Imaginative Reality

Introduction

Artists' Profile

 

Emily Wolfe

Emily Wolfe (b. 1972, Auckland, New Zealand) earned a BFA from the Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland in 1996. She then moved to London for postgraduate studies, earning an MFA from the Slade School of Fine Art at University College London in 2000. She now lives in Oxford, UK.

Wolfe’s work, often exhibited in London and New Zealand, depicts a world that feels both familiar and surreal. In this world, remnants of classical landscapes blend with everyday objects—paper scraps, adhesive tape, and worn-out fragments. Her art is deeply attuned to the materiality of memory. The layered textures in her paintings echo layers of archaeological narrative, reflecting her early excavation and research experience at historical sites in Europe. Her palette is soft and subdued, reminiscent of the restrained beauty often found in faded photographs or antique treasures. Light in her work does more than illuminate; it is part of the narrative, casting calm shadows that suggest unspoken or unseen elements. On Wolfe’s canvases, one can detect subtle hints of unknown lives, prompting viewers to consider the slow passage of time and the stories within everyday objects. By redefining still life and landscape painting, her art transforms these genres into active dialogues among history, memory, and the present, turning her paintings into spaces for contemplation—layered, dreamlike memories that linger in the mind and evoke ambiguity.

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Cameron Martin

Cameron Martin (b. 1970, Seattle, USA) earned a BA in Art and Semiotics from Brown University in 1994 and graduated from the Independent Study Program launched by the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1996. He now lives in New York and is the F.H. Sellers Professor in Painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Martin first became known for his detailed landscapes that incorporate semiotic elements. In a discussion with Amy Sillman, she remarked, “It is almost impossible to know whether they are paintings or screen prints, or printed prints, or prints with paintings over them.” Questions about where and how an image exists frequently arise in Martin’s work. In an essay analyzing Martin’s art, artist Dike Blair explored the connection between his work and time, as well as the events unfolding within his paintings: “These paintings, like all of Martin’s, are steeped in romanticism; yet just as clearly they are products of an analytic eye and mind, and a trained and restrained hand.” In 2014, Martin’s painting style shifted towards abstraction. His abstract works have been praised as “committed to the experience of painting, with unorthodox techniques, and mesmerizing surfaces.”

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Nicholas Middleton

Nicholas Middleton (b. 1975, London, UK) attended London Guildhall University in 1993 and transferred to the Winchester School of Art in 1994, earning his BA in 1997. He joined the Royal College of Art in 2016 and completed his practice-based PhD in 2024. Middleton currently lives in London, where he teaches at the City & Guilds of London Art School. A six-time finalist for the John Moores Painting Prize, he won the Visitor’s Choice Award at the 24th John Moores Painting Prize in 2006 for his black-and-white hyperrealist oil painting, Scene from a Contemporary Novel. In 2010, he received both the John Moores Painting Prize and the Visitor’s Choice Award for Protest, 1st April 2009, a black-and-white hyperrealist oil painting depicting demonstrations outside the Bank of England. His work, Figures in an Arch, was shortlisted for the John Moores Painting Prize in 2016. Middleton believes that an image, as a representation of the world, naturally excludes everything “outside the frame,” such as spatial or temporal absence, or elements on the margins of the paper that float outside the picture. However, not everything “outside the frame” influences the content within. His interest lies in how these “out-of-frame” voids can be structurally utilized to actively and meaningfully engage in artistic creation.

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Greet Van Autgaerden

Greet Van Autgaerden (b. 1974, Brussels, Belgium) earned an MFA in Visual Arts from St-Lukas Hogeschool Brussel in 1998 and a BMus in Piano from the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel in 2001. She now lives in Mechelen and teaches at the Beeldacademie Lier.

Van Autgaerden’s work primarily explores the relationship between nature and culture, exploring the various forms of relationship between us and landscapes, particularly as depicted in paintings. She investigates the history and geological origins of landscapes, both literally and metaphorically. While landscape painting has been a major genre in art history—ranging from decorative to symbolic, from joyful to majestic, from panoramas to floral still lifes—nature remains ubiquitous in art. Van Autgaerden is not a traditional landscape painter. Her expressive use of color and brushwork makes her works far from realistic representations. In essence, her art focuses on perception itself: as humans, we observe landscapes, but what do we truly see? From an artist’s perspective, she aims to translate her perceptions and insights onto the canvas, aware that no “true” image exists. Perception varies from person to person, whether in nature or in art. Her distinctive brushwork and visual language invite viewers to engage as if they were physically within the “landscape.” Her preference for large-scale formats transforms viewers from passive observers into active participants, navigating the tension between perspective and the experience of orientation and disorientation—key elements that give meaning to both form and content.

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Song Sheau-Ming

Song Sheau-Ming (b. 1967, Hualien, Taiwan) earned an MFA from the City College of the City University of New York in 2002 and a PhD in Visual Arts from Lancaster University’s Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts in 2008. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Fine Arts at National Taiwan Normal University.

His work spans decades, oscillating between rational structural forms and intuitive emotion and poetry, creating an abstract aesthetic rich in spiritual depth and lyrical nuance. His exploration begins with a fundamental inquiry into the nature of images. Masking tape, an inevitable and metaphorical element in his art, functions not merely as a visual mark but as a symbol of time, transformation, and the connection between reality and illusion. Through this symbol, he addresses the limits of realism and its insufficient definition, while creating interweaving layers of internal thoughts and external landscapes through concealment and revelation. In his solo exhibition, Anonymous Narrative (2025), at Chini Gallery in Taipei, Song challenged the narrative logic of imagery. Using “de-narrativization” as a strategy, he disrupts conventional connections between viewing and understanding, engaging viewers to interpret ambiguous images through dialectical reflection. His works do not provide singular, straightforward explanations but provoke intellectual and emotional responses with complex layers. Song’s approach to painting is neither a direct emotional release nor a purely aesthetic creation to please viewers. Instead, he redefines contemporary abstraction as a continuous dialectical process involving perception, existence, and meaning.

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