Detail: Chambers Fine Art is pleased to the
opening on April 25, 2013 of Cui Fei:
Tracing the Origin, her first solo
exhibition at the gallery. A graduate of
the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Art in
Hangzhou, China, she moved to the United
States in 1996 and has been resident
here ever since. Although she lives and
works in New York City her work is
inspired by nature, her favored
materials being natural materials such
as vines, twigs and tendrils that she
gathers herself. She is also deeply
responsive to aspects of traditional
Chinese culture and philosophy which
permeate her work, recognizing the
essential role that calligraphy played
in the development of Chinese
civilization and using it as a constant
reference whatever form her work takes.
For more than a decade she has been
working on three ongoing series,
Calendar, Manuscript of Nature, and
Tracing the Origin. Based on events in
her personal life, Calendar is the most
circumscribed in form and uses natural
materials such as seeds, beans, thorns
and weeds that lend themselves to
orderly arrangements. Although they are
closely related Manuscript of Nature and
Tracing the Origin refer to the natural
world in different ways, the former
emphasizing the relationship between
natural materials such as twigs,
tendrils and thorns and calligraphy and
the latter using manmade materials to
reveal the way in which natural sources
of inspiration are gradually transformed
by human intervention.
The current exhibition offers a
selection of recent works from
Manuscript of Nature and Tracing the
Origin, the dialog between the different
approaches adopted in the fabrication of
the works being an essential part of Cui
Fei’s ongoing practice. In five new
works from Manuscript of Nature VIII,
2013, the tendrils she uses resemble
Chinese running script, a dynamic form
of writing totally different in
character from the regimented rows of
thorns in the majestic, three-panel
Manuscript of Nature VIII, 2010.