THE latest exhibition at the J R Guettinger Gallery, which runs until November 24, is a kaleidoscope of exotic colour and sinuous line in celebration of the country woman.
Ke Hagen's recent guoache and watercolour work is a portrayal of minority (non-Han) women in China seen working, dancing, even daydreaming in a bright pastel landscape of lush foliage and trees. Their costumes are all highly detailed in a style close to Chinese naive art.
Unlike those who portray minority women as sad and deprived, Ke Hagen does the opposite. He says: ''What I experience transcends poverty and deprivation and this is what I am trying to convey in my paintings - brightness, energy, beauty.'' Ke Hagen includes his trademark motifs - translucent white horses, slender cranes and stylised clouds - which give his paintings their characteristic linear energy.
His style has evolved out of his study of the Yunnan School of painters who emerged from the Cultural Revolution as a fresh force in Chinese art.
Starting out as a group of Beijing artists sent to Yunnan Province for re-education through labour, these artists derived their style through the study of folk art, cave paintings and the rural way of life they came across during their forced repatriation.
NEXT month Art Asia will put works by the world's greatest artists on display here and this month Schoeni Art Gallery is offering a foretaste of what is to come.