The Beauty and the Mystery:
An Exhibition of Works by Alex Tsung-Chien Wuby Zane Kaneps
While in July last year Alex Tsung-Chien Wu explored the country and its cities. Through
painting he sought to understand his new surroundings. He explored Florence, Rome and
Venice their art and history, their pomp and pageantry, their mystery and beauty. Alex
began to know this place stone by stone-in mirrors of water, earth and sky, exquisite light.
This beauty of history seeps through the canvases. In Italy there are some many layers of
time and place-some we can see, others only sense. Alex's paintings show us both the
visible and invisible. In Florence, the Renaissance reaches out with polished remains and
crumbling walls to touch those in its streets today. Everyone becomes a link in the chain of
the city's history. Even those who visit only for a little while.
Alex observed the drama twice removed. A stranger in a new land and a stranger to its
culture, he was able to be both neutral and absorbed. His curiosity led to these explorations
in oil on canvas, these city and landscapes, these portraits. They are the echoes of his time
and place.
These paintings hold much of that which Alex took from his year in Italy and Florence.
Herein lies the mystery of being able to take without anyone ever facing the pain of loss,
without ever mourning an absence. And yet these insubstantial remains fill the artist with
love and longing. We have this opportunity to share in some of his wealth.
This is Alex's first solo show, a result of his first European experience, and for the first
time, Alex understands how every much he likes to paint. Before he embarked on this
journey, Alex was a student painter-the demands of the canvas, the appropriate brush
stroke, the correct choice of color overshadowed any other impulse. Now, having
returned, he is master of his art. Alex knows what he wants to express and feels confident
in choosing techniques that will accomplish that aim. It is the first time that he knows
himself so well.
Through his paints, and through his journey in Florence and Italy, Alex has emerged with
new understanding of love: love for his work, lover of himself, love to share with others
and, most of all, love for his father.
TSUNG-CHIEN WU
I have known Tsung-Chien Wu for three and a half years as his professor and adviser at
the Ontario College of art and Design and as Co-ordinator of the OCAD Off-Campus
Program in Florence, Italy which he attended during the 1994/95 academic year. Since his
graduation from OCAD in the spring of 1995, Tsung-Chien has kept me up-to-date with
his art work and activities.
Tsung-Chien Wu is an extraordinarily committed student of painting and drawing. He
devotes exceptional amounts of time to his development as a painter, in excess of many of
his peers. He has drive, ambition, clear goals, discipline, self-motivation and a passion for
his art and craft. I believe that he will successfully complete any program of advanced
study he undertakes.
Keenly self-critical, he strives constantly to improve and learn, to absorb and transcend his
own limitations wherever possible. He combines a love of the classical and traditional,
both in technique and subject, with a curiosity about contemporary art practices, an area in
which has awareness and fluency need to expand. His background and personality prepare
him to take on the workload requirements of a graduate program of study and to gain new
insights into contemporary art.
Tsung-Chien is a kind, compassionate, considerate and multifaceted individual who
contributes consistently to any situation he is in. it was a pleasure to have him as a member
of our 35 member community in Florence, Italy where he demonstrated his maturity by
supporting and acting as a role-mode. and example to others. Reserved by nature,
Tsung-Chien however is a leader among his peers, setting a moral tone, based in solid
work habits and a lover of art and learning.
I commend him to you highly knowing that he will acquit himself with distinction.
Michele White
Professor, Ontario College of Art and Design
I am very pleased that Tsung-Chien Wu has requested a recommendation from me for
post-graduate study at your institution.
I have been observing Tsung-Chien's development in life drawing and figurative painting
classes during the academic year of 1993-94. He has proven to be one of the motivated art
students with the highest integrity as a painter and as an individual. Tsung-Chien is both an
excellent painter and draftsman. He is very persistent and industrious. During the past
academic year, he has produced many monumental paintings. These merited him a
prestigious Ontario College of Art Tuition Scholarship towards his final year. He had been
chosen to participate in our highly competitive Florence Off-Campus program for the
1994-95 academic year in Italy because of his fine character and ability.
As a young artist, Tsung-Chien is very much aware of his special role: The responsibility
of a creative person has to our society. I have found this awareness to be carried through in
his recent work, which has strong philosophical and spiritual elements. He continues to
work steadily towards the realization of his concepts as ambassador of two cultures, the
East and West.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Mah
Professor, Ontario College of Art and Design
