LuniSolar: Pao Hui Kao + Ann Beate Tempelhaug at Design Miami.Basel

For LuniSolar, a special dual-exhibition for Design Miami.Basel, Pao Hui Kao and Ann Beate Tempelhaug are presenting work that reveals the beauty of the Lunisolar Calendar, which echoes Pao Hui Kao’s 25 Seasons and Ann BeateTempelhaug’s contemplative Nordic and inner landscapes.

LuniSolar describes the world as a spatial figuration: poetry – calligraphy – painting with Urushi lacquer or porcelain glaze following the rhythm of nature. This artistic dialogue describes Pao Hui Kao’s and Ann Beate Tempelhaug’s “desire for the seasons” as they mutually explore the essence of stoneware porcelain, paper and lacquer, which they translate into their abstract and sublime paintings as well as in Hui Kao’s paper furniture. LuniSolar evokes Japanese poet Matsuo Basho and his haikus, a promise of rebirth in the midst of nature, François Cheng’s search for “true light”.

In the Paper Pleats series by Pao Hui Kao, beauty emerges from a slow and extended phase of experimentation with tracing paper, rice glue, Urushi lacquer, and colored pigments. For the random Lacquer Leaf series, the artist composes her canvas with successive layers of crepe paper hardened with rice glue and Urushi lacquer, a technique she intuitively adopted while learning kintsugi (golden joinery) in Japan. The sophistication of each of her pieces follows the thread of her spirit and her research on materials, their intrinsic strength, and their evolution as functional furniture or contemplative paintings.

Ann Beate Tempelhaug’s artistic practice claims affiliation with three distinct art traditions or histories: painting, sculpture, and ceramics. In her light-saturated works, which are very connected to the dramatic landscapes and seasons in Norway, she combines painted surfaces and a physical, sculptural form that too claims a presence. Tempelhaug states: “I am very conscious and affected by light, and especially the past decades have been very focused keeping it the most important value in my life. There was a total solar eclipse the day I was born, maybe that fact has been a strong influence on my work, though on a subconscious level. To be embraced by warmth and light, the sensation of being inside everything, translating this into my work.”

In addition to the exhibition, Spazio Nobile will launch the individual monographs of Pao Hui Kao and Ann Beate at Design Miami.Basel.

LuniSolar will be on view at Design Miami.Basel with Spazio Nobile Gallery through June 16th. For more information visit:

www.spazionobile.com

@spazionobilegallery

@designmiami