PROVENANCE:
Private collection, Asia

Lampo Leong's ink painting incorporates Western geometric structure with the sensibilities of classical ink tradition from the East. It takes advantage of the innate sense of liveliness in brush marks with accumulated layers of ink washes to attain an ethereal atmospheric quality and the dynamic forces of life energy. With water and ink constantly colliding and intertwining, an array of ink splashes moves in a radiating motion to form a central structure that works both like a planet suspended in a mysterious cosmic space, and as a surge of light or energy spurting out from within. These familiar yet abstract images make us aware of the miraculous vitality in nature as well as the enigmatic process of creation in the universe. Reflecting a reverence for both the spirit of Daoism and the Sublime, as well as an ever-renewed wonder at a universe revealed to us through modern science, Leong's painting celebrates the dynamic energies that give birth to new life, new planets, and new stars. Lampo Leong, PhD, Central Academy of Fine Arts, MFA, California College of the Arts, is an internationally acclaimed artist and currently a Professor of Art at the University of Missouri-Columbia. In 1999, the San Francisco Mayor proclaimed November 19th to be Lampo Leong Day.