MAGGIE JIANG
I-CHING THROUGH THICK AND THIN

JUNE 25 - JULY 20, 2022
OPENING RECEPTION - JUNE 25 2022, 3-6PM
FIRST THURSDAY WITH THE ARTIST - JULY 7 2022, 5-8PM

J. Rinehart Gallery is thrilled to announce our first solo exhibition with Chinese American artist Maggie Jiang. In I-Ching Through Thick and Thin, Jiang incorporates the visual vocabulary of the sixty-four hexagrams found in the I-Ching into her work, exploring universality and fluid concepts of the I-Ching within modern geometric abstraction. Born in Beijing and educated in China and the U.S., Jiang’s life has led her down a multicultural path, inspiring her to create a visual language that can communicate across cultures.

While her painting practice is rooted in the tradition of geometric abstraction, finding influences in the work of Josef Albers, Piet Mondrian, and Frank Stella, her cultural Chinese heritage has her fascinated by the I-Ching and its emphasis on continuous change as a way of being.

This duality is present in the works in the exhibition; combining the geometric rigor of the hexagrams (appealing to her ongoing expression of hard-edged abstraction) while also being influenced by the philosophical ideas expressed in the I-Ching.

In addition to her solo show at the gallery, Jiang will be exhibiting at the Asian Pacific Cultural Center in the Fall of 2022.

In conjunction with the exhibition, an exhibition catalog will be published with an essay written by arts writer, Michael Howard.

Maggie Jiang is a Seattle-based visual artist. She studied sculpture and printmaking at North Seattle College and attended the Trowbridge Atelier at Gage Academy in 2016-17. Exhibiting regularly since 2016, Jiang won 1st prize in 2016, and 3rd prize in 2018 in the Abstract Category at Best of Gage, and a selection of her work was published in the Licton Springs Review in 2019.

• ARTIST STATEMENT

  I Ching through thick and thin
  Exhibition Statement

  As a Chinese American artist, I have always been fascinated by the richness and universality of the I-Ching, more commonly known as the “Book of Changes”. Visually rigid, the I Ching is composed of sixty-four hexagrams, utilizing various combinations of six broken or unbroken lines. Conceptually fluid, the I-Ching encompasses humanity's relationship with the universe and each other by emphasizing continuous change as a way of being.

  This duality is also represented in the works I have chosen for this exhibition. When I first started this body of work, I was primarily attracted to the geometric rigor of the hexagrams themselves and created a number of works in which they are the primary visual vocabulary. However, as time passed, I found my work evolving, almost as if it too was being influenced by the philosophical ideas expressed in the I Ching. The hexagrams began to interact with more complex rectilinear or curvilinear forms and started to become secondary visual elements and in some cases, receded altogether.

  This body of work also afforded me the opportunity to continue exploring my main painterly concerns, namely the interaction of color, the physical and perceptual qualities of paint, as well as the expressiveness of hard-edge geometry. Two of my direct influences in this body of work have been Josef Albers and South American concrete artists.

  Attentive viewers will note that no painting in this exhibition is quite what it initially appears to be. Therefore, they will be rewarded with a richer experience upon careful and deliberate examination of each individual work.

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