Angela Tseng - The Spirit of Zen

Poster Series for the Conceptual Exhibition The Spirit of Zen

The Spirit of Zen is a conceptual exhibition that explores the bridge between the traditional Zen art aesthetics from the East and how it has transformed since traveling across the world and merging with the western culture. The goal is to show that regardless of the cultural background, Zen art no longer has a fixed aesthetic and it is less about the artwork itself and more about the artist and his or her spiritual pursuit.

Exhibition Catalogue Cover

Zen art and aesthetics are parts of a particular, perhaps peculiar landscape, that of Zen Buddhism or simply Zen. The traditional Zen aesthetic catches the eye with paintings of Chinese vistas, Chinese calligraphy, imperfect marks of perfection that convey the gap “between all conceptualizations or descriptions of reality and the way things ‘really are’” and landscape gardens. These sorts of genera have spread from religious biomes into diverse artistic, spiritual, and popular habitats. And more recently, postwar avant-garde art has also claimed to arise from a “Zen mind” or “Zen gaze.”