ILLUSTRATED:

Su is not an artist with lofty ideals or a historical mission, and you will not hear him holding forth about truth and justice. Even so, as a young man coming of age in the eighties, he has experienced his fair share of tumultuous change and upheaval as Taiwan underwent a period of rapid political, social and economic transformation. Those times left a deep and lasting imprint on his mind and, if anything, it has made him all the more attached to his native island - a quality that is eloquently betrayed in his artistic work. Abstract images and intricate shapes hint at the complicated emotions that went into each of his compositions, grabbing the viewer's attention like hesitating divinations of the future, as if Su was reluctant to say too much and rather left it to the observer to complete the artist's evolving prophecies. From their content and titles it is easy to see that Su's works touch only superficially on social topics and current issues. This is also true of this lot, which features more tentative representations of the painter's inner self, introspective musings about his life and the world around him - only now Su's thinking has become even more complex and profound. There is less irony and more emotion, but it is all still bathed in the accustomed cursory nonchalance. (cf. Eslite Gallery Exhibition Catalogue Su Wangshen, Sep. 2003)