Struggle in Black and White

Struggle in Black and White explores the tensions between humanity and nature, and between intention and chance through the language of ink painting. Black and white take form as brushstrokes and negative space within the picture plane, while also symbolizing the boundary between the artificial and the natural in everyday landscapes. In traditional ink painting, black and white are not understood as one merely filling the absence of the other. Rather, brushstroke and negative space function as equally significant compositional elements, each defining the other through a dynamic state of tension. Just as the space to remain unpainted must first be envisioned before a single brushstroke is placed, the picture plane is completed through the balance of opposition and harmony.

Against this conceptual background, after relocating to a small city, the artist became increasingly aware of landscapes shaped through deliberate planning. Roads and bridges carved into mountains, rows of street trees, and tunnels constructed for convenience remain as traces of human intervention inscribed upon nature. Yet these carefully ordered environments gradually give way to the spontaneous processes of nature. This continual cycle reveals the enduring tension in which humanity and nature continuously negotiate and reshape one another.

Rather than faithfully depicting these scenes, the works invite viewers to experience these relationships through the material qualities and expressive potential of ink itself. The traces left upon the paper embody an ongoing process of struggle and dialogue between humanity and nature, the visible and the invisible, intention and chance.

The exhibition centers on the Street Trees series , depicting roadside landscapes, and Tunnel , which symbolizes the boundary between the artificial and the natural. These works are accompanied by Bound in Lights , Lined Up , and Flaring Up . Together, they trace the ordinary landscapes encountered along the artist's daily paths, following the changing perspectives and sensibilities of the artist shaped by shifts in time and place. Ultimately, the exhibition presents a painterly journey that expands “ from conflict to dialogue, from action to memory.”