Flood, featuring paintings by Richard Tsao, will be the artist's first solo exhibition at Chambers Fine Art. For the group exhibition Inverse Mirror held in November 2003, Tsao introduced a series of thick canvases saturated with color. The unique appearance of his work is the result of a long and elaborate process. Like the orchid growers of his native Thailand , he develops and nurtures his method-oriented abstractions until they come into full bloom. Beautiful to behold, Tsao's transcendental canvases slowly reveal their nuances and reflect the inner light of the creator and elicit a wide variety of responses in the attentive viewer. In his introduction to the catalogue, Benjamin Genocchio gives a vivid description of Tsao's studio in Brooklyn , a paint-flooded basement densely hung with paintings in various stages of execution. " Confident enough to let chance do a little of the work for him, he uses a unique immersion-sedimentation technique enabling deposits of paint dye mixed with marble dust and matte medium (as a binder) to build up and mould the surface of his paintings. It's much like a chemical process, the artist soaking his paintings into the watery floor bath, hanging them on the wall to dry, then pressing, scraping and re-dipping them to bring the surface to completion." Flooding, so much a part of the cycle of seasons in South East Asia , seems with hindsight a natural inspiration for the artist: no doubt the idea for his flooded studio floor springs at least in part from his childhood. Born and raised in Thailand to Chinese parents, Tsao has lived and worked in New York since 1972. Thus although the encrusted surfaces and vivid colors of his abstractions, mostly quite small in scale, may evoke aspects of life in Bangkok as it was before globalization took over, he is keenly aware of the rich history of abstract art in the twentieth century. At a time when the majority of younger artists are looking in other directions, Tsao continues to develop his unique working method which results in the rugged yet refined abstractions that constitute the present exhibition, Flood.
*Catalogue Available
《洪水》是曹国祖首次在前波画廊举行的个展。在2003年11月举办的群展《倒转的镜子》中，观众首次见到他运用颜料同大理石粉沈淀混合的独特创作技巧，这种属于自我东方风格的抽象派作品是经过长久创作而成。就好像泰国兰花的种植者，对兰花从生长到全部盛开的过程精心培育。仔细观察，曹国祖卓越的作品上缓慢的展现出细微的差别，映射出了创作者内心的光芒，和对观赏者多样的反应。
本杰明.格努齐奥在目录中生动的描述了曹国祖位于布鲁克林的工作室--在油彩四溅的地下室中挂满了处于不同阶段的作品：“他有足够的信心，不使偶然的机会对他产生影响，用一种独特的浸泡沉淀的技巧，使得颜料的沉淀同大理石粉以及硫化铜溶液（作为粘合剂）混合，覆盖在整个作品的表面。这更像是一个化学变化过程，艺术家将他的作品浸泡在装满水的水池中，把它们挂在墙上晾干，然后挤压、打磨、重新浸泡，最后使作品的表面得以完成。”洪水是东南亚季节更替的一个组成部分，似乎为艺术家提供了一个自然的灵感。毫无疑问，这一部分来自于他童年生活的经历。
曹国祖出生和成长在泰国，父母是中国人。从1972 年开始，他一直生活和工作在纽约市。尽管他生动及富有色彩的抽象作品大多展现在小规模的画布上，但却反映了世界全球化之前曼谷的本土生活情景，与他对二十世纪抽象艺术的敏锐观察。当前，大多数年轻艺术家在探索其他领域，而曹国祖却执着的走着自己的路。在他看似粗糙的表面作品中渗透着精致，我们在本次《洪水》展中又看到了其创作的独特性。
*前波画廊为此展览出版了展览图录