PRESS RELEASE
ONLINE EXHIBITION
JUNE 16. 2021 – JULY 16. 2021
Ronewa Art Projects presents A Diary of Reflection and Hope, an online exhibition featuring Chinese-Finnish artist Canal Cheong Jagerroos. From June 16 till July 16, works from three new series showcasing Cheong Jagerroos’ rich layering of symbols, materials, and painterly techniques will be on show in the Ronewa viewing room.
Having trained in Chinese fine art, Cheong Jagerroos integrates time-honored techniques, symbols, and language into her mixed-media abstract paintings and immersive installation exhibitions. A process of construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction forms the basis of her multi-layered works, beginning with large rice paper and ink drawings that she tears into pieces. These fragments are reformed into new compositions with paint and diverse materials, creating a distinctive visual language. The synthesis between Cheong Jagerroos’ different techniques and visual elements influenced by both East and West reflects her own experience moving between these worlds.
The new series of works presented in the Ronewa viewing room, ‘Diary,’ ‘Reflection’ and ‘Orange New Hope,’ are Cheong Jagerroos’ artistic response to the unprecedented global crisis we are witnessing. Together, these works evoke a mixture of emotions from sorrow to hope. Flashes of vibrant orange inject warmth and energy into compositions largely dominated by subdued tones. For Cheong Jagerroos, art making must be a sincere expression of her sentiments and experiences, which by nature are not fixed. Therefore openness underlines her entire process, including how viewers each bring their own meaning to her works based on their diverse backgrounds, outlooks, and emotions.
Canal Cheong Jagerroos (b.1968) lives and works between Helsinki, Shanghai, Nice, Berlin, and Tokyo. Growing up in an artistic family in Macau she has been immersed in Chinese art since childhood. Over the past 30 years, she has lived in numerous countries from Asia to Europe and Africa, which has greatly influenced her practice. Cheong Jagerroos has exhibited extensively throughout Europe, China and the USA. Her co-founded art project ‘Blue and Red’ and ongoing project ‘Floating Island,’ featuring large-scale paintings and textile installations, have been exhibited in numerous art museums in China and Finland from 2018 to 2020, including Korundi Rovaniemi Art Museum, Joensuu Art Museum, Jyväskylä Art Museum, and Salo Art Museum in Finland, and Xian Art Museum in China.
