Seven — Seeing from the Word; Seven Series of Stanley Fung

November 18, 2017-December 30, 2017


Artist / Stanley Fung

The life force in its utmost exuberance is little more than the result of compliance with the Way. Acting as an entity, the Way is uniquely vague and elusive. Elusive and vague though, within her womb there are Forms. Vague and elusive though, within her womb there are Perceptibles. ———Laozi.Daodejing, XXI

Over the past year, Stanley Fung’s photographic works have received considerable attention in the Chinese-speaking world, particularly in Taiwan and China. In 2016, his large-scale solo exhibition Soften the Light Hidden in the Dust hosted by the Xue Xue Institute was nominated for the Taihsin Arts Award, followed by his reception of the first prize of the 1st Juan I-Jong Humanity Award of Photography at the Muxin Art Museum in Wuzhen, China. Dan-Qing Chen, a painter, writer, intel-lectual as well as a cultural and art critic held in high respect in China, curated a sensational exhibi-tion on Fung’s photographic works at the Chinese Academy of Oil Painting in May 2017 upon the recommendation by two celebrated painters, namely Fei-Yun Yang and Chun-Lin Zhu who also serve respectively as the president and the vice-president of the host institution of that exhibition.

As a clergy, Stanley Fung has dedicated himself to photography and exhibition with no other aim than to preach the Christian gospel and to share the personal belief he lives and dies for. He has no intention of setting foot in the vanity fair of contemporary art. Nevertheless, his unpretentious pho-tographic works are every bit as impressive as an overt display of genuine affection. Not only the multitude of common people but also art connoisseurs always feel deeply touched by his works’ enduring appeal in an intuitive way. Fung’s works have even been collected by several world-renowned Chinese photographers such as Nan Lu, Yian-Kang Yang and Hai-Er Zhang.

Stanley Fung is going to present a total of seven different series of his photographic works in the solo exhibition scheduled to be on view at the Gallery 100 from 18 November 2017. The seven bril-liant series are briefly described as follows. Dust Icon is a famous portrait series of biblical figures. Members for One Another reflects the ethical concerns of the Bible. Mere Straw affords magnifi-cent views. Cursive turns lakeside plants into abstract symbols. The Way in Earthenware Tile inte-grates the philosophies of both Zhuangzi and Christianity with the photographs of the housing com-plexes on the patchwork of waterways, south of the Yangzi River. The Way in Everything compris-es still-life photographs of res naturales and res non naturales, and Resurrection marks the latest incarnation of the Dust Icon series.

These seven series, either black-and-white or colored, cover a riotous profusion of subjects ranging from figure and landscape to still life and limbs. At first glance they reflect a portmanteau exhibi-tion, yet they are all firmly rooted in a consistent belief. On a more specific basis, they all revolve around Stanley Fung’s epiphanies on destiny and the Way which acts simultaneously beyond and within everything, as well as his reflections on and concerns for humankind, nature, life and the universe. Radiating a uniquely vague and elusive aura, Fung’s works not only bathe themselves in a tranquil atmosphere, but also ingeniously interweave the warmth of humanity and divinity.