For Immediate Release
Melancholia Dreamland
Paintings by Simone Guo
May 4 - June 22, 2018
Closing date has been
extended to Friday, June 29, 2018
Opening Reception | Friday,
May 4, 3 - 6pm
Meet the Artist | Simone
Guo will be in attendance
Art
Beatus (Vancouver) Consultancy Ltd is
very pleased to present Melancholia
Dreamland, a solo exhibition of
landscape paintings by local artist Simone
Guo. Wonderfully chimerical in colour
palette and form, Guo describes this series
of acrylic paintings and mixed media as
“hovering between landscape and lyrical
abstraction”. The artist does not paint
these works from real life but rather she
“paints landscape as a concept.”
While working on this series, Guo
consciously distilled aesthetic and
philosophical inspiration from traditional
Chinese monochromatic landscape paintings.
She explains her affinity for landscape
painting as a medium for her and her
audience “to seek inner rhythm and autonomy,
just as the traditional Chinese landscape
painting indulged a spiritual freedom or
refuge for the elite class in context of a
social/political turmoil.”
In Guo's beautifully constructed
abstract worlds, her masterfully spontaneous
and gestural mark-making forms are highly
suggestive of the topography of its
landscape. One experiences the ascending
massive mountains, the undulating hills and
valleys, the terrifying sheer rock faces in
“Refuge”, as well as the animated motion of
bodies of water such as in “On the Other
Side” and “Bridal Falls”. This collection of
paintings invite a spirit of exploration
into Guo's landscapes as well as
evoke a nostalgic longing for escape and
retreat into these colourful realms.
Currently living and working in Vancouver, Simone
Guo was born in China and is part of
an artistic family. She studied at Central
Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, China where
she completed a Bachelor's and a Master's
degree in Art History, and in 2004, earned
another Master of Art History degree from
the University of Victoria. Guo has
had a number of solo exhibitions and has
participated in several group exhibitions in
Taiwan, China, Japan as well as in Canada,
and her work can be found in collections in
Asia and North America.
|
Art Beatus, with a location in Vancouver,
Canada and two locations in Hong Kong, showcases
international art with a focus on contemporary
Chinese art. Art Beatus (Vancouver) is located in
the Nelson Square Office Tower at 108 – 808 Nelson
Street. For more information, please contact Media
Relations, Tamla Mah or Ellinda Siu.
Art Beatus (Vancouver) is open Mon-Fri,
10am-6pm and is closed on weekends and holidays
Underground and street parking is available. Free
admission. Please use this information in any of
your press release and/or announcement material.
Visual material is available upon request.
|