{"id":27640,"date":"2026-01-09T09:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T17:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/?p=27640"},"modified":"2025-12-31T10:54:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T18:54:43","slug":"fifty-shades-of-ink-focuses-on-traditional-chinese-ink-painting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2026\/01\/09\/fifty-shades-of-ink-focuses-on-traditional-chinese-ink-painting\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifty Shades of Ink<\/em> focuses on traditional Chinese ink painting"},"content":{"rendered":"

The practice of Chinese ink painting was created in the ninth century, yet it\u2019s still alive to this day. This is what the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (AGGV) has decided to shine a spotlight on with Fifty Shades of Ink<\/i>, which focuses on ink painting by historical and contemporary artists, in addition to the gallery\u2019s permanent Asian art exhibit.<\/p>\n

\u201cInk painting, it\u2019s a thousand-year-old tradition, but still it\u2019s quite alive today,\u201d says AGGV Asian art curator Heng Wu. \u201cI\u2019ve seen people, even in this island, are so passionate about practicing it still. So I think that\u2019s also very relevant to our today\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Engaging with art from across the globe and across time is an important way for us to expand our understanding of the human experience, and the ways that humans are culturally interconnected.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Okada Hanko\u2019s Sailboat on an Inky River<\/em>, part of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria\u2019s Fifty Shades of Ink<\/em> exhibit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI also think despite where the culture and history that we\u2019re presenting is originally from, I always believe they are shared heritage of our human society,\u201d says Wu. \u201cSo it\u2019s important for us to have the chance at least to experience something perhaps we haven\u2019t known before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wu says that she wants to take an inclusive approach to create an immersive experience for people to engage with that reveals that this form of art and art history is not just a dead, bygone practice, but a continuing way of life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to use different approaches to weave a tapestry to showcase of our Asian art; I\u2019m trying to put it within a context for people to engage,\u201d she says. \u201cFrom the cultural perspective, I should say, it\u2019s not just to show the form, it\u2019s more a way to express the idea, the mind, also the heart of the artist. It\u2019s also a way to show how people from this culture appreciate art and create art.\u201d<\/p>\n

The artists who create these paintings, which were traditionally made in the 17th and 18th century using ink derived from soot and animal glue, practice this skill as a way to create more than just art\u2014they\u2019re meditating.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s much larger than painting as an art form,\u201d says Wu. \u201cI think it\u2019s also a way of thinking, because when you start to grind the ink, it is before you start to create the painting, right? It\u2019s kind of, I should say, a meditation process. It\u2019s a way of life. It\u2019s a way of thinking. It\u2019s a way of philosophy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even to this day, there are artists who practice traditional ink painting, although some also use more modern inks. Wu says that the work of the artist, and also the viewing of the art by you and I, is a way to experience peace and beauty within the hectic bustle of everyday existence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn today\u2019s life, maybe there are a lot of challenges, fast-paced. I hope people can slow down when they come to the gallery, they can notice the details of, for example, like tiny details of the brushstroke, the different shades of ink,\u201d says Wu. \u201cIt\u2019s a way for people to slow down, to calm down, to just find the peace during that process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fifty Shades of Ink
\n<\/i>Until Sunday, April 26
\nArt Gallery of Greater Victoria
\naggv.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The practice of Chinese ink painting was created in the ninth century, yet it\u2019s still alive to this day. This is what the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (AGGV) has decided to shine a spotlight on with Fifty Shades of Ink, which focuses on ink painting by historical and contemporary artists, in addition to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27641,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,344],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-january-5-2026"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27640"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27642,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27640\/revisions\/27642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}