Labels

303 GALLERY AGE OF AQUARIUS AI WEIWEI ALDO MONDINO ALIGHIERO BOETTI ALLORA & CALZADILLA AMSTERDAM ANDREAS GURSKY ANDREAS SCHON ANDY CROSS ANDY WARHOL ANISH KAPOOR ANNE IMHOF ANSELM KIEFER ANTON CORBIJN ARNDT ARNOLFINI ART PROSPECT ARTISSIMA ARTIST BOOK ATTILA CSORGO BALI BARBARA KRUGER BARCELONA BASEL BASQUIAT BEATRIX RUF BELA KOLAROVA BENJAMIN DEGEN BEPI GHIOTTI BERLIN BERND E HILLA BECHER BETTY WOODMAN BIENNALE BORIS MIKHAILOV BRISTOL BROOKLYN MUSEUM CAI GUO-QIANG CAMILLE HENROT'S CANDIDA HOFER CARDI GALLERY CARL ANDRE CAROL RAMA CAROLEE SCHNEEMANN CARSTEN HOLLER CASTELLO DI RIVARA CASTELLO DI RIVOLI CATHERINE AHEARN CENTRE POMPIDOU CHARLES RAY CHARLINE VON HEYL CHICAGO CHRIS BURDEN CHRIS WATSON CHRISTIAN BOLTANSKI CHRISTIE'S CHTO DELAT COLOGNE CONCEPTUALISM COPENHAGEN COSMIC CONNECTIONS CRISTIAN BOLTANSKY CY TWOMBLY DAMIEN HIRST DAN GRAHAM DANH VO DANIEL EDLEN DANIEL RICH DANNY MC DONALD DAVID ZWIRNER DIA ART FOUNDATION DIET WIEGMAN DIETER ROTH DOCUMENTA DUBAI DUSSELDORF ED ATKINS EDEN EDEN ELGER ESSER EMILIO ISGRO' ESKER FOUNDATION ETTORE SPALLETTI EVA HESSE EVA PRESENHUBER FANG LIJUN FAUSTO MELOTTI FELIX GONZALES-TORRES FILIPPO SCIASCIA FONDATION BEYELER FONDATION CARTIER FONDAZIONE MERZ FRANCESCO BONAMI FRANCESCO POLI FRANCESCO VEZZOLI FRANCIS BACON FRANKFURT FRANZ KLINE FRIEDMAN GABRIEL OROZCO GABRIEL YARED GAM GARY ROUGH GEORGE BURGES MILLER GEORGE HENRY LONGLY GERHARD RICHTER GILBERT & GEORGE GIULIO PAOLINI GLADSTONE GALLERY GREENE NAFTALI GUENZANI GUGGENHEIM GUGGENHEIM BERLIN GUGGENHEIM BILBAO GUILLAUME LEBLON HAMBURG HAMBURGER BAHNHOF HAMISH FULTON HANGAR BICOCCA HAUSDERKUNST HAUSER & WIRTH HE XIANGYU HELENA ALMEIDA HEMA UPADHYAY HENRY MOORE HIROSHI SUGIMOTO HOWIE TSUI HUANG YONG PING IAN BREAKWELL ICA ICHWAN NOOR INSTALLATION INTERVIEW ISABELLA BORTOLOZZI ISTAMBUL JAMES LAVADOUR'S ROSE JAMES MELINAT JAMIE XX JANET CARDIFF JANNIS KOUNELLIS JASSIE BOSWELL JEFF KOONS JEPPE HEIN JESSICA WARBOYS JIVYA SOMA MASHE JOAN FONTCUBERTA JOHN BALDESSARRI JOHN MCCRACKEN JOHN STEZAKER JON RAFMAN JORG SASSE JOSEPH KOSUTH JOTA CASTRO JURGEN TELLER KARA TANAKA KARL ANDERSSON KARLSRUHE KAVIN APPEL KONRAD LUEG KUNSTHAUS KUNSTMUSEUM LARRY BELL LIA RUMMA LISSON GALLERY LIU YE LONDON LOUISE BOURGEOIS LUC TUYMANS LUCIAN FREUD LUCIE STAHL LUIGI MAINOLFI LUISA RABBIA MADRE MAM PARIS MARC QUINN MARCO CASSANI MARIA CRISTINA MUNDICI MARIAN GOODMAN MARINA ABRAMOVIC MARIO MERZ MARK LECKEY MARK ROTHKO MARTIN KIPPENBERGER MARTIN McGEOWN MARZIA MIGLIORA MASSIMO DE CARLO MATTHEW BARNEY MAURIZIO CATTELAN MAX SCHAFFER MAXXI MIAMI MIKE PARR MILAN MIMMO ROTELLA MING WONG MOMA MONTREAL MOUSSE MUMBAI MUYBRIDGE NATIONAL GALLERY NEW YORK NICO MUHLY NOBUYOSHI ARAKI NOTTINGHAM CONTEMPORARY NY OFCA INTERNATIONAL OLAFUR ELIASSON OSCAR MURILLO OTTO PIENE PACE GALLERY PAOLA PIVI PAOLO CURTONI PARIS PAUL MCCARTHY PERFORMANCE PHILIP GLASS PHILIP-LORCA DICORCIA PHILIPPE PERRENO PHILLIPS DE PURY PHOTOGRAPHY PIA STADTBAUMER PIPILOTTI RIST PORTRAITS PRISCILLA TEA RAPHAEL HEFTI REBECCA HORN RICHARD LONG RICHARD SERRA RICHARD T. WALKER RICHARD TUTTLE RINEKE DIJKSTR ROBERT MORRIS ROBERT SMITHSON ROBERT SMITHSON'S ROBIN RHODE ROMA RON MUECK RUDOLF HERZ RUDOLF STIEGEL RUDOLF STINGEL SAM FRANCIS SANTIAGO SERRA SARAH SUZUKI SCULPTURE SHARJAH BIENNAL SHIGERU TAKATO SIMON THOMPSON SOL LEWITT SOPHIE CALLE SPY STEDELIJK MUSEUM STEPHAN BELKENHOL STEVE MCQUEEN STEVE REINKE SUBODH GUPTA SUSAN PHILIPSZ TALA MADANI TATE BRITAIN TATE BRITIAN TATE MODERN TERESA MARGOLLES THADDAEUS ROPAC THE RENAISSENCE SOCIETY THOMAS EGGERER THOMAS HIRSCHHORN THOMAS RUFF THOMAS SARACENO THOMAS STRUTH TIM FAIN TOBIAS ZIELONY TOM FRIEDMAN TONY COKES TONY CONRAD TONY CRAGG TOO MUCH TOTAH TOZER PAK TURIN TURNER PRIZE UGO RONDINONE UK ULAY VANESSA BEECROFT VENICE BIENNALE VERA LUTTER VICTOR MOSCOSO VICTORIA MIRO VIENNA VIK MUNIZ VOID SERIES WHITE CUBE WHITECHAPEL GALLERY WIELS WILLIAMS PRESENHUBER WU TSANG YAN PEI-MING YANG YONGLIANG YOHJI YAMAMOTO YOKO ONO YUSUKE BENDAI YVES KLEIN ZHANG DAQIAN ZURICH

31.12.13

YAN PEI-MING | INTERVIEW

Yan Pei Ming, in front of his black and white version of Mona Lisa in Musee du Louvre, 2009. Courtesy of the artist.
©Yan Pei Ming, in front of his black and white version of Mona Lisa in Musee du Louvre, 2009. Courtesy of the artist.
One of the most dynamic and experimental Chinese painters in the international art scene, Yan Pei Ming is particularly known for his epic size paintings of iconic figures, Mao Zedong, Bruce Lee, Obama, and his father and self-portraits. His expressive style and controlled palette reflect a connection to the aesthetic and cultural climate of China as well as the influence of 20th Century American conceptual art. His canvases are typically mono- or bi-chromatic and painted with large brushes (sometimes a broom), in either black and white or deep shades of red. With a mastered economy of marks, he delineates his compositions with broad, sweeping gestures and visible drips, resulting in images that dissolve into near-abstraction at close view.
Today, we talked to Yan about his life and his art.
YPM - YAN Pei-MinG
ST - Selina Ting for initiArt Magazine
ST : How do your studios in Paris and Dijon function?
YPM : Nowadays, I rarely go to the Paris studio. I prefer to work here. It's very quiet. I have been working here a lot in the last 13 years.
ST : How do you find Dijon?
YPM : Most of the artists prefer to live in Paris. I am a very quiet person. I don't need to live next to the Louvre or the Pompidou Centre. I prefer the tranquility of Dijon. The work of an artist evolves with the environment where he works.
ST : Dijon is nevertheless the periphery of the art world. Don't you feel isolated here?
YPM : I am a very lonely person. But that doesn't matter. I work a lot in my studio. I can go to Paris when necessary; it's only 1.5 hours of train.
ST : Why did you settle down in Dijon when you arrived France?
YPM : I came to France as a student. At that time, I attended a language school in Dijon and later the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Dijon. When I graduated, I rented a studio with some classmates. We started to paint there, and gradually settled down in Dijon.
ST : What brought you to France at a young age?
YPM : I came to France to learn painting. It was in 1980, I was 20. China was just opened to the world and I was among the first group of Chinese to leave the country. I was the youngest artist to come to France as well. I wanted to leave because at the time, the atmosphere in China... well, for someone who wanted to study fine art, France is the place to go, lots of fantasy, lots of expectations. The artistic ambiance, the ecology, the theories, the exhibitions, etc...  Just like you, why did you come to France? It's the life for an adventurer!
ST : Did you start painting before you left China?
YPM : I left China after my high school. I've never been trained in any fine art school in China. My art training started in France. Before that, of course, I learnt to draw and paint by myself, like all the others.
ST : Did you learn Chinese painting as well?
YPM : Yes, a little bit... 5 months before I left for France.
ST : Why 5 months before?
YPM : Because people said you have to know a bit of Chinese painting, especially when you are leaving the country.
ST : Does it serve you in any way?
YPM : I think not. But I started some watercolour these years, black and white, large format.
ST : How did you feel when you just arrived France?
YPM : People of my generation... we have to be independent financially. If you managed to do so, you stay as you wish. Otherwise, you go back home.
ST : So how did you manage it?
YPM : I worked while studying in school, like everyone else. I worked in a Chinese restaurant in Dijon. It's still here, but the owner changed.
ST : What was the greatest shock when you were new to France?
YPM : At that time, all I wanted was to be admitted to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, to obtain my diploma. After graduating from the school, I just wanted to have a studio and to concentrate on painting. When I had substantial works and feeling ready, I sought opportunities to exhibit my work. Step by step… there is passion in every different step.
ST : What you learnt and saw at that time must be extremely different from what you knew previously about art.
YPM : At that time, I frequented the European art circle. There is an art centre in Dijon. They showed a lot of American and German artists, French artists as well. And I saw a lot of new things in Paris.
ST : Who were your close friends at that time?
YPM : When I first arrived, I was alone. There was only me. Towards the end of the 1980s, Huang Yong Ping, Yang Jiechang, and the others came to France and I became very good friends with them. Before that, my artists-friends were mainly Europeans.
ST : Such as?
YPM : Daniel Buren is a very close friend of mine. There are also Sarkis, Bernard Frize, Olivier Mosset, etc... Now everyone is busy.
ST : While 30 years ago everyone were working hard to gain a place in the art world.
YPM : They already had their place in the art world. I was at the starting point of my career. Daniel Buren was my supervisor when I attended the Institut des hautes études en arts plastiques de Paris in 1988.
ST : Do you still remember your first exhibition?
YPM : The first relatively formal exhibition that I participated was in 1988, « Ateliers 88 » in Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Before that I was mainly showing in Dijon and around in the region. My strategy was to encompass the city from the region! Hahaha… Later in 1991, I started to work with the Parisian Gallery Anne de Villepoix, where I had several solo shows. I worked briefly with another gallery called Galerie Durand-Dessert, it was one of the most famous gallery in the 1980s. It's now closed. Now I have two galleries, one in the States, one in Italy. Some years ago, I had 7 to 8 galleries and it was very tiring to work with so many galleries. Now I prefer to be quiet.

Portraits
ST : You have been painting portraits all the way?
YPM : Yes. I started painting portraits when I was in China. In general, in China, we start with portrait when we learn to draw or paint.
ST : Was it also because of your special preference or sensation towards the human being?
YPM : Art is about man. It speaks to people. Portrait is like a mirror, it reflects to us who we are, what we are. My work always orients towards human beings, it's the centre, the fundamental element of my work. If you ask me to do abstract painting, I can't handle it. I am interested in human beings.
Yan Peiming, Portraits of Picasso and Mosset. View of artist's studio
©Yan Peiming, Portraits of Picasso and Mosset. View of artist's studio. Courtesy of the artist.
ST : Is this the first time that you paint Picasso?
YPM : Yes.
ST : Why Picasso?
YPM : Because Picasso is the greatest artist of the 20th Century. It is also for a new series of portraits on artists that I've just started. I painted Giacometti two years ago, I have painted some self-portraits as well. And here is another portrait, this is Olivier Mosset.
ST : I didn't know Olivier Mosset so well but my impression of Olivier is someone gay and cheerful, very energetic. I have never seen this melancholic expression on him.
YPM : I would of course modify a bit on my painting, to get the melancholy out of him.
ST : Why the melancholic aspect?
YPM : It's more interesting, melancholy, sorrow, sadness…
ST : Why did you choose this image of Picasso? What's there that attract you?
YPM : It's a picture of Picasso in the late 1960s. I found it from a magazine's cover. I put it aside, and after some months of looking at it, I started to feel something in it.
ST :What is that something in it?
YPM : There is the spirit of a bull-fighter in Picasso.
ST : His eyes are particularly sharp in this picture, and his lips, sort of in-between the spoken and the unspoken.
YPM : Picasso is a very cunning artist.
ST : Compare to Matisse, you prefer Picasso?
YPM : Yes. Matisse is very elegant, very French. His composition, brushwork, colours, everything is very refined and rational. Picasso didn't care about all these. He is very instinctive; he put colours on the canvas without much reflection.
ST : The colour and brushwork are your most distinctive and immediately recognizable elements.
YPM : Yes. If you don't have your own thinking, it's very difficult to form something distinctively yours.
ST : Who would you paint next?
YPM : I don't know. Maybe myself.
ST : How is it like painting oneself?
YPM : Artists are narcissists. Self-portrait is an eternal theme in art. I think almost all the painters have painted oneself at a certain point.
ST : Is there a self-critique, self-examination when you paint yourself?
YPM : My self-portraits are always very gloomy, tragic. There is kind of silence, but there is proud as well.
Yan Peiming, Self-portrait for Monna Lisa's Funeral in the Musee du Louvre, May 2009. Courtesy of the artist
©Yan Peiming, Self-portrait for Monna Lisa's Funeral in the Musee du Louvre, May 2009. Courtesy of the artist
ST : What inspired you to paint yourself in a state of imagined death?
YPM : That of course is completely imaginative. It's the theme of Mona Lisa's funeral. Mona Lisa is an iconic portrait in Western art history. I want to tell my own story through her. I started with a story in art history, and my personal story, to go back to the very fundamental thing of mankind, the father-son relationship. Besides, death is an eternal topic in art.
ST : What does the figure of father mean to you?
YPM : A son's feeling towards his father changes all along his own life and that of his father. When you are little, your father is strong, authoritative to you. When you are an adolescent, you find him stubborn, old fahsion, oppressive, etc. When your father becomes old, you may have very different feelings towards him. These feelings can be found in all kind of inter-personal relationship, but that between a father-son is the most intense. I wanted to take my father and myself to represent the relation between all the fathers and sons in the world, i.e. the tragedy of a father witnessing the death of his son. In Chinese we say "White hair attending the funeral of the black hair", that's very very painful, very sad story.
ST : What about the figure of Mother? A mother witnessing the death of her child, i.e. the Pietà, is also a classic theme in Western art.
YPM : I will paint the Virgin Mary next year. There will be an exhibition on Virgin Mary next year.
ST : Have your ever painted your mother?
YPM : No.
ST : Why?
YPM : Perhaps it's not yet the right moment. Perhaps next year.
ST : Have you painted other female figure other than Mona Lisa?
YPM : Yes, I did, only a few though.
ST : Such as?
YPM : Marilyn in her death bed.
ST : Why?
YPM : Because she was the most beautiful, most sexy woman in the world. She is always presented as a very vivant, attractive woman, by Andy Warhol, etc. So i present another version of her.
ST : Would you paint female artists?
YPM : I guess yes.
Yan Peiming, View of exhibition, The Funeral of Monna Lisa, Musee du Louvre, 2009
©Yan Peiming, View of exhibition, The Funeral of Monna Lisa, Musee du Louvre, 2009. Courtesy of the artist.
ST : Funeral represents the past, the return to the origin, the starting point?
YPM : The funeral of Mona Lisa is to bury Mona Lisa. Mona Lisa is a mystery, like death itself.
ST : Why are you so obsessed with death?
YPM : Because i am afraid of it. But I can't avoid it, so I invent it.
ST : Is the direct confortation with death a way to liberate yourself from the fear of it?
YPM :Well, more precisely, I am not afriad of dying, but i am afraid of no longer living.
ST : Is painting a proof your existence in the world?
YPM : What I am interested is the presence. I have been painting all my life, I love painting, I am the happiest when I work in my studio. That's the only reason that i paint.
ST : What do you wish to attain in your life?
YPM : Nothing. I don't care about what happens after I die. It's for time and history to judge.
ST : What about Mona Lisa? What do you wish to accomplish through it?
YPM : There are many artists who have painted Mona Lisa but they've never shown with Mona Lisa. I am the first artist to show my own version of Mona Lisa in Louvre. This makes a difference.
ST : So you conceived the series of painting specifically for the exhibition?
YPM : Yes, yes, of course. Every exhibition has new theme, with new works. It's always like this in the last 30 years.
ST : Are you preparing any exhibition at the moment?
YPM : I have an exhibition in Beijing, in Ullens Art Centre (UCCA), Childhood Landscape, until the 10th October.
ST : All new work?
YPM : Yes, portraits of children. They are the orphans from a hospital in Beijing. The staff in UCCA prepared a lot of information for me. There are about 34 children, I painted their portraits on flags…
ST : On flags, not canvas?
YPM: Flags, silk flags. There is a ventilation system to make the flags flying at the centre of the exhibition hall.
ST : It sounds more like an installation.
YPM : Yes, it is an installation.
ST : Where comes the idea of such a presentation?
PM : It's the space. The gallery of UCCA is huge, 72 meter long, the ceiling is several meters high. It's not easy to master the space with paintings, even if they are big format. This is a very simple, minimalist way of managing the space. Besides, the flags allow visitors to see the paintings from both sides. They are almost transparent, so to highlight the beautiful space of UCCA as well.
Yan Peiming, Exhibition view, Landscape of Childhood, 2009 UCCA
©Yan Peiming, Exhibition view, Landscape of Childhood, 2009 UCCA. Courtesy of the artist and UCCA, Beijing
ST : To paint children in your style must be a very different experience from painting politicians and artists.
YPM : Yes. It is very different. I have painted children before. Every time I painted a child, I felt like a confirmation of life, they are the new generation. The orphans that I painted... their life is very tragic, they were the abandoned, very sad story.
Yan Peiming, Exhibition view, Landscape of Childhood, 2009 UCCA. Courtesy of the artist and UCCA, Beijing.
©Yan Peiming, Exhibition view, Landscape of Childhood, 2009 UCCA. Courtesy of the artist and UCCA, Beijing.
Colour
ST : What is colour?
YPM : Colour…  I have used colours before. But most of my paintings are black and white.
ST : Why?
YPM : Because black and white create a world of one's own. An artist has to find and create his own world. Besides, black and white suit my artistic language. I am a very simple person. These two colours are very direct and true, simple.
ST : They are closer to the emotions that you wish to express.
YPM : Yes.
ST : Because in portrait, the persona is more important than the details, that's why you economize the colour, to simplify it, even rendering it abstract?
YPM : I am more interested in simplified, minimalist things. Because in portraits, when the colour is taking away, it becomes another world, it creates a distance between the representation and the reality.
ST : Do you see the world in black and white?
YPM : Hahaha… not yet. I am not yet colour-blind.
ST : You have done some paintings in red and white before. Why did you choose red instead of other colours?
YPM : Because red is the strongest colour. It is the first colour that enters into the vision. It signifies danger, alert.
Yan Peiming, Pope (2004), oil on canvas, 280 x 240 cm
©Yan Peiming, Pope (2004), oil on canvas, 280 x 240 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
ST : How would you response to the statement of “the death of painting”?
YPM : I think it's not possible. Because every artist has his unique feeling. It's a matter of material. I like to paint since young, and this would never change... Painting is born with the birth of mankind. I don't think painting is dead.
ST : What are your comments on today's art scene?
YPM : Contemporary art has been diversified into many different media, style, etc.. I am very open. I see a lot of exhibitions. Of course, photography, video, etc., have been influenced by painting. Some decades ago, we spoke of different schools. Now, it's all about individual sentiments, personal interests, personality, media, etc.
ST : Is the art market affecting you in a certain way?
YPM : No. The financial crisis has no impact on me, even before the crisis. I am not interested in the market. My life is very simple. Look at my studio… it's always the same simple studio in ruin! Em… an artist has to be like an artist.
ST : Which means?
YPM : An artist has to know what he wants, what he needs. This has nothing to do with the market.
ST : Do you know how many paintings you have produced so far?
YPM : I guess there are several hundreds pieces. My assistant is working on the documentation, the recent works are all registered but the older ones are not yet done.
ST : Do you remember at which period that you liberated yourself from the anxiety and uncertainty of young artist?
YPM : I have never separated myself from it. I question myself everyday, my work as well. This is a motivation to work harder and to go forward. But at the same time, I am certain with myself. I know my direction and where I am heading to. Everyday I am in a bad mood. I am a very melancholic person. All that I am interested in is the human tragedy.
ST : Is it related to your experience? Your life?
YPM : No. It's more interesting to be melancholic. What's the point of telling a happy story? Tragic film is far more exciting and touching.
ST : Do you listen to music?
YPM : No. There is a radio in my studio which I listen to daily news.
ST : Painting is almost a meditation for you.
YPM : Yes.
ST : What about cinema? Do you like cinema?
YPM : Yes. I like cinema.
ST : What are your favorites?
YPM : Such as Hitchcock... something mysterious, tragic. Also Woody Allen, he has very good scripts, amazing dialogues, very little, though. He works on images and dialogues. I also like the films of Chaplin.
ST : Silent films as well!
YPM : Yes. He didn't need language, just his expression, techniques, bodily language. In the age of silent films, he acted out the dialogues when nobody could hear hm.
Yan Peiming, Obama, 2008
©Yan Peiming, Obama, 2008, oil on canvas, 98.5 x 79 in. Courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner in New York. © Yan Pei-Ming, ADAGP, Paris, 2008. Photo credit: André Morin.
ST : Just like your painting, talking to people without using the voice. What is Obama telling us here?
YPM : Obama brings hope to the world. But he can't change the fate of everyone. He only gives people hope, and perhaps inspiration to change one's fate.
ST : Thank you very much!
Yan Pei Ming with InitiArt Magazine editor Selina Ting
©The editor with the artist, Yan Pei-Ming, in his atelier. Photo by Alon Chan.
About the Artist
Yan Pei-Ming was born in 1960 in Shanghai, lives and works in Dijon, France.
Yan Pei-Ming's most awarded solo exhibitions include Childhood Landscape, UCCA, Beijing (2009), Les Funérailles de Monna Lisa, Musée du Louvre, Paris, France (2009), Yes, San Francisco, California, U.S.A (2009), Yan Pei-Ming with Yan Pei-Ming, GAMeC, Bergamo, Italy (2008), Life Souvenir , Des Moines Art Center, Iowa, U.S.A (2008), You maintain a sense of balance in the midst of great success, David Zwirner Gallery, New York (2007), The Yan Pei-Ming Show, Galleria Massimo De Carlo, Milan (2007), Execution, Musée d'Art Moderne, Saint-Etienne (2006), etc. The artist's many prestigious group shows include The unhomely, Phantom Scenes in Global Society, 2nd Biennale International of Contemporary Art, Seville, Spain (2006), A propos du Lingchi (supplice des 100 morceaux), with Huang Yong Ping, Musée Denon, Chalon-sur-Saône, France, Moi - Autoportraits du xxe siècle, Musee du Luxembourg, Paris, France (both 2004), New Zone-Chinese Art, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland (2003), The Venice Biennale, Italy (2003 and 1995) ; and Lyon Biennale, Lyon, France ( 2000 and 1997).

www.initiartmagazine.com

17.12.13

CAI GUOI-QIANG | FALLING BACK TO EARTH

Cai Guoi-Qiang is an artist born in 1957 in Quanzhou, China. His new solo exhibition ‘Falling Back To Earth’ is currently on display in Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, Australia. The exhibition features four major installations, including two newly commissioned works directly inspired by the landscapes of southeast Queensland, which the artist visited in 2011.

The centrepiece of the exhibition ‘Heritage’ features 99 replicas of animals from around the world, gathered together to drink from a blue lake surrounded by pristine white sand. The second installation, ‘Eucalyptus’ responds to the ancient trees of Lamington National Park in the Gold Coast hinterland, while the third ‘Head On’ is a striking installation of 99 artificial wolves leaping en masse into a glass wall and is on display in Australia for the first time. Regarding his art the global known artist explains: ‘My work is like a dialogue between unseen powers, like alchemy.’

4.12.13

POST-COLONIALISM | LONDON

Accumulation,Displacement,Deletion,Rearrangement and Insistence, courtesy of narrative gallery, Photography Angus Leadley Brown, featured on artfridge

Even today, Post-Colonialism is a difficult and often a sensitive topic to discuss. But luckily the comprehension of a problem is the first step towards reconciliation. Questioning the exposure to this cultural and political debate, the group exhibition "Accumulation, Displacement, Deletion, Rearrangement and Insistence" at Narrative Gallery in London introduces works by the artists Nástio MosquitoCarlos Noronha Feio and Richard Parry, who propose a rather self-ironic but nonetheless very aesthetic handling of post-colonial-theory. The circuitous title is an excerpt of a quote by Edward Said from his book 'Orientalism' (1978), which reads in full length: "Far from being merely additive or cumulative, the growth of knowledge is a process of selective accumulation, displacement, deletion, rearrangement, and insistence within what has been called a research consensus." Said was a prominent figure – in fact, one of the founders – of post-colonial theory, as 'Orientalism' criticised the Western view on the Orient as an irrational, mysterious and alien depiction.

BY ANNA-LENA WERNER

Accumulation,Displacement,Deletion,Rearrangement and Insistence, courtesy of narrative gallery, Photography Angus Leadley Brown, featured on artfridge

Accumulation,Displacement,Deletion,Rearrangement and Insistence, courtesy of narrative gallery, Photography Angus Leadley Brown, featured on artfridge

Accumulation,Displacement,Deletion,Rearrangement and Insistence, courtesy of narrative gallery, Photography Angus Leadley Brown, featured on artfridge


from the top: (1) installation view Carlos Noronha Feio and Richard Parry, (2)  Richard Parry, (3)  installation view Carlos Noronha Feio and Richard Parry,  (4) Nástio Mosquito and Richard Parry // All images courtesy of narrative gallery // Photography Angus Leadley Brown

    ©    www.artfridge.de

28.11.13

ROB PRUITT | MASSIMO DE CARLO

TBT, 2013

Press Release:
Massimo De Carlo gallery in London inaugurates its new season with The Suicide Paintings by American artist Rob Pruitt. Pruitt in his third show at Massimo De Carlo presents new paintings that explore infinite space and blankness, purity and pollution, and optimism and desperation. The work in the show represents a culmination of previous bodies of work, from his fountains to face paintings. While so much of Pruitt’s previous work has dealt with cultural subject matter, in this new body of work, content has been drained, leaving only a psychological and emotional residue.
In the new paintings, two gradient fields of colour are juxtaposed, creating a picture within a frame. The images suggest both heavenly and hellish vistas, evoking everything from the clouds in a Botticelli painting to the screensaver on an iPad. While the gradient fields suggest depictions of space and the changing times of day, they are also a visual metaphor for transitioning psychological states.
Composing a full room installation, a number of chromed TV Sets: having become useless as means of information and entertainment, replaced by flat screen TVs, these objects from the 80s and the 90s survive through their shape, reconstructed with a glamorous and glittery patina. Even this body of works refers to the classics: these TV sets deliver a strong sense of nostalgia.
These new sculptures are standing on hundreds and hundreds of black and white cubes. Part sculptures themselves, and part plinths for the other works in the show, these cubes are configuring a new modular system of exhibiting Rob Pruitt’s sculptures through a new radical, pixelated signature pedestal. These cubes can even take the form of a new floor for one of the rooms in the basement of the gallery, as if Carl Andre had suddenly turned digital.
Artist: Rob Pruitt
Venue: Massimo De Carlo, London
Exhibition Title: The Suicide Paintings
Date: October 14 – November 30, 2013
Installation View
Installation View
TBT, 2013
Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.

Images courtesy of Massimo De Carlo, London. 


20.11.13

TURNER PRIZE 2013 NOMINEE | DAVID SHRIGLEY

A visit with Turner Prize 2013 nominee David Shrigley in his Glasgow studio, and in Derry~Londonderry with the installation of his new work.



David Shrigley was nominated for his solo exhibition at Hayward Gallery David Shrigley: Brain Activity which included not only his well-loved drawings but also photography, sculpture and film. The Hayward exhibition revealed his black humour, macabre intelligence and infinite jest.
Filming at his studio in Glasgow, Shrigley talked to TateShots about the problems of being taken seriously, saying: ‘As a professional artist there’s probably a lot of people who don’t really take my work seriously. Obviously I am serious in the sense that I’ve spent my entire life in this comic endeavour.’
The Turner Prize 2013 exhibition is on from 23 October 2013 — 5 January 2014.
The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony on Monday 2 December 2013.

18.11.13

GER VAN ELK | LUTTGENMEIJER


Ger van Elk at Luttgenmeijer
Artist: Ger van Elk
Venue: Lüttgenmeijer, Berlin
Exhibition Title: Seven Automatic Landscapes
Date: September 14 – November 2, 2013
Ger van Elk at Luttgenmeijer
Ger van Elk at Luttgenmeijer
Ger van Elk at Luttgenmeijer
Full gallery of images and link available after the jump.

http://www.contemporaryartdaily.com

12.11.13

KONRAD LUEG | GREENE NAFTALI


Konrad Lueg at Greene Naftali

Konrad Lueg at Greene Naftali
Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.

Artist: Konrad Lueg
Venue: Greene Naftali, New York
Date: October 10 – November 16, 2013
Images:
Images courtesy of Greene Naftali, New York
Press Release:
Greene Naftali is pleased to announce an exhibition of paintings and works on paper by Konrad Lueg (1939-1996), his first solo gallery exhibition in the United States.
Konrad Lueg was a seminal figure of the German postwar art scene, first as a painter and later as legendary gallerist Konrad Fischer. In the early 1960s, Lueg developed the concept of “Capitalist Realism” with Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, and Manfred Kuttner as a response to a rapidly developing consumer society following Germany’s economic miracle. His critique of painting and consumerism included staging impromptu exhibitions in untraditional spaces — in a building slated for demolition, for example, or a furniture store among saleable household items.
After graduating from the Düsseldorf Akademie in 1962, Lueg experimented with casein color to create distinctly flat and polished surfaces, setting him apart from the artistic trends at the time. He tested this technique on various subjects including people, landscapes, everyday objects, and recognizable icons. Betende Hande (1963), for example, zooms in on a dizzying array of bright yellow fingers closely entwined and rendered in extreme close-up. Lueg’s use of primary colors reference the cooly flat advertisements of the day and points to his radical distancing of painting from the illusory.
Drawing from the American Pop Art aesthetic by which he was deeply influenced, Lueg began to replicate traditional German motifs in 1964, including everyday items such as wallpaper, towels, and napkins. These intricate works, with their rhythmic display of repeated patterns, commented on the look of German domestic life and visualized a shift to consumerism taking place in the mid-‘60s. Lueg continued to advance his painting techniques over a ten-year period, experimenting with a variety of materials and tools—luminous paint, embossed rollers, shower curtains, and commercial fabrics.
From 1967 onwards, Lueg laid his art practice to rest and transitioned into the gallery world as Konrad Fischer with his own exhibition space in Düsseldorf. As Lueg the painter questioned the social implications of visual material, so Fischer the gallerist applied the same spirit to exhibition- making, presenting artists such as Carl Andre, Sol LeWitt, and Bruce Nauman for the first time in Europe, and in so doing ushering in a new generation of artists abroad.