“Origin” depicts a new world transcending time and form. The coordinated brushstrokes allow different shape to maintain their fluid states, creating a natural order that balance each part, without interfering each other. At the center of the composition, a willow-like pink element dominates the overall structure, preceding all other elements. It precedes the huge pink moon and the glowing lake, the sprawling mountains and the breaking dawn. It is a crack that transforms the landscape into a physical body, an organ that produces an alternative mental dimension. “Origin” is the only painting with rich colors of acrylic and oil paints in Breath: A Solo Exhibition by Hung Zhen-You, presented by PTT Space. From the context of the artist’s practice, it seems to be a new world the artist has depicted for himself, while the works done before and after “Origin” feature basic elements communicating in black and white. The light in the painting is like the meridian formed by the intersection of different individual consciousness. It is reminiscent of the exploration of spirituality and the higher self in the works of Swedish painter Hilma af Klint. However, what makes Hung Zhen-You’s paintings unique is his ability to maintain the flow and rhythm of Chinese calligraphy and painting in his work. This may be another reason he named the exhibition “Breath”—to recalibrate from the most fundamental ground within the limitations.

Throughout his artist career, Hung has consistently attempted to depict the transparency of objects and energy, regardless of abstract or figurative painting. The artist, who gained fame for his exquisite photorealistic oil painting techniques, has been exploring the depiction of energy and objects beyond physical appearances. This inevitably brings to mind the glazing technique he applied to his early oil painting and his painstaking depiction of transparent water ripples. Subsequently, Hung Zhen-You has also dramatized light and odor in his recent works, allowing them to permeate the scenes. The sudden change in style and visual vocabulary in the works of Breath reveals the artist’s readiness to move to the next phase of his creative career.

In the next phase, the powdery texture of charcoal, the fluidity of acrylic paint, and the lustrous shading of oil paint harmonize to create a sense of transparency that penetrates through the physical world. The composition consists of gradations of color and meridian-like lines. In terms of the significance of art practices, “breath” signifies the regulation of the overall meridians and nodes in the painting. It originates from the time Hung spent painting in a quarantine hotel during the pandemic. When I viewed the new works with Hung in his studio, he recalled that he took the basic material, charcoal and paper, with him for convenient reasons to the quarantine hotel. Faced with the same view from the window during quarantine and the longing to reunite with his wife, the artist returned to charcoal drawings, which he hadn’t done for nearly six years. Occasionally, he would mediate in the room, allowing self-awareness to go with his consciousness while painting, allowing the image to calmly delve inward.

“I used to paint whatever came to mind, but now I start with drawing. The act allows me to be more precise when deciding what to include in the second layer on the canvas. This precision is different from what I used to achieve; it is a mental precision.”

Hung Zhen-You in his studio, 28 March, 2023.