"Under the City - Over there Scenery sea four-person exhibition" was recently exhibited in Qianhe Art Space. The exhibition presents the recent works of four artists of the Four Schools, Namett He Xi, Hong Jian, Bai Ying and Shao Beijiong.
The theme of the exhibition is "Under the City", and curator Xu Mingsong explains: "Under the City is a path to find a breakthrough between tradition and the present, that is, 'the scenery is in front'. In Xu Mingsong's view, "most of the artists gathered in the city, their urban consciousness and artistic consciousness are projected in their works, reflecting a rich creative aspect." ”
Among the participating artists, He Xi's paintings have a wider range of social issues and humanistic care. He Xi likes big pictures, standing in front of the white wall where he paints for nine hours every day, for decades like a day. He Xi's independent and keen perspective and allegorical expression make his works almost connect the transformation and evolution of Chinese society in the past 40 years, expressing the pursuit and thinking of the present and the future, life and the world.
He Xi Ben Yun Ink on Silk 2021
Hu Jianjun, an art critic and associate professor at the School of Fine Arts of Shanghai University, commented: "He Xi was the founder of the field of Chinese painting in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Silently and stubbornly, he single-handedly changed the concepts and illustrations of flower and bird painting with the deepest traditional brush and ink, making it a carrier of thought and spirit. ”
Bai Ying Yang No.22 Color on Paper 2017
In Bai Ying's works, metaphors and symbols are the means by which the painter can wield his brushstrokes, and they are also the painter's unique aesthetic pursuits. Bai Ying's urban women reveal a sense of alienation from life, they are a different group of people in urban life, and they also reveal some unique urban temperament. Bai Ying said: "Born in Shanghai, nourished by the city, Shanghai's urban ecology often fascinates me. Urban people, especially women, have become the main vehicles for my attention and performance over the years. ”
Hong Jian Yi No.6 Color on Paper 2021
Under Hong Jian's brush, you can also see the painter's affectionate look back at the city of Shanghai. Unlike Bai Ying, Hong Jian focuses on the building itself, and even consciously or unconsciously ignores the most important life symbol of the city - people. In his picture, there is no one, no hustle and bustle of the city, only the facades of individual or group buildings that seem to be silent. Hong Jian skillfully projected the restraint of wanting to talk and the wisdom of wanting to say and resting on the picture, rendering a layer of emotional color and literary imagery to the clean and neat picture. The old buildings and old city boxes he writes about, with its looming roofs, mottled walls, rusty doors and windows, as well as the flickering light and shadow at dusk, and the lights that are extinguished in the middle of the night, highlight the historical texture and texture of the city.
"Shanghai's modern architecture has undergone a century of changes. These urban memories, which have survived to this day, are not a simple specimen, they are still integrated with the current culture and life, and they are still full of vitality. "This kind of image with vitality is what I have been trying to find." Painting the old buildings of Shanghai is actually painting your own life. The contrast between the old building and the symbols of current life is always full of fun and makes you always have a passion for exploration. ”
Shao Shujiong Carving Time (IV) Color on Paper 2021
Relatively speaking, Shao Shujiong's paintings are the landscape paintings that are far from the city and the most traditional of the four. His works are quaint and indifferent, calm and restrained. In the historical evolution of landscape painting that has lasted for thousands of years, the composition consciousness of modern painting has been integrated.
The exhibition exhibits his "Carving Time" 1-4, "Streamer", etc., the material of the work is leather paper, ink and color, and the painting method is mainly based on classical landscape painting techniques, inheriting the painting language of Chinese painting. "The schema structure takes the virtual mountain stone and cloud gas as the main body, dilutes the concept of regional landscape, emphasizes the visual change of the multi-perspective local structure and plane structure of the mountain, and embodies a geometric formal beauty and the vitality of the inner movement with abstraction." Shao Weijiong said, "Different from the hermitage of traditional landscape painting, what I want to express is the virtual realm of heaven and earth, which is a challenge to the aesthetic sense of traditional landscape painting. ”
The exhibition will be on view until January 23, 2022.