ART INTERNATIONAL ZURICH 2009

X-Power Gallery

X-Power Gallery is part of the luxury goods group, GP DEVA, and the Gallery currently has five spots globally - Beverly Hills (US), Taipei, Taichung, Kaohsiung (all in Taiwan), and Shanghai (China).
The Frontier Art / X-Power Gallery is a gallery focusing on contemporary art, and it has so far held exhibitions in Italy, US, France, Singapore, Taiwan, and China. Recently the Gallery-recommended artwork of the Gallery's partnering artist was auctioned the highest price of all the contemporary Taiwanese paintings in an international contemporary and modern Chinese art auction.

Gallery Artists
Lee, Sun-Don (Taiwan)
Hubert Cance (France)
Luise Andersen (USA)
Dennis Williams (USA)
Alessandro Consonni (Italy)
Iskren Semkov (Bulgaria)
Stephen Kaldor (Australia)

Lee, Sun-Don
Artist of X-Power Gallery

Lee Sun-Don, born in Kaohsiung of south Taiwan, is the pioneer of the painting genre called "Totemic Energy Oil Painting," a genre characterized by mind-awakening aesthetics. Being the 3rd patriarch of Buddist Forshang, Lee illustrates the profound insights of Zen sensibility via the illustration of "totem"-a visual image capturing the rhyme of harmony and balance of cosmic energies. Although receiving no formal training in fine arts, Lee has been heralded as the "Modern Oriental Picasso" by Italian art critics and exalted as the "Top Artist" by a well-established art group with galleries located in EU and USA, Camaver Kunsthaus International, which has endowed such honor to only five artists since the 1940s.

Manifesting a wide array of motifs, diverse aesthetic styles, distinctive color coordination, and versatile painting techniques, Lee's creation receives international attention. He has won more than three dozens of prestigious recognition across the globe simply within this year, including the world's most reputed watercolor competition organized by Royal Watercolour Society and The Sunday Times in UK, Royal West of England Academy 156th Autumn Exhibition by Royal West of England Academy, the 25th Exposition of Salon International by European Academy of Arts-France (awarded Participation Diploma), and the L'Chayim Art Show by Jewish Heritage Foundation in USA (wining 2nd place). His artworks have also been selected and invited to exhibit in the museums and expositions of great renown: MOMA in Wales, Musee des Lettres et Manuscrits in Paris, Russian Academy of Arts, National art Museum of China, Museum of Kyoto, Haggin Museum in California, Florence Biennal 2009 in Italy, and three French-held International Autumn Salons, just to name a few. Appreciate his creativity, many international celebrated art societies in Europe, America and Australia have granted him membership, of which is the 1754-established Royal Society for the Encouragement of Art, Manufactures & Commerce, best known as RSA-the first art society that was conferred upon the entitlement of "Royal" in British history.

An Artist with a Mission
Biography of Lee, Sun-Don

Lee Sun-Don is a creative writer, classical music composer, self-taught pianist, talented painter, and advanced chess player. He is a science essayist, offering insights into the mysteries of the universe. He is also a humanitarian entrepreneur, dedicating profits for philanthropic activities. But above all, Mr. Lee is a Buddhist Master from Taiwan.
Mr. Lee took refuge in Buddhism in his late twenties under the mentorship of Yuan-Dao Bodhisattva, and was later authorized as the third Dharma Heir of Buddhist Forshang in March 1989. As a Buddhist practitioner as well as leader, he commits himself to bringing awareness to one's innate Buddha nature and to glorifying the spirit of Buddha nature. To fulfill this commitment, Master Lee established The Forshang Buddhism World Center in 1989, including the primary lecture hall in Taipei, and several branches in southern and central Taiwan, Japan, Canada, and the US. The ways he preaches Buddha dharma are creative, versatile, and beyond tradition.
To apply Buddhist doctrines to secular practices, Master Lee then went and set up the non-profit organizations-Forshang World Foundations-in Taiwan, Los Angeles, Toronto, and Vancouver with a goal to promote charity activities and international exchanges in the fields of culture, scholarship, education, art, and medicine.
Beginning 1997, under Lee's design and supervision, a Tang Dynasty-style spiritual sanctuary went under construction and was completed in August 2000, financed and collaboratively built by the volunteer workers who are the disciples of Master Lee. This magnificent sanctuary, located in the outskirt of Taipei, Taiwan, is called Yuan-Dao Guanyin Temple, named after the 2nd Patriarch of Buddhist Forshang, and has since become one of the must-see spots for tourists and local visitors as well.
Considering himself as a humanitarian entrepreneur, Lee establishes the thesis of "Fifth Economic Theory." He proposes a flat organizational structure in which not only are workers cultivated with compassion, but also profits earned from business operation are mainly for charity - producing profits for public benefits. Applying this theory to practice, Lee founded an all-natural body-care and totemic energy jewellery line company -- GP DEVA -- in 2003, with current Flagship Store in Beverly Hills in USA, a sales outlet at Yokohama in Japan, and the Global Master Store in Taiwan. Lee is the mastermind behind all the product design. With the corporate motto-"Real business is to bring meaning to life"-GP DEVA under Lee's spiritual leadership has been actively engaging in philanthropic activities in the fields of art and culture, international aids, sports and recreation.
Lee is also a man with science vision. He has written on various advanced science theories, namely "The Ninth Seal Series." In this series, he shares with us his perceptive insights in various arenas: universal system, mathematics, human life science, cosmology, genetic medicine, food and health, and so on. These writings bring about rethinking on what most famous scientists like Steven Hawking have proposed and been studying. Lee's theories, in fact, not only offers Buddhist scientific visions and approaches; more importantly, it introduces to mankind the outlook of life that is positioned based upon the concern of the whole universe.
In his earlier years and before he formally converted to Buddhism under the teaching of Yuan-Dao Bodhisattva, Lee was a popular martial arts novelist. His first martial arts novel had even been adapted into a television drama series and created a sensation among the viewers at that time. In 1999, after ten years of deliberate incubation, he began the writing of another novel, Ningfeng Tianxia. Published in 2003 and was the top three best sellers at a major bookstore chain in Taiwan. Ningfeng Tianxia has been praised for introducing a new Zen literary style to the genre of martial arts novel. Lee artistically incorporates Buddhist teaching of wisdom and compassion into his story line, thereby allowing readers, Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike, to be enlightened while entertained.
Just like the literature, music is another area of arts in which Lee has developed a unique talent through profound practice of Buddhism. Although never learned piano before, Lee, during the period between 1998 and 2001 and in the spirit of gratitude and remembrance of his beloved mentor, composed, played, and distributed piano suites, entitled "A Memoir of a Great Patriarch Series." These works had been rearranged into a suite for piano and orchestra, performed at the National Concert Hall in 2003. In 2006, they were rearranged into a suite for violin and orchestra, of which the melody "Perfection" was nominated in 2007 as the "Outstanding Composer of Traditional and Art Music" by the 18th Golden Melody Award - the greatest honour for the music industry -- in Taiwan. Despite an extremely demanding schedule for painting, exhibition and preaching Buddhism, Lee is expected to continue his music creation in honour of his mentor.
Mr. Lee's painting all started in 1993 when he for the first time visualized in deep meditation the totem of the universe; i.e., the fundamental image of all the phenomena and all the energies of the universe. Five years later, he came up with the idea of totemic creation. He realized that a simple composition of lines, colors, and strokes could suffice to perfectly capture the ineffably transformative manifestations of the universe. Since then, not only has he applied the idea of totemic creation to painting, but landscape, jewellery, merchandise, and interior designs as well, providing the best interpretation of "Aesthetics of Energy" and "Art for Life." More importantly, he has established a painting genre distinctively his own, called Totemic Energy Oil Painting.
Lee made his debut exhibition of Totemic Energy Oil Paintings, entitled "Ultimate Purity," at Taiwan's distinguished Chang-Liu Art Gallery in November of 2006. The curator of the gallery, Huang Cheng-Chi, who is also a renowned art appraiser and a collector himself, remarked Lee for "instilling a new spiritual element to contemporary art." In July 2007, Lee became the first in history to incorporate the ultimate Buddha dharma in arts using western oil painting with the exhibition at the Cultural Gallery of the National Concert Hall, entitled "Thus Is Realized", which illustrates the entire Diamond Sutra - the enlightening Buddhist sutra -- with oil on canvas.
Lee's Totemic Energy Oil Painting-which embodies Buddhist teaching and mystical power in aesthetics-has received global recognition. Lee has been gaining traction in Asia almost right after he started to paint. In 2008 alone, Lee's touring exhibition covers almost all the major museums in China, including Shanghai Arts Museum and the prestigious China Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. The Museum of Kyoto in Kyoto, Japan will also hold an exhibition for Lee. In view of his achievements in innovation and creativity, the influential Peking University and Xiamen University have both invited Lee to give lectures in art and creativity. Commercially, Lee has done well in private collections. One of Lee's paintings, Freedom Beyond Freedom, was sold for the highest price at an international auction in 2007, of all the artworks by contemporary Taiwanese artists.
The Western art circles are starting to take notes as well. The IL Tempo Roma Newspaper in Italy calls Master Lee "the Modern Oriental Picasso". Eleanor Heartney, the former president of America Section of the International Art Critics Association, says Lee's "...loose, gestural works provides lyrical representations of states of ecstasy, harmony and contemplation while literally embodying the transformative energies of the universe..." Denise Williams, the Art Director of Santa Fe Art World, told Lee: "I see many things, many powerful messages in these works... You touch my hearts." While holding exhibitions worldwide, Lee continues receiving recognition for being accepted as member of various art societies and winning contests. More recently one of Lee's two contested paintings just won the second place at the Rosenzweig Gallery's 6th Annual Juried Art Show "L'Chayim, To Life" by the Jewish Heritage Foundation of North Carolina -- juried by Dr. Kimerly Rorschach of the Nasher Museum of Art at the Duke University --, and the other painting was selected for the cover of the invitation postcard. Another four paintings were all selected by the Camaver Kunsthaus International to the finalist for the 6th Cesi Palace, Acquasparta Exhibition - Green Lion - in Italy. Camaver Kunsthaus International also put Lee as one of their five global "Top Artists" in seven years. In 2009 Lee would be showing his artworks at the Biennale Internazionale dell'Arte Contemporanea (2009 Florence Biennale), which will take place at the Fortezza da Basso, 5- 13 december 2009, and the Russian Academy of Arts.
The predominant motif of Lee's artwork centers on Buddhist philosophy, or the path to enlightenment. With his brushstrokes, Lee illustrates the wisdom and compassion of the Buddha in the hope of inspiring all sentient beings to uncover their self-existent Buddhahood. In his own words, "If my totemic energy artwork could make Buddhist doctrines more accessible and much easier to be appreciated, this would be quite a beautiful way to honor the Buddha. As a Buddhist practitioner and artist, this is what I have been telling myself everyday; it is also the ultimate momentum that keeps me creating."
With the wisdom and compassion he possesses and has demonstrated, Lee, for sure, will continue to bring wonders and enlightenment to humankind aesthetically, scientifically, socially, culturally, and religiously.

Art Critics Around the World: Lee, Sun-Don

"Although his art is not only rooted in abstract art in the strictest sense, since it extends to other sources of inspiration and includes Balla, Kandinskij, Klee, Arp, Mirò and Matisse. His artistic research therefore has many references that are also symptoms of an extremely broad cultural horizon.
The work of Lee Sun-Don creates its own original and distinctive style through the combination of several philosophies in a language that escapes its formal order. Form is the threshold through which imagination declines its attitudes. In his case, painting is the tool that directs a linguistic universe not according a freezing project, but rather according to a bias for taking away, a subtle discipline based on the subtraction of certainty to the benefit of a rigorously structured probability."
Former Director of Venice Biennale (1993) Achille Bonito Oliva

"Master Lee is the Modern Oriental Picasso."
Il Tempo Roma Newspaper, Italy

"Master Lee is...the first to ever incorporate...Buddhist ideologies with contemporary western art in oil painting. Master Lee has been dubbed the"Pioneer of Totemic Energy Oil Painting." His approach is both innovative and thought-provoking."
LA Splash Magazine, USA

"His loose, gestural works provide lyrical representations of states of ecstasy, harmony and contemplation while literally embodying the transformative energies of the universe......Both the brushstrokes and the colors express various aspects of the Dharma. Each [painting] contains a "totem", a symbol of universal energy and harmony, apprehended in the process of deep meditation. Each totem is designed to spark a sense of enlightenment and transcendence in the viewer."
Eleanor Heartney, Former President of AICA-USA, the American Section of the International Art Critics Association.

"We are pleased to announce that Lee Sun-Don has been selected by Camaver Kunsthaus International as the Top Artist of the world. He is the fifth artist in the whole world who has been awarded this highest honor since the 1940s. All his work and a motion of the spirit, a mystery by revealing, a situation to be contemplated and espolare. This ripo of art has little to do with artistic aesthetic, and above all a way to liberate the essence cosmic entirely through the inner point of view of who performs the act: the artist."
Marcello Cazzaniga, Art Director, Camaver Kunsthaus International, Italy

"I see many things, many powerful messages in these works. Yes, not only are they the prizes we were looking for in their execution, but the message is more vibrant as a result as they are cast from the spirit on a clear day uninterrupted...You touch my heart. It is important for the artist to lay their soul on canvas, Master Lee achieves this. This is why his work is a conduit of energy, why it heals, why it is more than telling a well executed visual story and exactly why the work comes to life for it is a living entity from his hand, his soul."
Denise Williams, Art Director, Santa Fe Art World

"The paintings are not detailed, verging on late Matisse in how they highlight shape and brilliant color effect to carry the theme. However, unlike the works of the French painter, Lee uses imperceptibility for key effects. One of the abiding motifs of Lee's work: Even the humblest implements form relationships that are imbued with spiritual value. It is a truth and mystery Lee makes clear, using his formidable skill and fluency with color and composition."
Jim Feast, Art Critic, USA

"Through his paintings, he tells of finding a method of enlightenment, in which it seems to give him the understanding of the essence of the universe. He understands that the essence of the universe could be translated onto his canvas. Instead of worrying about how Westerners perceive art, it becomes a medium to transmit to others the sense of mystery towards the universe. This should help his students and maybe others in the future to find themselves with the cosmic understanding that reigns over us."
Gaetano Ricco, Retired Professor in World Art, Italy

"The art that the Zen Master wishes to bring is a path that allows us to better understand the teachings of Buddha through certain symbolism. And in order to free one's spirit and collect the true sense of everything, we might take the path of meditation. Through the paintings, we... see the semantics, the meanings of the symbols."
Aldo Carrozza, Art Critic, Italy

"Totemic representation, bold colour coordination, and harmonious structure collectively make Master Lee's artwork truly unique and comparable to Western painting masters."
Antonio Miniaci, Art Connoisseur, Dealer, and Owner of Galleries Worldwide, Italy

"As the pioneer of Totemic Energy Oil Painting, Lee Sun-Don spent only one year to achieve what most artists would have spent their lifetime to accomplish. Lee has grasped the pulse of and created new concepts for modern painting art. Among contemporary Taiwanese artists, Lee Sun-Don is one of the very few who possess originality. His artwork is uniquely characterized by the totems of the universe in conjunction with the gist of Buddhist sutras and stories. Different from traditional religious paintings and Tibetan Thangka, his artworks reveal distinctive styles, expressions, and techniques, including using the painting tools designed by himself. More importantly, he always comes up with inestimable new thinking, and accordingly, new subject matters for painting and creative forms of presentation. While demonstrating the spirit and scope of Zen paintings, he transcends the limitations of overly-simplistic and rugged styles of the traditional Chinese Zen master painters such as Mu Xi and Liang Kai. In Lee's art, one can also see the fusion of motions and passions of Van Gogh, the sentiments and sensuality of Kandinsky's abstract expressionism, Picasso's Cubism, Chagall's dream-like qualities, Dali's surrealism, Miro's naivety and romance, and Zhao Wuji's mysterious power. Coupled with the totems of the universe he has witnessed, Lee was able to represent the basic patterns of all energies with simple line structures and mystical colors. His complete art performance is truly breathtaking! Art is the work of talents, not learning-Lee's performance testifies to this truth once again."
Huang Cheng-Chi, Curator/Director, Chan Liu Art Museum, Taiwan

"A painting artist is to receive and respond to all the phenomena and to directly face all the manifestations of the world with the mind as a bright mirror that never rejects but takes, reflects, and embraces all existences. That is the so-called "Great Dao goes through; it reaches and manifests. The clouds shy away and the sun shines; the waters are clear and the mountains are green. " With such a mind in concord with the great universe, Mr. Lee lets his respect and humility toward the Buddhas outshine his skills and techniques in painting. He simply forgets about the techniques: he is just like an innocent kid, enthusiastically picking a bouquet of wildflowers for his mother-without any sense of nobleness or lowliness, goodness or evil, but pure love. When we are guided by Lee's artworks to get in touch with the glory of the Buddha, will we still care about the techniques of his painting at all? Colors and lines all become the paths to and manifestations of Great Dao."
Mao Daizong, Dean, The School of Fine Arts of Shandong College of Arts, China

"I know not much about Buddhism, but I enjoy Sun-Don's works very much. My instinct tells me that his works are simple and yet inspiring; his employments of colors are bold and powerful and yet his brushstrokes are neither obsequious nor overbearing but balanced and proportioned. It is as if he is preaching within, leisurely, trying to share with us something behind a schema and beyond the paints and brushes. Neither the painting style, the charm of the brushstrokes, or the gist of his works is common. His artworks reveal the aura of serenity and composure, and the languages of his expression are crisp and clean. I believe that for those who study or practice Buddhism, they should be able to perceive and experience even more profound meanings from his works."
Zhang Liping, Chair, Department of Fine Arts, Art College of Xiamen University, China

"The artist endeavors to demonstrate the open-mindedness, positive thinking, and esprit of Zen aesthetics in painting. In one sense, his endeavor is in succession to the Chinese literati's tradition of"Zen contemplation"prevailing during the Tang-Song period (618-1279); in another sense, he adventures to explore the frontier of the modern art. The motifs of his artwork capture the sense and sensibility of the modern time and the gist furthermore brings spiritual resonance and awakening to the viewers - What Lee accomplishes has already transcended beyond the domain of religion."
Wang Di, Art Critic, China

"He dismantles the gap between geniuses and the ordinary and transcends the arrogance resulting from surpassing painting techniques. He instead demonstrates a path that everyone can take part in and through which everyone can achieve the other shore, the shore of enlightenment: he develops painting into an embodiment of the true reality of life and of cosmos. While viewing at Lee's artworks, one finds that painting concerns no longer the showoff of skills nor the expression of passion toward life, but the manifestation of self, the colorful manifestations of the innate nature-it is the dharma that leads the viewers to experience the sense of transcendence and the ultimate truth of the universe."
Yang Zhipeng, Editor-in-Chief, Qingdao Communication Center for Chinese Culture and Art, China

Copyright: X-Power Gallery, China