Soka Art is pleased to announce that the duo exhibition In the Mountains and Seas by artists Zhou Mingde and Wang Yiya will be held from April 2, 2023, to April 23, 2023. Following Soka Art Taipei's duo exhibition Moon and the Boat, this exhibition examines artists' creative contexts and presents their latest works. The exhibition invites renowned curator and art critic Victoria Lu as the academic host and is curated by Wu Ruoqi.

People feel peaceful near the mountains and calm near the sea. When comparing them, one is static, and one is bursting with energy; one is rigid, and one flows lightly; one grows straight upward to the sky, and one seeks depth to the bottom. Mountains, rocks, trees, and smoky waves, it’s at the intersection that land is formed to nourish everything in the world. In a way, the relationship is like a dialogue between two artists. Zhou Mingde illustrates the steady and lofty mountains, while Wang Yiya depicts the vast and boundless seas. Through the constant transformation of time and space, artists convey a profound and subtle portrayal of the world, exploring the meaning and the inner nature of life through figuration and abstraction. Traveling through different places and getting away from the glitz, artists meditate in the mountains and the sea to experience the tranquility of returning to nature.

Zhou Mingde’s works are vivid, simple, and profound, exploring the poetic spirit of transcendence through landscape scenery. As an artist, he excels at sketching, accumulating ink, and depicting leisurely and profound landscape imagery. He also disassemble, reversed, reorganized, and spliced the rolling mountains to give his works a contemporary air. In his representative series “In the Mountain”, Zhou Mingde breaks the traditional paradigm of Chinese painting by transforming his work into a modern installation. He creates a visual experience that allows the viewer to get closer to the work on a multidimensional level. The exhibition also features the “White Silk Figure” series inspired by a close-up waterfall, and a series of works created around the concept of “traces of water leakage”, showing artist’s step-by-step transformation from the panoramic landscape to the contemporary abstract style.

Wang Yiya's works are created from a female perspective, combining women, architecture, and flowers to create a surreal and ideal realm. “Floral Record Corolla” is one of her representative series, featuring beautiful flowery crowns. The rich and elegant colors with soft and smooth lines create an exquisite illusion, symbolizing life's ephemerality and transience under the ultimate beauty and splendor of life. The exhibition also presents artist's most recent works, the “Live on Water” series. In the picture, the fairies are floating around on a huge boat with pavilions and beams. Symbolically, the boat expresses the artist's inner desire for tranquility and freedom without being overwhelmed by the torrent of today's world. Our lives are often full of contradictions, and only through art can we find the place where the mind can dwell.

Zhou Mingde uses mountains as the theme to create works, exploring the mysteries hidden within the changing natural landscape; Wang Yiya constructs a fantasy world on the sea, expressing philosophical thoughts of individual life from a delicate female perspective. The two artists project their inner selves into their paintings, just like mountains and sea meet again, bringing the power of nature and primal feelings into harmony.