Hanart TZ Gallery is pleased to present “Geometry of the Spirit: 50 Years of Leung Kui-Ting”, opening on 14 November, 6-8 pm at Pedder Building, exhibition till 27 December. Significant pieces throughout 50 years of Leung’s artistic career will be on display at Hanart Square , Kwai Chung while new works done in 2014 at Hanart TZ Gallery. An impressive work 360 degree landscape that is about one meter high and 33 meters circumference, which will go on display at Hanart Square.

Leung Kui-Ting was born in 1945,Guangzhou. He moved to Hong Kong with his family at the age of 3. He was a carpenter at young age and studied paiting under Lui Shou Kwan in 1964. He graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and studied Design under Wucius Wong. He was the part-time lecturer at the Hong Kong Polytechnic and now the Principal and Director of Academic Affairs of Hong Kong Chingying Institute of Visual Art, also the Honarary Advisor to the Leisure and Cultural Service Department, Hong Kong.

Leung thinks of the period from 1960 to 2000 as his period of study and exploration: and therefore he regards this period as the ‘cause’ of his artistic life. The year 2000 was a watershed year for him: this is when he entered into the ‘effects’ phase of his creative life, after many years of development and refinement.

In the 1960s, he experimented with the creation of a kind of hybrid perspective, integrating elements of Western and Chinese perspective theory to create new visual effects. He also experimented with using dyes on paper, folding and sewing, printmaking and Minimalist interventions in the picture plane. But even as he was working on pieces that seemed “Western”, he was also attempting to reflect a deepening understanding of Chinese philosophy in his art, creating his own theory in which geometric construction was the bone (骨) , material was the flesh (肉), and texture as the spirit (神).

In the early 70s, he experimented with mixing calligraphy and oils pastel together, he attempted to explore a new state of varied textural forms and their effects on paper. In 1975, he travelled to the United States, and was inspired by Impressionism as well as many other school of thoughts, which enriched and deepened his understanding of Western art. At that moment, he realized that his path to art would a challenging and arduous journey, and he undertook a long period of study of Western art theory and philosophy in order to build a stronger conceptual foundation.

In the early 1980s, he embarked on an intensive period of travel that refreshed him visually and mentally. Eventually he turned to a concentration on Chinese ink painting and turned his attention to a deeper study of Chinese aesthetics and painting theory. From then until now, he has focused mainly on Chinese ink painting (shuimo) and on the creation of my own style of landscape art (shanshui). He travelled to many different parts of China where acquaintance with the mainland masters allowed him to be re-energized with new inspirations. He devoted myself fully to the practice of traditional brushstroke, at the same time exploring new approaches to spatial aesthetics and the integration of geometric forms into the compositional plane. And of course he has also continued to read extensively in the areas of Chinese philosophy and aesthetics.

Since 2000, his works began to embrace a new, integrated narrative, where the contemporary became organically infused with the traditional. The broken-ink line that emerged as an important texture stroke in his art at this time is a symbol inspired by Chinese calligraphy but transformed into a new language. Nowadays people have a comparatively different understanding and interpretation of nature: one can see the world from the heights of an airplane and the landscape from many different perspectives. In his new compositions, he began to create a new methodology to reflect this contemporary view.

In Leung’s recent creative work, he has been focusing on three themes including, Landscape and Nature, to express in a new and transformative way the concept of my holistic relationship with Heaven (or cosmos), which is essentially a life-view; The Language of Stones, emphasize the structural elements of the stone to create interior worlds which are both complex and strange in some ways expressing the chaos and confusion of history; 3-D Installation, to show a transition from two-dimensional pictorial space to three-dimensional space, and to construct a pathway from illusion to reality.