Video Interview – YU LIK WAI: IT’S A BRIGHT, GUILTY WORLD
October 27, 2015GUEST PERFORMANCES – Isaac Aden & Jon Tsoi
November 15, 2015
Recent Performative Paintings
Curated by Kevin Alexander
November 15 – December 9, 2015
Sunday, Nov 15
@ 6-8PM | Opening reception
@ 6:30PM | Live performance
Jon Tsoi: Slicing Space is a survey of recent performative painting. The artist responds to the our challenging and violent times through Taoism and abstract expressionism. Each painting is created through slashing and rope binding acts. The artist creates a meditative experience and allows audience participation though the application of color.
Though Tsoi is Chinese his work is historically referenced with the Japanese legendary expressionist group The Gutai Art Association (active 1954–72). The group totaled 59 Japanese artists and became one of Japan’s most influential avant-garde collective in the postwar era. Against the background of wartime violence and totalitarians, both Jon Tsoi and the Gutai Art Association both combine performance, painting and interactive environments with an aim to free themselves and the participant’s mind.
Jon Tsoi (born 1958, Sichuan province, China) currently lives in Connecticut. Tsoi moved to United States in 1979 and attended classes at Montclair State University, and the Art Students’ League of New York in the early 1980s. As a certified acupuncturist, Tsoi consciously makes connections between art making and viewing with the practice of Chinese medicine and Taoist Philosophy. Tsoi uses a blindfold during his blindfolded performances, and relies on guidance from the energy of the universe to create channels for movement through cuts made in the canvas with a knife. Tsoi’s art is a remedy promoting a harmonious way of life.
Tsoi has had solo and group exhibitions in Miami Project International Art Fair, Texas Contemporary Art Fair, Mana Contemporary in New Jersey, various galleries in Connecticut, Florida and New York. He is represented by Ethan Cohen Gallery in New York. He has shown and performed at Queens Museum New York.
Jon Tsoi: Sicing Space is made possible in part by anonymous supporters and WhiteBox board members
The programs of WhiteBox are made possible in part by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council for the Arts.
