Ding Ke, "Nanke Dream, Like a Promise", 140×85cm, watermark woodcut, 2023
Introduction: In the stretched linear structure and large areas of empty and subtle color blocks, very small changes and details carved by the fist knife are added. The warm color in the center surrounded by cold colors is like a firelight, expressing the feeling of uneasiness in the calm package. The black blocks on both sides block the tendency of the realistic language that extends outward from the inside of the work, causing it to stop abruptly at the edges, with the intention of making the bulges and depressions in the coloring more abrupt and highlighting the emptiness of the content of the painting. The title "Nan Ke Dream, as Promised" is a murmur from the viewer or the author who feels that "this may be an empty flower blooming in Nan Ke's dream".
Dong Yayuan, "Looking for the Mountain", 77×100cm, watermark woodcut, 2013
Introduction: Dong Yayuan has shown her imagination and creativity in the ancient craft of watermark woodcut, and has formed a unique oriental Gothic style through works such as "Looking for the Mountain". She identifies with the intent of the material itself, treats the characteristics of watermark woodcuts with awe and humility, and tries to activate and expand its inherent language Her prints, which are full of emotional power, not only successfully express her own unique psychological experience, but also brilliantly interpret the ancient Chinese concept of "heaven and man isomorphism".
李莹 《YOU KNOW》 120×90cm 水印木刻 2023
Introduction: A person's growth environment will eventually be like a mother's body, awakening oneself to return. And this kind of return is not a simple imitation and reconstruction, nor is it a form of innovation without thinking. How to give a suitable personal expression to the noble and independent spiritual temperament of traditional painting with the help of a printmaking language suitable for imagination may help us to understand and appreciate the printmaking world presented by Li Ying more accurately.
Li Wenxiang, Two Tigers, 240×240cm, watermark woodcut, 2022
Introduction: People's pursuit of plurality is a manifestation of greed, because of their inner dissatisfaction, coupled with the love of beautiful things, showing a strong desire. Used to assert one's status, its archetype can classify it as human jealousy.
In fact, the implication of copying is to seek equal and fair opportunities, in the era when there is no copying, people suppress their desires, self-denial and retribution to the traces of labor in exchange for respect, but this is a long-planned trap, the meaning is to obtain the amount of money, to lay the inner wealth. Since then, the replicated virus has spread to all fields and classes, and there is no cure for it, so all of them have fallen, which is the bad side, and the good side is that the fashionable and popular system formed by replication brings a sense of luxury experience, and the industrial revolution is a major contributor to replication, and human power is like liberation, and there is more time for absurd thinking.
This is not the original intention or the ultimate goal of copying, but when everyone finds out that it has life, they panic, and it is absurd to think that this is the case. And the two tigers, or the two lions that are corrected later, are as strange as the children's song "Two Tigers".
Shang Youlu "22-7-9.8" 104.5X89.7cm watermark woodcut 2022
Description: The Production series is a watermark reproduction of non-associated, ready-made images (mainly from the book "News, Pictures and PR Photography" by British photographer Joan Terrant).
On the surface, this work embodies the mandatory rules of matter, the dependence on aesthetic experience, and the pursuit of linearity and order. But in fact, here the contingent element in the watermark prints reveals the reality of the object in a more prominent way, the non-relational image implies the rejection of linearity and order, and reproduction is the means of excluding aesthetic experience. It can be said that it appears to be a "mechanical body", but in fact it refers to an "organism".
Shao Beiyan, "Green Waters and Green Mountains—Spring Equinox", 120×90cm, watermark woodcut, 2020
Introduction: Over the years, I have been committed to the creation and exploration of watermark prints, seeking my own unique personality language in inheritance and innovation. My work stems from my love for southern landscapes. In addition to the beautiful West Lake, Hangzhou, the city where I live, is surrounded by rolling hills, dense vegetation, winding mountain paths, and tea plantations.
Zhang Qian, Thorn Tree, 120×50cm, watermark woodcut, 2022
Introduction: In my opinion, artistic creation is not a delicate data experiment that can be simply quantified, it must integrate the various experiences of the creator from the past to the present, and be poured into the work. "Thorn Tree" is one of the few paintings with a clear color tendency in my works in the past year, it was born by chance, and the time it was printed was very short, and it is a long-term accumulation of fluid energy in the picture, and the presentation of inspiration in a moment.
Zhang Guanyi, "Neon Chapel on Sunday", 98×66cm, watermark woodcut, 2022
Introduction: In "Neon Church on Sunday", I continued the basic technique of "Zhou Mengdie", combining the metaphorical imagery related to the theme such as neon commercial street, support scene, window model, etc. in the way of spatial reconstruction, and using the installation of the picture structure to express the thinking on the materialization of modern urban beliefs: the church, as a place of religious belief, accommodates believers to worship on Sundays, and modern people deliver Sundays to various consumption and entertainment venues, "entertainment to death", commodity fetishism has become a new faith, Commercial streets and live houses have also become church-like beings in the spiritual life of many modern people, and anxiety, disorientation, and great pressure to survive have contributed to the continuation of this phenomenon.
Zhou Zhifen, "The Age of No Heroes II", 120×84cm, watermark woodcut, 2023
Introduction: Zhou Zhifen's works are full of the spiritual sustenance of dreams as horses, projecting or reflecting his personal horse in the world to express his youthful feelings and lofty ambitions. His talent is condensed in the image of a horse, and the euphemism and depth of the picture are precisely the expression of his temperament, which is introverted and full of expectations for his artistic future.
Cao Ou, "Drama" Landscape - Machinery Manufacturing, 45×60cm, watermark woodcut, 2019
Introduction: In this series of works, this group of works continues and expands the expression technique of "reconstructing landscapes" - the flat style, but I have added some narrative content to each of these works, so that each work is not a pure landscape expression, but can find some stories or interesting points in the works. Therefore, there are different things such as words, characters, animals, houses, etc., and the final idea is to express the multiple relationships between the landscape culture and people themselves in today's living conditions—people's play with the nature of the landscape. Protection. Possessive. Parse. sabotage and so on. People's relationship with nature is this relationship of frequent transformation, which may be caused by people's different needs. Therefore, it is hoped that the viewer will be able to think more deeply about the relationship between the surrounding mountains and rivers when they see this group of works.
Fu Xinghan, The Form of Time, 117x72cm, watermark woodcut, 2021
Introduction: What I choose is to experiment and discuss the creative process of watermark woodcut from the perspective of medium and imprint. I try to keep the creation of the two works as synchronous as possible, find some commonalities and reference points in creative thinking in watermark woodcut works and mixed media works, and explore their influence on the language of printmaking through experimentation, focusing on and amplifying certain media characteristics.