Ren Tianjin 任天進

Ren Tianjin is a Chinese contemporary artist and collector himself. His work was being featured in Calligraphy Occurred in the Context of the World—an “East Wind” Blowing at the Main Entrance, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, a piece from CAFA Art Info in October 2022. Shaped to resemble cursive Chinese calligraphy spelling out “east wind” (dongfeng, 東風), the 8-foot-tall sculpture erupts from its two-dimensional written origins into three dimensions like an illustration in a pop-up book. This phrase references a Chinese idiom that encourages total preparation, in case a critical element is missing: “Everything is ready except the east wind.” Director and CEO of the Asian Art Museum, on the creation of Ren Tianjin at the seminar held by the Hangzhou International Modern Calligraphy Festival, and his creation forms some “calligraphy that takes place in the context of the world.”

 

Following Your Dog by Yoshitomo Nara that debuted at the Asian Art Museum in 2019, Taihu Rock—East Wind II created by artist Ren Tianjin as the latest rotating sculpture, made its debut at the plaza facing the Main Entrance of Asia Art Museum of San Francisco. The expressive imagination of Taihu rock has almost become an artistic behavior in traditional Chinese garden culture, as the huge tension between the rich and explainable forms contained in the unique texture and shape of Taihu rock and artificial carving has constituted Ren Tianjin’s exploration in the traditional art concept of “Taoism follows nature” in the process of making calligraphy three-dimensional. While enabling the spectator to experience more dimensional information, he draws on an abstract artistic language to realize the reconstruction of the classical semantics in the East. This bold reconstruction means that “it cuts, splits, reorganizes, superimposes the external nature of the whole and the partial, stability and rhythm, abstract forms and representational texts,” said Prof. Shao Yiyang from the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Thus it was externalized into a new artistic language and trans-boundary innovative imagination.

 

His work was also featured extensively in Asia, in the Aston Martin Shanghai showroom in 2019. TJ Ren was also invited by different art institutions and brand like Moleskine to have workshops on contemporary art expressions.