Huang Zhiyang

Born 1965 in Taipei,Taiwan, Huang Zhiyang graduated from the Taipei Chinese Cultural University in 1989 majoring in Chinese traditional ink painting. He is renowned for his ink and oil paintings of repetitive triangular organic shapes, a form he has employed in his works, from figurative scroll paintings, to the phallic sculptures shown in the Taiwan Pavilion at the 1995 Venice Biennale.

Huang’s triangular shapes are the artist’s abstract expression of patterns found on leaves and in microscopic views of bacteria. They are likewise a reference to the texture stroke technique employed in ink landscape paintings and sculptures combining a traditional technique with contemporary aesthetic.

“….In my view, it's always important to consider matters from the vantage point of a bit of time and distance. Consequently, I tend to view life from the sidelines, deliberately maintaining some distance from the mainstream, seemingly "drifting away" from the main currents of every day life.

"Drifting away" for me, usually means questioning my surroundings and the status quo. You could say I've developed an attitude towards life that I adhere to, where I intentionally keep some distance from the mainstream and from what might be considered central to others. For most, contemporary art is widely accepted as integral to every day life. However, this does not mean that trends in contemporary art can solve all of life's problems nor become part of the mainstream.

Most so-called "Contemporary Art" is no more than a byproduct or phenomenon needed to meet the demands of the marketplace and our endless appetite for the latest consumer products and spectacle. Today, much of "Contemporary Art" never goes beyond creating faint shadows of societal reality, images so far removed from reality that they often appear fake and vulgar.

Unlike "Modern Art" of the past, which sought to depict the heavy weight of reality and flesh-and-blood activities, today's "Contemporary Art" often lacks meaning and substance, typically conforming to what is popular -and superficial -in every day life. So in my view, it is time to find a more appropriate term for what passes these days as "Contemporary Art".