Tactile

Following the Breath and Odor series of exhibitions, artist Hung Zhenyou will be presenting his first solo exhibition Tactile in mainland China at GALLERY FUNC. Taking the five fundamental senses as the starting point, Hung’s recent works showcase an in-depth exploration of the body, perception, and potential life energy.

 

“Tactile” here suggests a distinct embodiment, addressing issues of contact, touch and the sense of connection. The paintings featured in this exhibition are expressions of the artist’s self-awareness and bodily meditation over the past two years. The dynamic, overlapping lines on the canvas create imagery akin to psychography. Aristotle’s On the Soul (De Anima) underscores the connection between soul and body, imbuing the body with vitality in this sense. As the medium of touch, a body becomes the essential conduit for sensory experiences and access to the inner soul. In the large-scale painting New Born, painted specifically for this exhibition, several figures delineated in black and white lines dominate the canvas, seemingly engaged in a ritual around a luminous heart chakra at the center. This approach of transmitting energy through the depiction of the body and its gestures is also presented in paintings such as Existence, Owns, and In the Zone, where the human figures experience themselves through the body as the “subject of perception”, existing towards the world. Herein, tactile becomes the sensation itself, encompassing both tangible things and intangible energies.

 

“Tactile” also implies a reference to the sense of space constructed through touch, revealing the intrinsic relationship between body and space. The Elements series of paintings, with its abstract lines and geometric forms, depicts an illusory realm born from countless interwoven energy flows. The use of glazing techniques reveals faint colored lights upon close examination. On the canvas, lines resembling branches or tentacles meander and converge in space, rendering the nature of touch more perceptible and intimate. The two new sculptures in the Element B series mark Hung’s initial venture into extending his painting elements into three-dimensional space. Crafted from stainless steel and crystal, the sculptures carry on the flowing geometric lines of the Elements series. The reflective stainless steel material captures the surrounding environment and viewers, casting a tactile space in the interplay of light and shadow, and the viewer’s body movement. This not only references an embodied experience and our self-awareness of the body’s place, but also the touch of imagination, a field possessed by the body.

 

Through this series of paintings and sculptures, Hung seeks to reach a balance between low-saturated colors and intense, vibrant energy, chaos and order, the visible and the invisible, body and mind. In this process, he continuously engages with the internal and external worlds of the self. The exhibition also aims to evoke a meditative experience, touching on a perceptual domain with its distant limits through the “existence” of the physical body.