Pearl Lam Galleries is proud to present Rose, Cherry, Iron Rust, Flamingo, the first solo exhibition of Ged Quinn (b. 1963, UK), in Asia. Widely regarded as one of the leading painters in Britain, Quinn is renowned for his multi-layered landscape paintings that incorporate art historical subjects and the use of trompe l’oeil to challenge the idea of painting. Inspired by the poetry technique the “ideogrammic method” by the late American poet Ezra Pound, the exhibition title, Rose, Cherry, Iron Rust, Flamingo, alludes to the use of concrete images to create an abstract concept and explores the different expository potentials of image making central to our reading of painting itself.

To create illusionary landscapes that oscillate in between the familiar and the surreal, Quinn carefully selects imageries from diverse historical and allegorical subjects and then renders them in front of idealised landscape backdrops by well-known masters of history paintings, like Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin, from the Baroque period. Taking an active interest in French New Wave filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard’s use of montage and the Mnemosyne Atlas project by German art historian Aby Warburg, which investigates iconography and universalism in art, Quinn uses images without a linear progression or logic in mind. For the artist, making a painting is a visible thought process based on his own memory and improvisation to create a meta-narrative. The artist’s intention is to provoke an intertextual reading of painting; he takes it to a place where politics, literature, philosophy, and cultural memory create a vitality and tension that is both surreal and transcendental. Quinn states, “The reason that both Godard and Warburg interest me is that they function as composite works of images that are more about an iconology of interrelationships rather than the meaning of the images themselves. The spaces between the images are important because one’s perception is altered by the juxtaposition. I like to play with that dialectic of proximity and distance through montage images and intervention with the landscape.”

In a post-modern age where, in Quinn’s words, “truth” had been disenfranchised from the origins and subjugated by the corrupted "real”, the only way to provoke new meanings is to first corrupt the original meaning of the source itself. For things must fall apart before they can come together in new forms. Quinn uses painting to critique its own limitation, achieving what is still possible by questioning the process of image making and its legitimacy. Painting is not so much a didactic exercise for reproducing images, but in the first place it is a faithful experiment to reflect on the emotional and symbolic power of images from a cross-cultural and historical perspective.

On view at the gallery is a series of new landscape, seascape, still life, and flower paintings presented together with a few portrait paintings from the past. A temporary dwelling with the structural outline of a small hut will take up a quarter of the entire gallery space. This architectural intervention is meant to break down the gallery space and to create different physical thresholds for looking at the paintings. The paintings with a horizon line will be installed at a uniform height to simulate how images from individual paintings will come together like disparate film stills and fall apart like a montage, with their meaning constantly evolving.

“I am excited to hold Ged Quinn’s first solo exhibition in Asia in the Pedder Building gallery. His work evolves from European tradition without being constrained by it, drawing from his own experience of an increasingly global yet contradictory world. There is a relationship between landscape, abstraction and image making in art history that has often been overlooked. “

—Pearl Lam, Founder of Pearl Lam Galleries

About the artist

Ged Quinn was born in 1963 in Liverpool, UK. In the 1980s and 90s, Quinn studied at the Ruskin School of Drawing, Oxford, UK; Slade School of Fine Art, London, UK; Kunstakademie, Düsseldorf, Germany; and Rijksakademie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He now lives and works in Cornwall, UK.

Recent notable solo exhibitions include Rose, Cherry, Iron Rust, Flamingo (2017), Pearl Lam Galleries, Hong Kong, China; Ged Quinn (2014), Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK; Ged Quinn (2013–14) New Art Gallery Walsall, West Midlands, UK; and FOCUS: Ged Quinn (2012), Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, USA. Notable group exhibitions include Synthetic Landscapes: Reviewing the ideal landscape (2017), Meadow Arts and Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery, Weston Park, Shifnal, UK; CLASSICICITY: Ancient art, contemporary objects (2015), Breese Little, London, UK; Cake and Lemon Eaters: Viktor Pivovarov and Ged Quinn (2014), Galerie Rudolfinum and The Gallery of Fine Arts in Ostrava, Czech Republic; Somos Libres II (2014), Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli, Turin, Italy; Looking at the View (2013), Tate Britain, London, UK; The Endless Rennaissance (2012), Bass Museum of Art, Miami, USA; and Beyond Reality: British Painting Today (2012), Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech Republic.

Quinn’s works are included in prominent collections internationally, including British Museum, London, UK; the FLAG Art Foundation, New York, USA; The Honart Museum, Tehran, Iran; K11 Art Foundation (KAF), Hong Kong, China; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, USA; Olbricht Collection, Essen, Germany; Saatchi Collection, London, UK; Tate Collection, London, UK; Tel Aviv Art Museum, Israel and Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK.

About Pearl Lam Galleries

Founded by Pearl Lam, Pearl Lam Galleries is a driving force within Asia’s contemporary art scene. With over 20 years of experience exhibiting Asian and Western art and design, it is one of the leading and most established contemporary art galleries to be launched out of China.

Playing a vital role in stimulating international dialogue on Chinese and Asian contemporary art, the Galleries is dedicated to championing artists who re-evaluate and challenge perceptions of cultural practice from the region. The Galleries in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Singapore collaborate with renowned curators, each presenting distinct programming from major solo exhibitions, special projects and installations to conceptually rigorous group shows. Based on the philosophy of Chinese Literati where art forms have no hierarchy, Pearl Lam Galleries is dedicated to breaking down boundaries between different disciplines, with a unique gallery model committed to encouraging cross-cultural exchange.

The four branches of Pearl Lam Galleries in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Singapore represent an increasingly influential roster of contemporary artists. Chinese artists Zhu Jinshi and Su Xiaobai, who synthesise Chinese sensibilities with an international visual language, are presented internationally with work now included in major private and public collections worldwide. The Galleries has also introduced leading international artists, such as Leonardo Drew, Jenny Holzer, Carlos Rolón/Dzine, and Yinka Shonibare MBE, to markets in the region, providing opportunities for new audiences in Asia to encounter their work. Pearl Lam Galleries encourages international artists to create new work which engages specifically with the region, collaborating to produce thought-provoking, culturally relevant work.

About the exhibition

Exhibition dates: 26 May 2017–8 July, 2017