Artists Michael Cherney and Fung Ming-Chip are featured in Susanna Ferrell’s article The Spirit of Ink: Meditations, Apparitions, Dreamscapes on the Ink Dreams exhibition publication. It was produced in conjunction with the current on view exhibition Ink Dreams at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) from September 19 to December 12, 2021.
Beyond the concrete materials of ink and paper, there is an intangible spirit uniting works of East Asian ink painting. But how does the spirit of ink translate to other mediums, global makers, and contemporary times? Comprising photography, sculpture, video—and, of course, painting—Ink Dreams proposes a new view of ink art for the contemporary era, one that incorporates qualities from the ink painting tradition and new adaptations of traditional subject matter, unbounded by traditional materials.
Ink Dreams is the first presentation of work from the Foundation INK Collection, a 400-piece collection of contemporary art in the spirit of ink that was promised to LACMA in 2018. The exhibition examines the impact of ink on the global contemporary art world, and features works by artists from Asia, Europe, and North America, including Michael Cherney, Fung Ming Chip, Chen Haiyan, Shirazeh Houshiary, Lin Tianmiao, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Xu Bing, Yang Jiechang, and others. More details about the exhibition can be found here: https://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/ink-dreams
Located on the Pacific Rim, LACMA is the largest art museum in the western United States, with a collection of more than 147,000 objects that illuminate 6,000 years of artistic expression across the globe. Committed to showcasing a multitude of art histories, LACMA exhibits and interprets works of art from new and unexpected points of view that are informed by the region’s rich cultural heritage and diverse population. LACMA’s spirit of experimentation is reflected in its work with artists, technologists, and thought leaders as well as in its regional, national, and global partnerships to share collections and programs, create pioneering initiatives, and engage new audiences.
