"All art is toys, all toys are art." This is the artistic manifesto of the godfather of Chao play, Liu Jianwen.
On April 1, artist Michael Lau's first exhibition in Beijing, "COLLECT THEM ALL!" Bao Yuan'er opened at the Guardian Art Center. The exhibition features a number of new works created by Liu Jianwen during the pandemic from 2020 to 2021, including 12 works on canvas and three sculptures.
Showroom scene
"Bao Yuan'er", a dialect full of Beijing flavor, contains the artist's beautiful yearning for this cultural capital with a strong historical and humanistic atmosphere. Due to the epidemic, the artist himself was unable to attend the exhibition in person from Hong Kong, but hoped that through this exhibition, there would be a direct communication with the audience, collectors, students and the art circle in Beijing.
《“COLLECT THEM ALL!” The exhibition "Bao Yuan'er" is through four series: "Method", "First Sight", "Talk to Yourself", "Crazy Child", and a large-scale work "Yes, We Did It!" "" shows the artist's thinking about society, his introspection about himself in the two years since the global shutdown due to the epidemic, and the most authentic form of life and the common destiny of all mankind that he thinks of... Convey the good hope that in the face of disease, disaster and war, humanity will finally work together to defeat them.
All along, Liu Jianwen has pursued the most essential core of art through different external forms such as toys, paintings, sculptures and so on. Today, he is still the young man who loves freedom and constantly challenges himself. If life is like the first sight, the return is still a teenager.
The exhibition site
It is reported that the exhibition is a continuation of the artist's 2019 Shanghai "Full Harvest" exhibition, and it is also the first concentrated appearance of his personal works in Beijing.
The exhibition will run until April 13.
Nandu reporter Huang Qian