Bryan Mew

Black II (黑)

41 × 30 cm

Sumi Ink on Xuan Paper

Unsold

Suggested offer$900

About the work

The ancient character depicts fire burning beneath a vessel, darkening it with smoke and soot. It captures black not as an absence of light, but as something created, transformed by fire, time, and change.

About the artist

Bryan Mew is a Chinese Australian artist reimagining the ancient origins of Chinese characters through contemporary ink painting, sculpture, performance and installation. His work brings a 3,000-year-old visual language into the present, revealing the images and stories hidden within the words we use today. Born in Hong Kong and based in Sydney, Bryan Mew is a Chinese Australian artist whose practice explores the ancient origins of Chinese writing and their possibilities within contemporary art.

Working across ink painting, sculpture, performance and installation, Mew traces characters back to their earliest pictorial forms—when written language was closely connected to drawings of people, animals, nature and everyday life. Through gesture, material and experimentation, he reimagines these ancient forms as living, expressive works for contemporary audiences.

His practice has been developed through exhibitions, residencies and projects across Australia and Japan.

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