Co-sponsored by the Beijing Artists Association, the Beijing Academy of Fine Arts and the Shenzhen Art Museum, the "Sheng Sheng- Yang Gang Art Exhibition" opened on December 24, 2021 at the Art Museum of the Beijing Academy of Fine Arts. Taking the theme of the Winter Olympics as the starting point, the exhibition focuses on more than 130 works of ink, sketching and calligraphy created by Yang Gang between 2000 and 2018, and carefully and vividly sorts out Yang Gang's creative experience and the generative logic behind his art for the audience. This exhibition is also included in the "Meet in Beijing" Olympic Cultural Festival and the 22nd "Meet in Beijing" International Art Festival, which will become a dynamic scenery in the cultural and artistic feast during the Beijing Winter Olympics.
The title of this exhibition is taken from the "Zhou Yi Zhi Ci" "The Meaning of Birth is Easy", "Sheng" is the great virtue of heaven and earth is to make everything in the world live endlessly, and "Sheng" is also to constantly create changes for the pursuit of freedom. Just like the Olympic spirit we advocate, and like Yang Gang's artistic life, we have been constantly innovating, changing, exploring and challenging different art forms and styles along the way.
Yang Gang loves painting and sports, learned to ride a horse in the Inner Mongolian grassland, and often swims in the Kunming Lake of the Summer Palace after returning to Beijing, and his love of sports is also one of the reasons why he pays special attention to the Winter Olympics. Since 2000, he has created a large number of Winter Olympic works on television, with brushes, markers, and sketches and inks on various types of paper with signature pens or ballpoint pens. He likes the sense of scene of sketching, but also emphasizes the fun of the line, and sketching has become a great pleasure in his artistic life.
With solid Chinese and Western painting techniques and keen insight, coupled with the integration of calligraphy pen and linear experience, these Winter Olympic works combine sketching with calligraphy pens and image modeling, integrate modern abstraction and compositional elements, the artistic image is vivid and vivid, the painted objects have both a fleeting sense of presence and impact, and a sculptural sense of volume and eternity, realizing the contradiction and unity of "speed" and "strength" in a few strokes, reflecting the rhythm of life and the endless Olympic spirit.
Because of its extraordinary expressiveness, Yang Gang's Winter Olympics-themed works have become the official publicity image of the global collection of public art for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, and the animated short videos of the project will also be exhibited in the exhibition hall on the second floor. At the same time, in order to allow the audience to experience Yang Gang's creative state, an interactive area was specially set up in the exhibition hall to reproduce the scene of Yang Gang sketching on the TV, and the audience could personally feel the pleasure and difficulty of the pen in front of the TV.
Yang Gang's pursuit of artistic freedom allows him to continuously absorb rich nutrients and create a new style and appearance. He said: "When I am free, I often leave the light car and seek my own unfreedom, and then through continuous efforts to achieve new freedom. For example, after entering the Beijing Academy of Painting, he began to learn ink painting from the Gongbi Painting Class, and learned to carve stones on the cliffs of Tieshan Mountain, and the calligraphy and ink state promoted each other. He began practicing ink elephants in the 1990s, and his attention to modern Japanese and Korean calligraphy, including ink elephant school and calligraphy with few words, also inspired him to explore expressive ink painting and experimental ink paintings.
The exhibition will span the New Year, for which Yang Gang's Winter Olympics-themed door sticker image created with red paper will be specially displayed to add joy to New Year's Day and the upcoming 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. The exhibition will also be on display at the Shenzhen Art Museum after the end of January 13, 2021.
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Wang Yan
Editor/Cui Wei