Brendan Lee Satish Tang | New Works

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Brendan Lee Satish Tang, "Manga Ormolu Version 2.0p"

ceramic and mixed media, 22.5 x 9.5 x 9 inches. Courtesy of the Gallery.

Opening reception: Saturday, November 19, 2 - 4pm

Gallery Jones is pleased to present a collection of new sculptures by Brendan Lee Satish Tang from the ongoing Manga Ormolu series.

Artist Statement: 

Manga Ormolu enters the dialogue on contemporary culture, technology, and globalization through a fabricated relationship between ceramic tradition (using the form of Chinese Ming dynasty vessels) and techno-Pop Art. The futuristic update of the Ming vessels in this series recalls 18th century French gilded ormolu, where historic Chinese vessels were transformed into curiosity pieces for aristocrats. But here, robotic prosthetics inspired by anime (Japanese animation) and manga (the beloved comics and picture novels of Japan) subvert elitism with the accessibility of popular culture.

Working with Asian cultural elements highlights the evolving Western experience of the “Orient.” This narrative is personal: the hybridization of cultures mirrors my identity as an ethnically-mixed Asian Canadian. My family history is one of successive generations shedding the markers of ethnic identity in order to succeed in an adopted country – within a few generations this cultural filtration has spanned China, India, Trinidad, Ireland and Canada. 

While Manga Ormolu offers multiple points of entry into sociocultural dialogue, manga, by nature, doesn’t take itself too seriously. The futuristic ornamentation can be excessive, self-aggrandizing, even ridiculous. This is a fitting reflection of our human need to envision and translate fantastic ideas into reality; in fact, striving for transcendence is a unifying feature of human cultural history. This characteristic is reflected in the unassuming, yet utterly transformable material of clay. Manga Ormolu, through content, form and material, vividly demonstrates the conflicting and complementary forces that shape our perceptions of Ourselves and the Other. 

Brendan Lee Satish Tang has been exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal in Quebéc, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the International Museum of Ceramic in Faenza, Italy and many other public museums. Tang was short-listed for the Sobey Prize and a finalist for the Loewe Craft Prize. He has been profiled by The Knowledge Network, the Canadian Broadcasting Company, and featured in printed publications including The National Post, Wired (UK and Italy), and ELLE (Canada). Tang’s work can be found in such collections as the Seattle Art Museum, the Ariana Musée in Geneva, Canada House in London (UK), the Art Bank of Canada, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Canadian Museum of History, the Royal Bank of Canada, the Bank of Montréal and the Canadian Consulate in Beijing.