GALLERIES:Wang's work: symbolic, surreal

Symbolism works in the arts because it's economical. A well-placed symbol can speak out beyond the limitations of direct representation, even past the symbolist's intentions, expanding to suit the viewer.

Wang Niandong is a symbolist painter. His work is on view at Mandarin Fine Art Gallery (1294 So. Coast Highway). The gallery is also showing some very interesting pastel studies, but go to see the large-scale oils on linen, crammed into the small space just inches away from each other.

They are large indeed, and jaw-dropping, so prepare yourself. His iconography falls into patterns and repetitions, true to the symbolist tradition. There are road signs. There are butterflies. There are animals and plants, and many compositions are set under deep blue water (either a pool or the ocean).

But most of all, there are women. Lots and lots of beautiful Asian women in various stages of undress.

Now, in a symbolist work, you need not ask the artist what the butterflies and road signs mean. You can figure this out on your own, but figure it out you must. They make you read them. So, with so many other symbols, it's fair to ask what the women symbolize.

"In Quiet Blue" (quite large at 58 x 76) is a fairly simple composition, a woman standing and a woman sitting. The standing woman is in a kimono, meekly turned away. The sitting woman is in an elaborate strapless silk gown, with floating, layered hair.

Her hair is floating because the entire scene is set under water. She sits on a green jacquard settee. A crab scuttles on the floor next to a playing card (the king of diamonds). The floor of this silent sea is decorated with a pedestrian crossing and street signs indicate deer may be present while a gazelle leaps in the background.

Welcome to the place where symbolism crosses into surrealism. The artist can have his point of view, you can have yours. But I see this as an elaborate metaphor for the current state of Chinese contemporary art.

The last time I was in Mandarin Fine Art, taking notes on the paintings, a neatly dressed older man wearing a cap approached me and asked me how Chinese women were different from American women, because he was going to meet one. More than a little creeped out by the implications, I told him I was busy and moved away.