Line, Form, Qi: Calligraphic Art from the Fondation INK Collection at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is on view now through October 19, 2025, at the Resnick Pavilion. This groundbreaking exhibition brings together more than 30 artists from East and Southeast Asia, who reimagine the tradition of calligraphy through contemporary and often experimental practices. With works ranging from the rigorously structured to the boldly abstract, the exhibition invites viewers to consider how writing systems can become visual languages of innovation and expression.
Line, Form, Qi is curated by Susanna Ferrell, Wynn Resorts Associate Curator of Chinese Art, and Wan Kong, the Mozhai Foundation Assistant Curator of Chinese Art, at LACMA.
Fung Ming Chip at the Press Reception © Courtesy of the Artist
From the middle of the 20th century to the present, regional communities of avant-garde modern and contemporary calligraphers have emerged throughout East Asia; many of their creations interact with or react to Chinese characters. The exhibition highlights how their methods have shaped and impacted one another, as well as the links between East Asian calligraphy and Western abstract art, spanning ink on paper, paintings on canvas, wood board sculptures, and ceramics.
We are proud to share that two FQM presented artists, Fung Ming Chip and Wang Fangyu, are featured in this exhibition.
Fung Ming Chip: The Script Universe
Line, Form, Qi Press Reception © Courtesy of the Artist
Six works by Fung Ming Chip are currently on view at LACMA. Spanning six distinct script styles personally developed by the artist-Sand Script, Transparent Script, Hollow Script, Light Ink Form Script, Music Script, and Different Double Script-this presentation offers a rare opportunity to experience the full scope of Fung's experimental calligraphic language. Together, these works offer a window into Fung's evolving exploration of time, form, and meaning through the medium of calligraphy.
Fung Ming Chip, Buddhist Heart Sutra, ref 14 & 16, 2006 © Courtesy of the Artist
Fung began his art practices with seal carving, yet he was deeply fond of the traditional and cultivated calligraphy practices; thus, he taught himself the art form. He has invented over one hundred calligraphic scripts that explore the process of embedding time in writing and explore through his art and writing the challenge of reading time in works of shufa (Calligraphy). For instance, Fung's Music Scripts integrates the rhythmic language of musical notation into shufa, while his Sand Script transforms the act of writing into a meditative ritual of chance and materiality.
Fung Ming Chip, Form Sand Script, Accidentally Passing, 68 x 69.5cm Ink on Xuan paper, 2015 © Courtesy of the Artist
Fung Ming Chip, Music Script, Ink on Paper © Courtesy of the Artist
Wang Fangyu: The Qi of Strokes
Wang Fangyu, Tiger #53, Ink on paper, 1997 © Courtesy of the Artist
Wang Fangyu's practice is built on the deep foundation of traditional Chinese shufa (calligraphy), yet it is anything but conventional. Wang's works often evoke not only the image of the subject matter but also the essence of movement, vitality, and qi, often with just a few brushstrokes. Wang's Tiger #53, which is exhibited at LACMA this time, captures the spirit of calligraphy through a single, dynamic flourish. The work's energy and minimalism echo the themes at the core of Line, Form, Qi: the reinvention of writing as image, the distillation of symbol into gesture, and the power of the brush as a conduit for both thought and force.
Rooted in tradition but unbound by it, Wang's works exemplify how contemporary artists continue to stretch and abstract the written word-converting characters into expressive forms that transcend language while remaining deeply informed by its history.
Line, Form, Qi is the second in a series of exhibitions drawn from the Fondation INK Collection, a 400-piece trove of calligraphic works promised to LACMA in 2018. Visit LACMA to see these stunning works in person and witness how artists like Fung Ming Chip and Wang Fangyu are shaping the future of calligraphic art.
