HONG KONG.- Opera Gallery Hong Kong is thrilled to announce its Autumn exhibition showcasing celebrated Chinese abstract painter Liu Jiu Tong alongside a collection of figurative sculptures by American artist Richard MacDonald.
Interplaying the abstract and the figurative, Liu Jiu Tong’s unrestrained landscapes are inspired by renowned Chinese poets of the Warring States and Tang Dynasty. Eluding to form, Liu expresses a lyricism swathed in tenacious layers of paint, vigorously applied and condensed onto canvas like a fleeting moment trapped between open fingers.
Born in 1977 in Suide, a province of northern China, Liu graduated from the Art Institute of Xi’an and continued his studies in Beijing.
Growing from the highlands of northwest of China with giant mountains and fields makes Liu’s oil painting full of heroic spirit. Inspired further from his later travels, old charming buildings of Shanghai and peaceful villages surrounded by water appear in his artworks - full of melodic passion carrying a mystical intellect of a forgotten time. These aesthetic paintings are unified by elements of duality; exquisite yet simple, concrete and abstract, exploring a new form of art that is all Liu jiu Tong.
Liu Jiu Tong’s artworks have been exhibited in many prestigious international shows, such as the International Contemporary Art Exhibition of Paris and the ninth Contemporary Art Exhibition in Milano. In particular, his painting Distant Traveler was nominated for the seventh International Price Arte Laguna in Venice, Italy. His works appears frequently in auctions globally and is a prominent part of important collections in the region.
Richard MacDonald Selected works in bronze On the gallery’s first floor is a showcase of selected works by American artist Richard MacDonald. MacDonald is a celebrated sculptor and a leading advocate of the neo-figurative movement in visual arts. His work focuses on the spectrum of performing life, capturing a fleeting moment in time and immortalizing the grace, strength, joy and discipline of dancers and acrobats. The works are contemporary in context and infused with a timeless quality. For every piece he creates, MacDonald draws his inspirations from humanity’s broad emotional complexities. He captures the beauty, romance and essence of the human spirit in motion as he sculpts from live models, breathing and moving alongside them in an unrehearsed dance.
Being described as “paying tribute to the expressiveness of human form”, his work has been collected by famous corporations and notable private collectors, such as AT&T, IBM, Bill and Hillary Clinton, etc. MacDonald is an award-winning fellow of the National Sculpture Society and the recipient of many awards, honors and professorship including the Medal of Honor from the United States Sports Academy and an appointed Honorary Professor at the Shanghai Institute of Visual Art.
To inspire emerging artists, he encourages the development of art through mentoring programs, international workshops and art education.
