My work has, for some time, reflected a conscious preoccupation with effecting an aesthetic reconciliation between a Western Abstract sensibility with a uniquely Chinese form of calligraphic mark making, through a visual language of gestural, lyrical abstraction, with colour and form assuming dominance over figuration or representation. These works reflect the experience of revisiting China and encountering the past in collision with the present - the images conceal while revealing, reminiscent of disintegrating surfaces and peeling paint and vibrate with the intense, vibrant, sometimes faded colours and sensations of the Chinese environment. They look through veils and doorways to the other side.

In an interview some three years prior to his death, Matisse is reported to have said, '...all this time I have looked for the same things, which I have perhaps realised by different means.' This statement strikes a chord within my own work as I discover a familiarity among my diverse influences and sources of inspiration. As Sasha Grishin wrote,

'Kuo is very conscious of a distinction between Chinese and Western modes of visualization... His delicately balanced non-figurative designs have an ease, elegance and breathing freedom which can be associated with traditional Chinese calligraphy, yet are firmly located within the tradition of western Abstract Expressionism.'

Copyright: Graham Kuo, 2001