Vivian Tsao “Rhythm of Light: From Jeddah to New York”

Tenri Cultural Institute

This event has ended.

Tenri Cultural Institute presents the solo exhibition of paintings by Vivian Tsao entitled Rhythm of Light: From Jeddah to New York.

In her works in oil and in pastel included in the retrospective, Tsao explores and expresses the nuanced, intimate light in her journey.

Vivian Tsao is a New York based artist. She received her art training at an early age in the studio of Prof. Sun To-Ze in Taipei. After receiving an MFA degree in painting from Carnegie Mellon University in the U.S., she joined her husband who was teaching in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Her experience in the Middle East led to an unexpected realization in seeing.

In the atmosphere of light and veiled light in her new studio, she gradually moved away from theoretical thinking about the development of her painting. She tried to jot down her momentary responses to what was in front of her. Through layers of middle tone colors, she created The Poet,
a writer in a thobe and straw hat in Jeddah.

In her pastel work Doorway at Dusk in 2017, she tried to capture the scene that spoke to her. She had wanted to give away the pair of black boots standing next to the door. But one winter day, she saw suddenly the boots in a picture. The image led her to explore on paper. In her long process of dialoguing with light, she was intrigued by the familiar yet strange interior. Her interiors of New York also include Barbara at Selis Manor. The delicate features of the model inspired the recent picture. It took place in Barbara’s building for the visually impaired on West 23rd Street.

Ms. Tsao mentioned her first “Western Art Museum” in her eclectic journey in art. It was the World Art Series published by Kawade Shobo in Japan. When she left Taiwan for graduate studies in the U.S., she packed the Series and mailed it to her dorm across the ocean. One afternoon last year, the tilted spines of these books in a bronze hue on her bookshelf cast an impression on her. They drove her to paint. The pastel The Bookcase was the realization of that moment.

This exhibition also includes two books authored by her. The Mark of Time: Interviews with Vivian Tsao on Art in New York in Chinese consists of in-depth interviews with Western art figures such as Hilton Kramer, Antonio Lopez Garcia and Philip Pearlstein. The bilingual book Paintings by Vivian Tsao was authored by David Cohen and Vivian Tsao. It was published by the National Museum of History in Taiwan on the occasion of her invitational solo show in 2009.

Ms. Tsao has exhibited her art in The American Academy of Arts and Letters, The Butler Institute of American Art, The National Arts Club and Ceres Gallery in the U.S. A Fellow of the Society of Fellows of Dyson College at Pace University, she has taught drawing at that University.