In
the most recent addition to his "Trace" series, Gu Zhinong again conjoins
diametrical opposition - past and present, East and West, male and female,
sacred and profane - to create powerful statements about immortality, gender
and cultural aesthetics. Gu's
latest oil painting on canvas features a half-clad, androgynous male with
long hair posed in a balletic position between three-dimensional representations
of two highly iconic female deities: Guan Yin, the Chinese Buddhist goddess
of compassion, mercy and fertility, and Aphrodite, the ancient Greek goddess
later known to the Romans as Venus, the goddess of love, beauty and fertility.Gu
has chosen to depict Guan Yin in her popular Tang Dynasty form (618-907
A.D.) - a lovely young woman in flowing robes and necklace with one hand
raised, fingers delicately posed as if in dance, and the other at her side.
Her gentle face, with its modest, downcast eyes, is a study in serenity
and her belly slightly swells to signify her power over fertility and child-bearing.
Aphrodite is represented by the famous 1st century B.C. Greek marble statue
we know as the armless Venus de Milo.The
artist could not have chosen two more appropriate goddesses from disparate
cultures to appear in this painting. Both are associated not only with female
love and wisdom, but also with miraculous, transformative power over humanity
and even creation. Gu's contemporary human subject, who displays both male
and female characteristics, reaches out to the ancient female divinities,
Eastern and Western, as if to embrace, acknowledge and revere them literally
and metaphorically in the present. 
Artist's
Daughter, a fresh new painting by Gu Zhinong, imaginatively captures youth
and tradition in a harmonious blend of simple form and primitive color.
A large Chinese folk art wall painting of a tiger provides a lively backdrop
for an image of the artist's precocious ferocity that inspires both respect
and fear. Tiger imagery abounds throughout China. It is widely believed
to have protective amulet qualities and to be a potent symbol of good luck.
In prints sold at New Year, which are put on front doors at each year's
beginning, the tiger figures prominently as a symbol of protection for the
family, especially for children, against evil. Tigers often appear on children's
clothing and shoes, as well as in toy form, to safeguard their youthful
owners against danger
An
elderly, scarlet-robed Tibetan Buddhist monk in rapt prayer is the focal
point of Prayer (2007), a meticulously executed oil painting by Gu Zhinong.
Eyes closed and joined hands pointing heavenward, he faces away from a crumbling
wall painting of the Tibetan Buddhist bodhisattva, Tara, an earthly female
manifestation of Buddha who is the most loved and revered deity of the Tibetan
faith. Associated with Buddhist tantric practice, Tara is considered the
mother of liberation. Her image is used to develop inner qualities of peace
and transcendence over earthly concerns and to understand teachings about
compassion and emptiness. This
painted variation of the deity is known as White Tara, who is also associated
with long life, healing and serenity. According to Buddhist tradition, Tara
was born out of the tears of compassion wept by the bodhisattva, Avalokiteshvara,
an ancient male Hindu deity, as he looked down upon the world of suffering
beings. The god's tears formed a lake in which a lotus sprung up. When the
lotus opened, the goddess Tara was revealed sitting in the center of the
flower. Tara,
rendered in age-softened shades of rust, white and turquoise, looks maternally
down upon the praying monk, who is lost in intense meditation. Like Chinese
Buddhism's Guan Yin, she is the goddess of mercy and compassion, with legend
holding that she is a holy woman who attained enlightenment, but took a
vow to remain on earth to work for the continued enlightenment of human
beings. She represents the source, the female aspect of the universe that
gives birth to warmth and relief from bad karma as experienced by ordinary
beings still caught in the cycle of reincarnation.Verna
Glancy
Gallery
Director - Contemporary Chinese Fine Art
1099
South Coast Highway, Laguna Beach, California 92651
949.376.6799
cell 949 533.5648