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Indepth Arts News:
"Chinese Contemporary Art Masters Exhibition"
2008-08-01 until 2008-08-31
Art Scene Warehouse
Shanghai, ,
CN China
Art Scene China's summer exhibition brings together the work of some of China‚s top contemporary art masters: Zhong Biao, Du Xinjian, Hung Liu, Xue Jiye, Feng Feng, Zhou Weihua and Chen Xinmao. Not only are these artists experienced and technically excellent artists, but they are also very creative and each of their paintings (unlike that of many of their contemporaries) is unique and full of many ideas. Zhong Biao has become one of China's most sought after contemporary painters. While his paintings are readily identifiable as being his own, each composition of Zhong's works is different. Zhong's latest piece is a diptych depicting a man walking in front of the famous cathedral-dome in Cologne. Zhong Biao cleverly composes the scene as a painting within the painting, so as to remind us of the reality - that we are looking at art.
Du Xinjian is without a doubt one of China‚s most creative and skilled contemporary artists. Du often reads and quotes Chinese philosophers; many of the ancient masters‚ concepts, as well as a variety of renaissance, classical and modern things, find their way into the artist's paintings. For example, in "Situation", a fish is laid side-by-side with a man on dry land. Du Xinjian has said that animals are not encumbered by owning things and responsibility, and therefore, animals are in a way more free and hence more valuable than people. The fish in the painting is out of water, and is startled that the man next to him, who should be ok out of water, is suffering the same ill-effects.
Hung Liu is probably the most famous Chinese woman artist in North America. Her work has been exhibited and collected by such prestigeous institutions as the Whitney Museum, Asian Art Museum, Smithsonian, the SF MoMA, etc. Hung Liu left China over 25 years ago, shortly after the end of the cultural revolution. She often depicts a variety of images from that period, juxtaposed with bright Chinese motifs.
Xue Jiye is a multi-talented Chinese contemporary artist. He is a sculptor as well as a painter. Xue uses a classical colour palette. And his paintings often feature black humour. For example, in one painting two men are doing battle; each man is standing on a platform, unable to reach the other. So one man has torn his own arm off to use it as a club to defeat the other man. This dark hmour reflects our reality, when people or countries can harm themselves in order to defeat others.
Zhou Weihua is an experienced Chinese contemporary painter who paints with a bright, colourful palette, often depicting people in black-and-white, due to them being only temporarily on this earth. Zhou's paintings are always positive, as he depicts his subjects full of energy, and their happiness and enthusiasm for life emanates out from the canvases.
Feng Feng is one of China's premier contemporary abstract artists. Feng's style is well-recognized, and many younger artists attempt to copy him. Feng Feng places much emphasis on colour and texture, rather like Mark Rothko. But Feng Feng uses a variety of media and if one looks closely at some of his paintings, figures living in ancient China become visible.
Chen Xinmao is probably China‚s premier contemporary abstract Chinese ink artist. Chen is a very experienced artist who has experiemented with a variety of abstract styles, and continues to explore new methods of expression. Chen's works are sometimes viewed as abstract landscapes, on which the artists prints texts from pages of Chinese history. Chen uses text for design rather than for people to read, and the texts are often blurred and put layer upon layer within his works. The artist says that the historical texts are layered to symbolise the passage of time, and they are purposely blurred because history itself is unclear.
IMAGE
Hung Liu
One Thousand Miles
Oil on Canvas
2003
84x168cm
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