, curator of ink art at M+ Museum in Hong Kong, and Stephen Little, curator of Chinese art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

The exhibition's title "(In/Ex)haling the Vast Wilderness", refers to the lines "观花匪禁，吞吐大荒" from the Twenty-four Verses on Poetry by the Tang Dynasty poet Sikong Tu (837-908) evoking the experience of viewing Peng Kanglong's unique synthesis of flower and landscape painting. The exhibition features all new works created by the artist since his last solo exhibition in 2023 including three new monumental compositions: Thousand Blossom Revolution, Indigo Dance, The Swan's Ascent. An extraordinary, breakthrough painting in color, form, texture and space: By Any Other Name. New, major compositions in the artist's signature flower-landscape style in a range of chromatic approaches including…Classic ink monochrome: Mahler's Fifth, A Thicket of Thorns, Dustless, Spirit on the Branch, Mountain Path. Peng Kanglong's distinctive color monochrome: Glowing Sunset, The Flower of Snow, Rejuvenation, Frequent Rain. Color-and-ink diachrome: Water Flows Gather, Umbilical Cord Blooming, Burning Bramble, Flower Beast, Efflorescence. Color-and-color diachrome: Bottom Up Blues, Green's Envy, Blazing Glory, Rose Smoke, The Ardent Mob. Color diachrome with ink: Pink Seduction, Soaring, New Life, After the Dew, Secluded View. And vivid color polychrome: Versace Pink.

"(In/Ex)haling the Vast Wilderness" will be followed in November of this year by his first major museum solo retrospective, entitled "Peng Kanglong: Beguiling the Eye", at the Guangdong Museum of Art. The exhibition at The Historical Grand Courtyard thus represents a unique opportunity for the Taiwanese public to see the newest creations by one of its most important living artists in the lead up to his debut museum exhibition in Mainland China.