The Taiwan Academy of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles and Creative Class Collective jointly present "ART RENZEI + POW!WOW! Long Beach,” officially opened on September 29, 2021. With the theme "RISE • PLAY • REPEAT," the event will present Taiwanese artist Chen Wan-Jen’s multimedia work Midnight Blue at the Long Beach City Hall and Hsu Tang-Wei’s mural creation at POW!WOW! Long Beach. It is hoped that in the post-pandemic era, the broken connection between people and nature will be repaired, and a new urban landscape will be created through this event.
Chen Wan-Jen's redesigned Midnight Blue will be exhibited until November 5, 2021. Chen uses aerial photography to show the various postures of the swimmers in a repetitive cycle. The swimmers, some in professional attire and some mixed with their own styles, make the long lane a runway. Although the individuality of the swimmers is withdrawn, the swimmers still have their place in the artwork, as if they are entering another level of eternity.
Hsu Tang-Wei's mural creation The Native Island of Robots metaphorically represents buildings as abstract carriers, containing people and things of different cultural backgrounds. Especially in Long Beach, where various ethnic spaces fused together, each unique building is filled with diverse and unknown stories. In Hsu's on-site work, he uses black contour lines to create his unique mechanical painting, as if he has equipped the house with a motor and a time machine, ready to make the house alive.
Chen Wan-Jen graduated from the Fine Arts Department of National Taiwan University of Arts and received the Grand Prize of the Taipei Art Awards in 2006. In 2012, Chen attended a residency at the International Studio & Curatorial Program in New York. He is accustomed to using the video cycle to focus on the numb and repetitive state of people in society, which is disturbing but also implies infinite possibilities. His work has been exhibited in New York, Berlin, Saint Petersburg, and Tokyo.
Hsu Tang-wei holds a Master's degree in Fine Arts in Visual Arts at the Tainan National University of the Arts in Taiwan. He specializes in creating visual images and spatial relationships. Large stainless steel sculptures and organic patterns of black and white lines are his unique style. His works have been installed in Taiwan's MRT stations, train stations, National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts, and Treasure Hill Artist Village. He was the recipient of the 2009 Asian Cultural Council Award. In 2013, he was invited by the New York City Department of Transportation to exhibit his work "Magic Monkeys," the first public artwork by a Taiwanese artist to be installed in New York City.
Creative Class Collective is a non-profit organization in Long Beach that promotes, supports, and encourages innovative ideas in the arts, music, education, and other creative fields to help enhance community planning and economic vitality. It has hosted five years of the “POW!WOW!” and is committed to facilitating exchanges between local artists and the international arts and cultural community, with a particular focus on building dual connections between the American and Asian arts and cultural communities.
For more information about the event, please visit https://www.artrenzei.com/about and http://www.powwowlongbeach.com/.