Friday, October 24, 2008

Merging the Old with the New: Lo Ch'ing at Goedhuis Contemporary


Calling for Wang Wei the Poet-Painter:Northern Hill of Wang Stream Scene, 2002

Merging the Old with the New: Lo Ch'ing at Goedhuis Contemporary

On an Upper East Side townhouse off Fifth Avenue, Chris Ong and I were regaled with witty conversation, wine and contemporary Chinese art. Lo Ch'ing's postmodern take on the Chinese silk painting is absolutely captivating. I have never been a fan of the subjects in this medium (think pandas and bamboo). Lo Ch’ing, however, has provided a fresh perspective:

Mountain Huang: Inspiration Escaping the Dominant Eccentric Peak, 1999

The evening was moving along perfectly until Mr. B walked in.

"Territory encroacher! Bad art collector! What was he doing on MY turf?!"

I silenced my inner voice and sauntered up to him.

“We can’t keep meeting like this. What will the neighbors think?” I quipped.

He laughed, knowing fully well what I had meant.

After 6 years of missed connections and unexplored opportunities, we had come full circle by the bar. The brunette poured us glasses of wine and ignored us from a polite distance. We laughed like old friends, but there was a tinge of sadness in the air. There were unspoken words about unexplained disappearances.

And in the end, nothing mattered, except the cool colors and swirls of brushstrokes on rice paper.

Running late for another engagement, I politely excused myself, put on my coat and disappeared onto the sidewalk.

Lo Ch'ing
October 22, 2008 to November 17, 2008
Goedhuis Contemporary, 42 East 76th Street, New York, NY 10028. Tel: (212) 535-6954

1 comment:

Unknown said...

There's something gumshoe about all of this...and yet the trench coat is coming off more along the lines of something from Marc Jacobs...subtle yet intriguing, sophisticated yet attainable in everyday life. Even in it's unmentioned absence the crowd in the room swirls around the scene as if time passes just a little slower when you're in contact with the heroine...