Huang Hai-Hsin was born in Taipei in 1984 and received her BA degree from National Taipei University of Education in 2007. In 2009 she received a MFA from The School of Visual Arts in New York. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Huang has held solo shows at Capsule Shanghai (Shanghai, China), the Museum der bildende Künste (Leipzig, Germany), Gallery 456 (New York, USA), Double Square Gallery (Taipei, Taiwan), and the ISE Cultural Foundation (New York, USA). Her work was presented in group shows at the Mori Art Museum (Tokyo, Japan), the Seoul Museum (Seoul, South Korea), the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art (Herzliya, Israel), the Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (Taipei, Taiwan), the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art (Ithaca, USA).
Huang’s work has been collected by multiple private and public collections, including the UBS Art Collection, the YAGEO Foundation (Taipei, Taiwan), the White Rabbit Collection (Sydney, Australia), the Taipei Fine Arts Museum (Taipei, Taiwan) and the National Taiwan Museum (Taichung, Taiwan). She recently was artist in residence at the PILOTENKUECHE (Leipzig, Germany).
Her solo project “Art Basel” was presented at Art Basel Hong Kong 2019 by Capsule Shanghai.
Capsule Shanghai is pleased to participate in Paris Internationale with artist Huang Hai-Hsin with her solo project titled PLAYTIME, a reference to the 1967 film set in Paris by Jacques Tati. In PLAYTIME, Huang Hai-Hsin questions the notion of modern playtime in a consumerist, constantly connected society consisting of a cascade of incidents within a larger mundane context yet viewed through critically satirical sentiments. Earnest humor is strewn through the work bordering the line between amusement and unavailing melancholy that situates viewers awkwardly in-between performer and spectator to bear witness to the subversive brilliance of everyday leisure.
pencil on paper, 240 x 360 cm
Wielding pencil and paint with a direct sense of urgency and confidence, Huang Hai-Hsin’s renderings of banal life reject centrality and presents life holistically through concurrently zooming inwards and outwards within a grand, theatrical stage in Bosch-esque fashion: beguiling flora dangles overhead, a puppy’s pure geniality frozen in time, a balding man surveys his modest sublime, to a muted scene of dumbfounded spectators naturally drawn to a grey rock while a flock of influencers takes selfies with another.
Human presence continues to be felt nearby at an arm’s reach if not directly within the canvas. Amidst the absurdity, time collapses in the artist’s French Park Drawing as abundant leisure contrasts social activism adjacent the same circular park. The frank, unrestrained depictions of existence act as both critique and acceptance of reality.
With regard to the theme of modern playtime, the motif of the selfie is transformed into an iconic pop culture gesture. The paintings and drawings, created with a sense of momentary temporality, mirrors the fleeting nature of the selfie. Similar to a simple click of a button, Huang Hai-Hsin’s paintings present determination and resolution in the clarity and speed of the brush paralleled by the directness of pencil on paper. Through a series of sketches, drawings, and paintings, Huang Hai-Hsin documents the world unfold before her eyes revealing as much about herself as she is her surroundings.
Perhaps it is the stern gravity Huang Hai-Hsin treats the commonplace or inherent absurdity of contemporary life that contrasts the unsullied colors and elements of satire in the boundless possibilities in looking, strolling, gazing, participating, observing, drawing, thinking, and experiencing.
oil on canvas, 45 x 38 cm
oil on canvas, 45 x 38 cm
oil on canvas, 38 x 45 cm
oil on canvas, 35 x 27 cm
oil on canvas, 30 x 24 cm
oil on canvas, 38 x 45 cm
oil on canvas, 38 x 45 cm
oil on canvas, 38 x 45 cm
oil on canvas, 102 x 76 cm
oil on canvas, 38 x 45 cm