Tang Guo

Tang Guo’s ink-wash landscapes, abstract paintings, and photographs are deeply rooted in a long history of Chinese artistic traditions, with even his abstract works bearing references to classical tools, musical instruments, and porcelain and bronze-ware. Given Tang’s fascination with calligraphy and predilection for using ancient techniques to make his own paper from tree bark, his work is in many ways anti-contemporary. Yet, his lyrical black-and-white landscape photographs and vibrant, nearly monochromatic abstract works subtly subvert tradition, repurposing classical techniques to explore an interior, rather than natural, universe. “I use the materials of ink paintings to express new point of view,” he says. “I guess I created a new visual imagination.”