Fung Ming Chip: To Be & Not To Be

Exhibition Information

Opening Day	23 October 2012, Tuesday
Period	14 October - 9 December 2012
Location	51 Waterloo,

A primary essential element in calligraphy is time. What is time? I do not know. I only know eternity means that time no longer exists. Buddha is dead, Jesus is dead. Eventually all life form vanishes. Beings exist in the present, live and die between to be and not to be.

Fung Ming Chip, 2012

The Private Museum presents a special exhibition developed from the long-term relationship that began 15 years ago between Singapore-based collector, Christopher Franck, and Hong Kong-based artist, Fung Ming Chip. Franck’s collection of Fung’s works introduces the artist’s early experimentation with the medium of traditional Chinese calligraphy. The large-scale site-specific conceptual installation of his Chan & Heart Sutra Series is a development of Fung’s recurring theme of Heart Sutra in his earlier works. Fung’s latest work is a result of transforming an established art form into an entirely new style that challenges the values which shape human behavior and perception. In his continuous search of what calligraphy is, Fung pushes the boundaries of the medium and explores the element of time.

Programme Documentation

Programme Media

About the Collaboration

Individual

Artist

Fung Ming Chip,

Fung Ming Chip (b. 1951, Guangdong, China)

Fung Ming Chip is a Hong Kong-based artist, active as a painter, photographer, playwright, sculptor and poet. He was raised in Hong Kong and moved to New York in 1977. Since 1986, he has been living between New York, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and settled down in Hong Kong in 2006.

Among his many international exhibitions, Fung had a major solo retrospective at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum in 1999. He was artist in residence at Cambridge University in 2004, and in 2008 he created Les Poemes du Mandarin tableware pattern for Hermes. His work is included in major private and institutional collections around the world, such as Ashmolean Museum (Oxford University, England), Hong Kong Museum of Art (China), Israel Museum (Israel), Metropolitan Museum of Art (USA), and White Rabbit Collection (Australia).

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2012	Mandarin Oriental, Miami, FL, USA
2010	Sin Sin Fine Art, Hong Kong, China
2009	Gebert Contemporary, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
2006	“Recent Work, Fung Ming Chip”, Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong, China Leda Fletcher Gallery, Shanghai, China & Geneva, Switzerland
2005	“Abstract Forms”, Art Beatus, Hong Kong, China “Beginning of Infinity”, Neuhoff Gallery, New York, USA
2004	“Rational Line”, Jesus College, Cambridge University, UK
2002	Gallery Saka, Tokyo, Japan 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong, China
2000	Goedhuis Contemporary, London, UK
1999	Tsing Hwa University, Hsin Chu, Taiwan Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan “Caligrafia Chinesa de Fung Ming-Chip,” Fundacåo Orient, Casa Garden, Macau, China
1997	Hanart Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
1995	“Party”, Color Field Art Space, Taipei, Taiwan
1994	“Value Transformation”, Duchamp Gallery, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
1993	“Variations of Seal Carving”, Taipei County Cultural Centre, Taipei, Taiwan
1991	“The Word by Fung Ming-Chip”, Quart Society, Hong Kong, China
1990	“Root of the Words”, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong, China
1986	“The Seal 1975 – 1985”, Asian Arts Institute, New York, USA
1984	“Photo Space”, Catherine Gallery, New York, USA
1982	“Lenscape”, American Library, Presented by American Consulate, Hong Kong, China

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2011	Ink Art vs Ink Art, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, China
2010	Writing/Non-writing, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China Ink Art vs Ink Art, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China
2009	Calligraffiti, Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, CA, USA The 24^th Asia International Art Exhibition, National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia
2008	Shenzhen Ink Biennial, Shenzhen Museum of Art, Shenzhen, China
2007	“Made In China” Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen, Denmark, and Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
2005	“The Painted Word: Language as Image in Modern Art,” Lafayette College, Pennsylvania, USA “The Act of Writing and of Non-Writing: The Open Space for Chinese Calligraphy”, International Exhibition of Modern Calligraphy 2005, Hangzhou, China
2002	“China”, Museum Saap, São Paulo, Brazil “Paris-Pekin”, Espace Cardin, Paris, France
2001	“China Without Borders”, Goedhuis Contemporary at Sotheby’s, New York, USA “Tradition and Experimentation: The Second Chinese Calaliraphy – 2001”, Ho’s Gallery of Calligraphy Arts, Taipei, Taiwan & Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Art, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
2000	“New Perspective on Contemporary Calligraphy – A Dialogue with Modern Sinitic Writing Art”, Taiwan Museum of Art, Taichung, Taiwan
1999	“Avant Gardes en Chine”, Galerie LOFT, Paris, France
1997	“Stream Segment”, Asian American Arts Centre, New York, USA
1995	“Looking Through Lines”, Dimension Endowment of Art, Taipei, Taiwan
1994	“Flowering in the West” Haenah-Kent gallery, New York, USA
1990	“Chinesische Kalligraphie”, Galerie Lommel, Germany
1984	“Small Works Exhibition”, Washington Square East Galleries, New York University, USA
1983	“Self-Portrait”, The Landmark, Hong Kong, China