Pan Gongkai
Pan Gongkai links the innovation of 20th century Chinese ink artists with the concerns of contemporary fine art. He was raised by a prominent artist family and has been an advocate for indigenous art traditions in China since childhood. By using classical ink techniques, often on a large scale, Gongkai reveals the “unmannered splendor” of his medium with an abstract bent. The artist often works with spontaneous gesture, generating works that are expressive yet delicately merge Eastern and Western traditions in art. His imagery has been transcribed to video, as was the case in the 2011 Venice Biennale, where literal animation amplifies the energy of Gongkai’s marks. Ink has allowed Chinese artists to reflect upon periods of social turmoil for centuries—Gongkai supports the unique place this media has in his culture, and the way it has sculpted its own version of art history. He channels the narrative of Chinese ink through his globalized insight to reinvigorate the medium.
Gongkai has exhibited at the Frye Art Museum, Seattle, Paris headquarters of UNESCO, ZKM, Karlsruhe, Shanghai Art Museum, China, Chinese Art Center, San Francisco, CAFA Museum, Shanghai, Czech National Museum of Art, Prague, Asia Art Center, Beijing, and a number of …
Pan Gongkai links the innovation of 20th century Chinese ink artists with the concerns of contemporary fine art. He was raised by a prominent artist family and has been an advocate for indigenous art traditions in China since childhood. By using classical ink techniques, often on a large scale, Gongkai reveals the “unmannered splendor” of his medium with an abstract bent. The artist often works with spontaneous gesture, generating works that are expressive yet delicately merge Eastern and Western traditions in art. His imagery has been transcribed to video, as was the case in the 2011 Venice Biennale, where literal animation amplifies the energy of Gongkai’s marks. Ink has allowed Chinese artists to reflect upon periods of social turmoil for centuries—Gongkai supports the unique place this media has in his culture, and the way it has sculpted its own version of art history. He channels the narrative of Chinese ink through his globalized insight to reinvigorate the medium.
Gongkai has exhibited at the Frye Art Museum, Seattle, Paris headquarters of UNESCO, ZKM, Karlsruhe, Shanghai Art Museum, China, Chinese Art Center, San Francisco, CAFA Museum, Shanghai, Czech National Museum of Art, Prague, Asia Art Center, Beijing, and a number of other international venues. He represented China in the 2011 Venice Biennale.