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" Sky, Apple, and Flame: Notes on Ling Y. Zhang's
Quest for the Lost Paradise of the Imagination----------------
Ling Yan Zhang's paintings exist in an imaginative space that is suspended
between the formative spiritual stories of Asian religion and the religious
symbols shaped by the tales of paradise and loss. The Buddhist tale
of a fall into the illusions of time and embodiment and the Judeo-Christian
tale of a fall out of Edenic perfection into a flawed and horrific world
mingle in these paintings, and are shown to be versions of the same
reality. The quest for a restored Paradise is common to both.
Ling Zhang's paintings, then, also deal with identity, and how it is
formed from fantasy; they dance between the positive term of fantasy
and the negative one defined as illusion. Yet the two are one, and the
condition of enlightenment sought by religion and certain styles of
psychology alike affirm that the distinction is a matter of personal
clarity. Understanding the patterns of self-delusion leads to the affirmation
of the created images through which we have our being in this world.
One could continue this analysis through many paintings. But it may
be enough to point out that this dialectic exists. Combining the symbolic
resonances of several cultures with the psychological insight of a fully
contemporary human existence, Ling Zhang gives us paintings that tremble
with hope even as they refuse to flee from the real darkness that surrounds
human relationships at this moment in global history."
By Jerry Cullum
Dr. Jerry Cullum is a free-lance and curator based in Atlanta, GA, USA
Where he is senior editor of Art Papers Magazine. His essays and reviews
Appear regularly in such publications as Art in America and ARTnews.
" Zhang's Visionary Fantasies Reflect the Paradise
in our Dreams---------
Her appealingly visionary fantasies are sweet-tempered but never sentimental.
Zhang's blend of idealistic figures, European art styles, Buddhist
iconography And intimate scenes of the everyday constitutes a journey
of imagination that Combines her heritage with dreams and experiences
common to us all."
By Jerry Cullum / The Atlanta Journal/ The Atlanta
Constitution
" Myths, Dreams, Memories-------------
Melding influences of her native China and trips to Tibet with School
of Paris Flourishes, Ling Zhang creates dreamy vistas where love, masks
and role Playing add up to a magic theater where anything is possible."
By D.Eric Bookhardt /Inside Art / Gambit Weekly/New
Orleans
"The fascinating thing about Ling's work is the
fusion. In Ling's worldview, Chagall's Russian-Jewish mysticism becomes
Buddhism and vice versa."
By Doug MacCash/ Review/ The Times-Picayune/New Orleans
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