DAVID DIAO - HongKong Boyhood @ Postmasters Gallery: February 4

DAVID DIAO
HongKong Boyhood
February 4 - March 11, 2017

David Diao, HongKong Boyhood, 2017, installation view.

Postmasters Gallery is pleased to announce "HongKong Boyhood," an exhibition of paintings by DAVID DIAO, his first show of new works since his comprehensive career retrospective at the Ullens Contemporary Arts Center in Beijing in 2015.

Born in 1943 in Chengdu, China, Diao is known for complex weaving of personal history with the history of modernist painting and design. He superimposes images and text on luscious, largely monochromatic surfaces. Diao's paintings visualize data, both private and public, that maps his life's trajectory from mainland China through HongKong to the United States and New York where he has lived since 1964. "HongKong Boyhood" (a tip of the hat to Walter Benjamin's "Berliner Kindheit") is about the five and a half years Diao spent there.

Events surrounding the loss of my home in China due to the Communist takeover has festered in my mind my entire life. Beginning in 2007, I finally painted some 30 works that zeroed in on this obsession. The resulting show was entitled, "I lived there until I was 6..." and consisted of paintings of maps, site and floor plans, deeds and other material evidence that the house actually existed. All photographs were lost. It was a harrowing escape from Chengdu to HongKong in late October 1949.

The present show continues the story but focuses on the 5 odd years before emigrating from HongKong to the US in 1955. One memory is of my neighbor Li Lihua, the famous movie star, and her glamorous life downstairs in contrast to our refugee drabness. Maps to establish locale and emblems of institutions in my life became paintings. The internet is a wondrous source for images that supplant the lack of a private archive. But in the end what is a child's world but home, school, church. In working on these paintings I realize that during the entire period there I was mostly waiting to grow up. Besides America was beckoning. - David Diao, Jan 10, 2017

David Diao has been showing with Postmasters since its founding in 1985. This is his twelfth solo exhibition with the gallery.

	David Diao Not To Scale 2016 acrylic on canvas 72 x 120 inches Diao was born in Chengdu in 1943. In 1949 he came to Hong Kong and then left for New York in 1955. While his journey from Chengdu to New York was full of uncertainty, Hong Kong was essentially his transit spot en route both geographically and emotionally speaking.
	David Diao HongKong Boyhood 2017 installation view
	David Diao Arrive/Depart 2016 acrylic on canvas 42 x 100 inches
	David Diao Tsim Sha Tsui 2 2016 acrylic and collage on canvas 68 x 88 inches Map of China, Kowloon, Lantau island and Hongkong.
	David Diao My Favorite Image of Her 2016 acrylic and silkscreen on canvas 2 panels 100 x 42 inches overall 100 x 84 inches David Diao reminisces "I can remember (our apartment) was located in a new five-story building on Chatham Road. Across from our house was the sea, and there were a railroad and a park nearby. Li Lihua's place was on the building's second floor. I remember peeping into her place from outside. The interior decoration was strikingly beautiful and intact. Our unit was on the top floor, its interior simple enough. We moved in when the flat was finished but barely had the chance to paint the walls. My grandfather, a retired general of the Chinese Nationalist Party, was frustrated and disappointed, but he would still have tea with his friends at Peninsula Hotel while losing every penny of his savings in the gold exchange."
	David Diao American Dream in HongKong 2016 acrylic and collage on canvas 68 x 88 inches Li Lihua was Diao's neighbor from 1950 until 1955. She is styled as a cowgirl for the "Free Talk: magazine cover, while the adjacent image shows a 10yr old Diao wearing a Rodeo t-shirt. .
	David Diao A Child's World 2014 acrylic and vinyl on canvas 70 x 40 inches 1, 2, 3 represent the site of his home, school and church, the whole world of a child.
	David Diao Swimming in Shatin 2016 acrylic on canvas 18 x 39 inches Swimming in Shatin was one of the only outings the Diao Family went on during these years.
	David Diao True Light Lutheran Church 1 2016 acrylic and 1-shot enamel on canvas 30 x 30 inches Diao's home, school, and church were located in an area between Chatham Road and Nathan Road. His life centered around his school, which was two streets away from his home, and a church one block away, which often distributed cards with reproductions of religious paintings. It was likely that Diao's interest in art was piqued by the church's handouts.
	David Diao First Refuge (Church Guest House) 2016 acrylic and silkscreen on canvas 48 x 60 inches This is the first place where Diao family got put up before moving to the Chatham Road apartment. This is a period photo from the 50s. Now this location is surrounded by huge highways, the building demolished.
	David Diao First School (Elvy's,) 2016 acrylic and vinyl on canvas 60 x 78 inches During his nearly six-year stay in Hong Kong, Diao had been intensively learning English because of his family's resolution to settle abroad.
	David Diao HongKong Boyhood 2017 installation view
	David Diao I was caned by the Headmaster 1 2016 acrylic and silkscreen on canvas 78 x 60 inches Corporal punishment was prevalent in Diao's school from the headmaster for naughty behaviour.
	David Diao I was caned by the Headmaster 2 2016 acrylic and silkscreen on canvas 78 x 60 inches
	David Diao This Way Out 2 2016 acrylic and carbon on canvas 42 x 100 inches Hong Kong was a transportation hub, a point of departure for the Diao famly. The next stop could be Brazil or America. Not sure which, they knew they wouldn't stay in Hong Kong forever. They came to Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, a less vibrant place then, and settled down in a new building on Chatham Road.
	David Diao HongKong Boyhood 2017 installation view
	David Diao Neighbor 1950-1955 2016 acrylic and silkscreen on canvas 36 x 78 inches Li Lihua was Diao's neighbor from 1950 until 1955 when he moved to New York.
	David Diao Best Western 2016 acrylic and vinyl on canvas 48 x 32 inches Currently, the site of Diao's former Chatham Road apartment building is the location of the Best Western Hotel.
	David Diao My Best Friend 2016 acrylic and vinyl on canvas 48 x 32 inches
	David Diao School Crest 2 (Diocesan Boys' School) 2016 acrylic and enamel on canvas 46 x 36 inches
	David Diao HongKong Boyhood 2017 installation view
	David Diao History of England 2016 acrylic and vinyl on canvas 48 x 32 inches An image of the Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom.
	David Diao God Save The Queen 2016 acrylic and vinyl on canvas 54 x 70 inches During his nearly six-year stay in Hong Kong, Diao had been intensively learning English because of his family's resolution to settle abroad.