If it were not the strong belief toward the unbreakable, it is barely possible for human to live with dignity. And so is art.

    As far as artistic generation is concerned, Huang Gang belongs to the post-60s. However, his art concept and life experience are closer to the avant-garde spirit of post-modernism. This explains the fact that artists of the post-60s, growing from a diversified background, all possess their own individualities. As for Huang Gang’s creation in recent ten years, it involves in serious topics like religion, culture, and human’s body. But his concept and method are bravely straight-forward and different from other artists. It is easy to find out that Huang Gang’s art, though prudently keeping distance with mainstream, develops latent but aggressively, and then bursts out from an impoverished, roaring culture.

    To begin with, artistic language is the key factor to decide whether art has created limited or infinite freedom. And it is because visual language serves a restricted extent to deliver so that creativity of language becomes a test to every art. Thus, “paint what we think, but paint not what we see” becomes an approved value of contemporary art. To briefly conclude Huang Gang’s artistic innovation, there are threefold: a. succinct inner meaning of post-minimalism. b. the momentum of abstract expressionism, speed, and sentimental limning. c. the mystery and buildup of Tibetan cultural signs. Through Buddhist spiritual cleansing, the three features are strengthened to become a meaningful performance.

    Huang Gang adopts plenty of Buddhist scriptures into his creation. The scripture not only expresses a new trial of material and a new form of adornment, displaying the monk’s hardship training, but also gives out Buddhist belief and its concept. On the other hand, the yak’s leather is torn down from old cases, and then ironed, re-collaged into his painting. The leather signifies such a culture-orientation that it leads to the nature of human being. The old case, which possesses rich Tibetan cultural meaning, is an everyday use for Tibetans and the monk. And if it were not through the artist’s magical usage, it is only a piece of utility that will decay along time goes by. But just like the Buddhist scripture, when it is combined into art, both of the scripture and the yak’s leather become spiritual media that carry our mother nature.

    In one of the large-scale works – “My Box,” Huang Gang uses not only Buddhist scripture and the yak’s leather, but also some tiger-skin-like leather and a red star, which compose a somewhat alter painting’s look. The brown and black colors merge the four materials together, making them balanced but still individual so that the painting naturally condenses and presents a grand, severe atmosphere. On the top of the painting, the white background is infused with a few red and yellow brushworks, and thus presents its inner meaning, awe, and strength. In addition, the artist’s placement of materials is never like what comprises formalism. It does not explain whether the painting is abstract or concrete. Rather, it refers to its metaphor, making the materials speak for themselves.

     In short, we may regard “My Box” as a representative work of Huang Gang’s material art for he opens a spiritual window that leads audience to a super-experienced world. First of all, the scripture and leather he uses are non-reproducible and have their original meaning. Secondly, the difficulties he went through and the huge time he spent on his artwork are incredibly rare among contemporary artists. Moreover, the strict training he had in the Central Academy of Art and Design prepares him to make exquisite fine arts and to become a professor. For more than ten years of leaving the academic environment, Huang Gang has always considered his Tibetan possession as something to collect cultural resources. In the meanwhile, the enlightenment of snow terrain culture evokes a spiritual cleansing to a collector who yearns for it. Therefore, a proper understanding to Huang Gang’s painting is taking it as spiritual demonstration, rather than merely external usage of these materials.

编辑：admin