Reader/Shenzhen Business Daily reporter Liang Ying
Zhao Qili's solo exhibition "Shadow" by post-90s artists was held at the Guan Shanyue Art Museum in Shenzhen from November 9 to November 15. Her series of works based on the story "Alice in Wonderland" has received widespread attention through the dissemination of social networks, and this exhibition is a phased summary of her creative career.
△ Exhibition scene Zhao Qili, an artist born in 1994, graduated from the Illustration Department of the Printmaking Department of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, and as soon as she graduated, she rose to the art scene with the "Tears of Alice" series of works and attracted attention. In 2016, he set up a personal studio to specialize in creation. Her works have a strong picture book narrative style, most of the early creative inspiration is taken from Alice in Wonderland, the picture presents a variety of fantasy scenes, let herself fly in the fairy tale world, and vaguely with a little bit of self-contained darkness, forming a very unique and distinctive style, she put those difficult to express loneliness and fantasy, through the shelf painting and installation, etc., with the audience emotional communication and resonance.
△ Artist Zhao Qili
The exhibition takes "shadow" as the theme, on the one hand, systematically organizes her works according to the creation time, so that the audience can feel her growth in composition and painting skills; on the other hand, the protagonist in the painting is similar to the author, and the audience can feel the artist's personal projection, and the physical and mental perception is transformed into the scene in the work, forming a unique landscape.
Lu Rongzhi, the academic director of the exhibition, believes that from this exhibition, we can see the development of Zhao Qili since 2016 and understand her more complete creative appearance. The innocence of the childlike world in the work is the attraction of Zhao Qili's works, and there is no need for explanation from others.
Lu Rongzhi interprets Zhao Qili's works with "innocent fantasy dreams", she said, Zhao Qili's inner world is a little girl who has not grown up, from the eyes of Alice in her paintings, you can see that she is incomprehensible to the complexity of the real world, sometimes happy, sometimes frightened, sometimes sad, sometimes full of doubts and confusion, and even use tears to convey her uneasiness. Painting is the channel for Zhao Qili to communicate with the world, so her paintings are the best picture book carriers.
However, Zhao Qili's group painting installation is different from the concept of reading and watching the picture book in order, she takes the immersive experience as the goal, uses the technique of installation art, with the effect of light and shadow, and builds large and small physical paintings into a story array of content associations, and the audience shuttles through it, as if she has become Alice, flowing in Zhao Qili's illusion, facing all the content and details, allowing the audience to connect the context of the story. At this time, Zhao Qili has become a bystander in the hidden invisible corner, transforming her joys and sorrows into the script of the theater, allowing the audience to perform on their own.
Review: Sun Shijian