Shanghart H-Space in Shanghai will show "Here, the scene is better" shich features new oil paintings by Ji Wenyu and 'soft sculptures' (textile sculptures) Ji Wenyu created together with his artist wife Zhu Weibing in the last few years. It is the first time several of their sculptures will be presented to the public.
Noted for his meticulous pop style since the mid to late 1990s, Ji Wenyu focuses in his paintings on the depiction of everyday elements he sees around him. His canvas is often filled crowdedly with ordinary people or a particular vulgar life scene.
He is a keen observer of the contradictions, 'funny encounters' and problems occuring during the development of his home town Shanghai from a Chinese city to an international megalopolis and the modernization and internationalization of China in general.
Ji Wenyu creates his works very slowly. Even compared to other Chinese artists of his generation who got a well founded technical eduction in the art academies, Ji Wenyu is an extraordinary painter.
For a long time, Ji Wenyu has been thinking how to go beyond the canvas, switching from 2-dimension to 3-dimensions. During the last few years he started, together with his wife, Zhu Weibing, to develop a series of 'soft sculptures', 3-dimensional objects made out mostly of fabric. Fascinated by the material, the couple developed a new visual language, which takes up a lot of Ji Wenyus themes and humour but creates entirely fresh and surprising sculptures.
While Ji Wenyu's works have been shown widly to the public, this exhibtion will feature for the first time the main pieces the artist couple created in the last few years.
This exhibition at Shanghart's H-Space will be followed by an exhibition of Ji Wenyu and Zhu Weibing at Museum 52 in London later in June.
Ji Wenyu, born 1959, graduated from the Shanghai Light-industry College in 1988 and is teaching today at the Art's and Crafts College in Shanghai. His works have recently been included in 'Infintite Painting', a large exhibition on tendeces of contemporary painting organized by Francesco Bonami and Sarah Cosulich at the Villa Manin in Italy.
Zhu Weibing: born in 1971, graduated from Central Institute of Arts and Crafts in 1995.
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