Monday, November 30, 2015

Berkeley Central Arts Passage Gallery

Berkeley Central Arts Passage Gallery is a half-block long gallery in downtown Berkeley, nested inside a huge apartment compound, connecting two major streets full of major institutions such as  City College, Berkeley Repertory Theater, Aurora Theatre, Jazz School, and Freight and Salvage club.

A Berkeley gallery, Expressions Gallery, was entrusted to curate several recent shows for Arts Passage: "The Many Forms of Art", "Today's Artists Interact with Major Art Movements", and "Our Challenged Planet".

The Many Forms of Art surveyed many forms and the definition of those art forms, ranging from painting, drawing, sculpture and particularly the varieties of print making, as show in the video below:



Today's Artists Interact with Major Art Movements demonstrated how active artists were influenced by major art figures and movements in the past, and how they reacted and responded to the rich history:



Five of my paintings were included in that show.

IMG_1134 - The Triumph of Saint George - large
The Triumph of Saint George (Baroque)

IMG_1135 -Progress & Mackerel - large
Progression (Romanticism) and Mackerel (Realism)

IMG_1136 - In Distant Country - large
In Distant Country (Modern Art)

IMG_1137 - Siege - large
Siege (Neo-Expressionism)

Last week, the latest exhibition opened and my painting, Leisurely, was included in this "Our Challenged Planet exhibition, which ends on February 2, 2016:



IMG_2570 - Leisurely - large
Leisurely



Other Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:
- Changes Exhibition Opened at Expressions Gallery, Berkeley
- New York Gallery Wrap Up
- Art Show in the Gallery of Studio Trilogy, San Francisco
- "Golden Ages" Opening at Expressions Gallery, Berkeley
- Students' Show at Worth Rider Gallery, UC Berkeley

Thursday, November 19, 2015

My Favorite Artworks at Ca' Rezzonico, Venice

Venice has almost as many museums as its numerous Palazzi; one of these stately buildings stands along the Grand Canal is Ca' Rezzonico, whose art collections are fully in line with the peculiar tastes of the 18th century Venetians, decorative, precious, and a bit silly, but redeemed somewhat by whimsical playfulness and perhaps self-mockery.

The favorite piece I saw there was a fresco titled "Mondo Novo" by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, featuring vivid and even theatrical figures populating the streets in Venice, very much like those portrayed by the great Venetian Commedia dell'arte playwright Carlo Goldoni.

DSCN3002 _ Ca' Rezzonico, Venezia, 15 October

My second favorite was a bas-relief, Priamo chiede ad Achille (Priam Implores Achilles), a poignant and messy scene presented in restraint, manifested in those cleanly rendered classical lines:

DSCN2992 _ Priamo chiede ad Achille, Antonio Canova, Cà Rezzonico, Venezia, 15 October


My Favorite Museum Collection Series
>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 108: My Favorite Artworks at Ca' d'Oro, Venezia (Venice)
<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 106: My Favorite Artworks at Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venezia (Venice)

List of My Favorite Artworks in the Museums I've Visited

Other Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:
- Famed Palaces and Houses (Ca') in Venice
- Guggenheim Museum Collections
- Two Museums in Venice - Gallerie dell'Accademia & Collezione Peggy Guggenheim
- Il Ghetto di Venezia and Museo Ebraico (Jewish Museum) in Venice
- Bridges in Venice, Italy
- San Giorgio Maggiore, Il Redentore, Scuola e Chise Grande di San Rocco, Venezia
- Magical Piazza San Marco in Venice
- Teatro La Fenice di Venezia (La Fenice Theatre in Venice)

Saturday, November 14, 2015

My Featured Work: Sorrow and Suffering, a Diptych Commemorating the Tragedies of our Time

Human history is sadly saturated with sorrow and suffering, a theme resonates strongly with me. In 2003, I made a diptych of oil paintings, titled "Sorrow and Suffering", to record the pain people suffered and will suffer at the hands of ruthless and/or reckless political leaders, when George W. Bush was brandishing his excuse to invade Iraq.

Diptych - Sorrow and Suffering / 雙面圖 - 悲哀和苦難 / Diptychon - Traurigkeit und Leiden  
Sorrow and Suffering
Oil on Canvas 
Completed in 2003

Since that fateful invasion, the unstable Mideast became ever more explosive and the human suffering ever escalated. Yesterday a series of concerted attacks on civilians in the great city Paris shocked and saddened the civilized world and this diptych expresses my feeling aptly.

Originally posted on my website: Featured Works.

Related posts on Art · 文化 · Kunst:
- My Featured Work - Portrait Painting "Grandma"

- "Arabesque" and Other Paintings Inspired by Literature
- A Portrait - First Painting Completed in 2012 - Matthew Felix Sun
- "Sibyls" - Portraits of Old Women
- "Diptych - Dawn" Won Another Award - Matthew Felix Sun

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

My Favorite Artworks at Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venezia (Venice)

Collezione Peggy Guggenheim (Peggy Guggenheim Collection), located in an unfinished 18th-century palace, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, boasts many modern masterpieces ranging in style from Cubism and Surrealism to Abstract Expressionism.

One of my favorite work there was a sculpture in the garden: The Cloven Viscount (Il visconte dimezzato) by Mimmo Paladino, which was simultaneously formal and fluid, familiar and strange, comforting and unsettling.  The figure, installed inside a small square brick confinement, in a small pile of gravels, was unassuming and even humble, but his intentionally stiff posture, resembling age-dried twigs, bore the traces of the ravage of time and wearying journey. 

DSCN2977 _ The Cloven Viscount (Il visconte dimezzato), Mimmo Paladino, 1998, Collezione Peggy Guggenheim
The Cloven Viscount (Il visconte dimezzato), Mimmo Paladino, 1998

My second favorite work was a painting by Giogiro de Chirico, titled The Red Tower, in the typical style of the highly individual artist - subtly yet strikingly contrasting colors, enigmatic landscape and cityscape, opaque symbols and overwhelming sense of desolation and loneliness.  The focal point of the work, the Red Tower, was really a foreboding fortress squatting somewhat in the background, and held secrets the artists refused to divulge.

 DSCN2881 _ The Red Tower (La Tour rouge), Giorgio de Chirico, 1913, Collezione Peggy Guggenheim, 15 October
The Red Tower (La Tour rouge), Giorgio de Chirico, 1913


My Favorite Museum Collection Series
>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 107: My Favorite Artworks at Ca' Rezzonico, Venice
<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 105: My Favorite Artifacts in Il Ghetto and Museo Ebraico (Jewish Museum) in Venice

List of My Favorite Artworks in the Museums I've Visited

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- Guggenheim Museum Collections
- The Frick Collection
- "The Steins Collect" Exhibit in San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)
- Introduction to Fisher Collection and the 75th Anniversary Exhibit at SFMOMA
- Anderson Collection at Stanford University

Monday, November 2, 2015

Administrative Building Sproul Hall at UC Berkeley


DSCN0295 _ Sproul Hall, UC Berkeley - 500

Till today, for exactly the duration of one year, my office at UC Berkeley was temporarily relocated to the central administrative building, Sproul Hal, a grand old building located in front of the landmark main entrance, Sather Gate. 

Every morning, I enjoyed the absolute quietness before the campus stirred back to vivid life when students started to flood in.

DSCN4457 _ Administrative building, Sproul Hall, UC Berkeley

DSCN0728 _ Sproul Hall, UC Berkeley

DSCN4461 _ Lamp outside Sproul Hall, UC Berkeley

DSCN8558 _ Sproul Hall, UC Berkeley IMG_1969 _ Sproul Hall

My affection for this neoclassical building not only lies on its beautiful proportion and serene orders, but many seemingly insignificant corners both within and without the building, often at some particular hours, such as the intricate shadows cast by the staircases by the morning sun, or the front lobby after a day's bustle:

DSCN4535 _ Lobby, Sproul Hall, UC Berkeley

DSCN1295 _ Sproul Hall, UC Berkeley

DSCN1302 _ Sproul Hall, UC Berkeley

DSCN1301 _ Sproul Hall, UC Berkeley

DSCN1299 _ Sproul Hall, UC Berkeley

DSCN1297 _ Sproul Hall, UC Berkeley

DSCN1304 _ Sproul Hall, UC Berkeley

Outside classrooms and student residential halls, Sproul Plaza is often the center of student life, such as noontime musical performances, or civic protests on issues ranging from environment, tuition and national or global politics:

Jazz at Sproul UC Berkeley
Jazz at Sproul

November 11, 2011 - Protest at Cal _ 7964
Protest in front of Sproul Hall, Sproul Plaza, November 11, 2011

DSCN0354 _ Free Speech Movement 50th Anniversary, UC Berkeley
Free Speech Movement 50th Anniversary, 2014

DSCN0346 _ Mock Guantánamo Prison Cell, Free Speech Movement 50th Anniversary, UC Berkeley
Mock Guantánamo Prison Cell, Free Speech Movement 50th Anniversary, 2014

I'll miss my old temporary office.  Ciao.

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- California Memorial Stadium of UC Berkeley
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- Free Speech Movement 50th Anniversary (FSM 50) Rally at UC Berkeley
- Students' Show at Worth Rider Gallery, UC Berkeley
- Partial Messiah and 12 Celli Concert in Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley
- UC Berkeley Staff Showcased Art and Craft Works
- Art Students at UC Berkeley Spoke Up
- Angelic Voice - Philippe Jaroussky at Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley