On September 25 and 26, 2021, Nanjing Tangshan Shangzhuang garden Jidao Bookstore was crowded with people because of an exhibition entitled "Return from New York - Chen Junyu, a young artist in the United States".
The special feature of this exhibition exhibition is that outside the exhibition hall are villages, fields, shallow lakes, mountains, and the works displayed in the exhibition hall, such as "The Eye of New York", "Seven Deadly Sins", "Indescribable Pain", "Bond" and so on, emphasize the author's 4-year study in the West with a very unique context and color.
Exhibition site.
Objectively speaking, the works on display can hardly hide the heavy tone that lingers, and the pictures are full of beams, faces and deformed images; but the exhibition is released, and the author harvests light expectations from them.
After the 90s, Chen Junyu was born in Nanjing and began painting at the age of 4. When he graduated from nanjing foreign Chinese school, he was admitted to the top 6 art colleges in the United States for his excellent grades. In May 2020, he graduated from the Department of Illustration at Parsons School of Design, the nation's number one school of art and design.
Although he also had the opportunity to stay in the United States at that time, Chen Junyu chose to return to his homeland to start his own artistic practice. In the past year, he has integrated what he has learned in the fields of painting and visual communication, as well as his understanding of the concept of eastern and western art creation, into the design of his first art exhibition.
Chen Junyu introduced his work to the audience.
On the day of the launch, Chen Junyu, who was tall and very handsome, shared his creative emotions with the audience.
At that time, he was wearing a long black shirt and culottes, which perfectly set off his artistic temperament.
He said that his artistic education at a young age was greatly influenced by Van Gogh. Later, in the day-to-day study, a free thinking space was gradually formed.
He went to the United States to study, to New York, the fashion capital of the world, and the scattered art museums let him revel in wandering again and again, while the dazzling life of red wine and greenery was incompatible with it. The exclusion in the subconscious causes him to be unable to accept self-sinking and loss, and some friends around him drift away from him.
In the bustling and noisy World Art Center, his authenticity and maverick finally made him feel lonely, experiencing a sense of helplessness and loss, and communicating with people was limited to daily life.
He began to live alone, immersing himself in learning and creating, finding his true self, and always having self-dialogue in an enclosed space. This state runs through his entire study abroad career, and also gives birth to realistic works such as "The Eye of New York", "The Darkest Hour", and "Identity".
The Eye of New York.
He recounted the background of the creation of "New York Eye" in the exhibition hall, he said: "When I first came to New York, the mirror fragments were divided into memories, what I saw and heard in a year jumped on the paper, the life of one person and one city was the best summary of the first year in New York, and at this moment I experienced the loneliness of no one for the first time, and there was a state of mind hidden under the curtain that no one knew and was lost." ”
In "Part of Manhattan at Night", he told the audience, "The prosperity of Manhattan seems to be shining, but in fact, I have long distanced myself from this glory and glitz in my heart." ”
The work "Alone".
Looking back on his 4-year study abroad career, his heart is full of emotions. In "Indescribable Pain", he combines the silhouette of the character with the local close-up of Manhattan, and at the same time integrates elements of irony, depicting the hidden undercurrent under the bright beauty. The sadness of experiencing all this is also a grief that cannot be expressed to others.
From chen Junyu's "Return from New York - Exhibition of Artistic Creation of Young Artist Chen Junyu in the United States", which Chen Junyu has been preparing for more than a year, the audience deeply felt the period of blood, confusion and awakening experienced by a young Chinese artist.
He resolutely returned to China, and the path of pursuing art became clearer and clearer.
In the past year, he founded the "David 1997 Art Studio", proposed the "Purple Mountain International Artist Residency Plan", and became the project commissioner of the "Zhu Yaokui Patriotic Cultural Development Special Fund" of the Amity Foundation, taking a pragmatic step in the art public welfare activities.
Throughout the works exhibited in "Return of New York", only the most common color powder, pencil, propylene and other materials are used, but they have produced a unique aesthetic taste, interpreting the author's cognition of the world and life, exploring and exploring the hidden emotional world of people's hearts.
A corner of the exhibition hall. Photo by Fan Suli
Independent artist Zhang Ningfei believes that Chen Junyu is a young artist with delicate emotions, sensitive insight and desire to express himself, who uses his study abroad experience to explore the differences in painting language, and his works show the rare maturity of artists of his age.
As an aspiring young artist in the new era, Chen Junyu will focus on the value and mission of life, and also want to do some pioneering in art education, integrate the world's advanced art education concepts and methods into our art education system, and help those who have a special love for art.
It is undeniable that with the advent of the era of materialization, the ideals and passions of some artists are being overwhelmed by the secular current little by little. The presentation of the "Return of New York" exhibition allows us to see the passion and hope of young artist Chen Junyu.
Written by /Liang Ping Photography/ Niu Huaxin
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Source: Purple Cow News