藉石練心 - 周珠旺個展
Cultivate the heart through painting of stone

展期 | 2022/11/05 (六) - 012/25 (日) 週日週一休館
展覽地點 | 台南市中西區友愛街315號

Exhibition Date | 2022/11/05 (Sat.) - 12/25 (Sun) Closed on Sunday and Monday
Venue | No. 315, You'ai St., West Central Dist., Tainan City

新石頭記 —— 周珠旺疫情時代的修行
文：謝素貞

女媧煉五彩石以補蒼天是救世，文學寶典紅樓夢把賈寶玉托石轉生是戀世；其他知識份子則是無石不成園，因此將具備了象外之象，景外之景的園林藝術玩成了文人意境的高峰；如果自古文人離開不了山水以抒發胸懷就不難理解周珠旺將臺灣南部的烈日與水畔被歲月刷洗的石頭，表現出禮法誦經般的維新氣質。

乍見周珠旺，臉上掛著淺淺憨憨的笑容，頂著一頭沒有造型的濃髮，平實的穿著，操著一口臺灣南部的、不善言辭的語氣招呼著；曾經獲得2003年的高雄市立美術館的高雄獎及2007年的臺北市立美術館的臺北獎，這南北兩大獎都不是被任何驚世駭俗的當代手法的觀念藝術家取得，而是被周珠旺充滿直敘意味的平面創作一攬於懷；儼然給傳統的態度一個正名，挺顛覆當代藝術求奇的認知。

因為家庭背景，周珠旺從幼時就習慣低頭撿鴨蛋，早起、彎腰、拾撿、置放，上學；這些習慣如日影一般刻痕生命的印記，難以磨滅；獲得臺灣南北兩大美術館的殊榮，是眾多評委看到了創作中最感動的元素，是執著於生命的感發。這些被洗練、被重新置放的石頭，被鋪陳於畫布、儼然成為周珠旺心裡那些心心念念的圓悟，如同禮拜般再搬回靈魂的所在。

他的石頭不是隨波逐浪的偶動，有天地的樸厚，又帶有驕陽似火的餘溫，風動四方，有廣辟大地的端正清華，朗朗乾坤。又不是叫囂的當代思維，是革命的禮敬天地，回歸單純的現世風景。

藝術雖然多繁華，好藝術唯具清堅氣息，與自然共響，無需多言。

The New Chapter of the Stone 
The Cultivation Path of Chou Chu-Wang in the New Pandemic Era
Article written by : Hsieh Suchen

Nû Wā  mended the sky with The Five-Colored Stone to save the world.  Jiâ Baô-Yù  entrusted his soul to the stone in order to reincarnate his love once more. A garden without the presence of the stone is not a garden, or “Wú Shí Bù Chéng Yuán”,  is the aesthetic senses of the literati.  Using the distinguishing feature of a classical Chinese garden, “ An Appearance beyond an Appearance, a Scene beyond a Scene”,  the literati express freely of their senses to the peak of its state. If the mountain and river are the medium for the literati to open up and create freely, then it wouldn’t be difficult to understand how Chou Chu-Wang can bring out the reform temperament of a ritual chanting from the stones that lies with the bank of Southern Taiwan, bathed and washed away by years under the scorching sun.

My first impression of Chou Chu-Wang; a simple dressed man with thick messy hair and  a  humble smile, welcoming us with his shy and inarticulate Southern Taiwan accent. In 2003, he received ‘Kaohsiung Award’ from Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, then in 2007 the ‘Taipei Art Award’ from the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. Neither of these two awards were presented to  conceptual artists with astonishing contemporary techniques that year. But rather, it was awarded to Chou Chu-Wang’s realistic and straightforward graphic paintings. As if it was giving a proper name for artists that still create with a classic, traditional attitude, then to contemporary artists that always quest for the new and curious.

Because of his family background, Chou Chu-Wang would bow his head to collect duck eggs every morning, ever since he was a child. His daily routine; waking up early, bending down to pick up duck eggs, then placing them accordingly in the right spot before going to school. These routines are like lights and shadows that indelible engraved the mark of life.. Perhaps those two major art  awards were presented to him was because the judges perceived the most moving element from his work, be aways passionate and inspired by our feelings for life. These washed and repositioned stones were laid out on the canvas and became the enlightenment to Chou Chu-Wang’s mind, like a ritual to move back to where the soul is.

The stones in his works are not waves that drifted with current; It’s the simplicity and honesty of Heaven and Earth, the afterglow from the scorching sun, the righteousness of wind moving in all directions, and the clarity of the vast open world. It is not a clamor of contemporary thinking, but rather an evolutionary respect for heaven and earth, a landscape of the present regress in simplicity .

Although art is prosperous, good art possesses a clear and solid atmosphere that resonates with nature and requires no words.