13 December 2012–28 February 2013
Private preview: 12 December 2012, 4–6pm
Pace Beijing
798 Art District, No.2, Jiuxiangqiao Road
Chaoyang District, Beijing
The coming December of 2012 will see Pace Beijing holding its third annual event BEIJING VOICE with the exhibition of BEIJING VOICE: Zhang Xiaogang as its anchor program. As an artist believing in the power of drawing, Zhang Xiaogang sticks to painting’s narrative quality and tries almost single-mindedly to bring historical continuity of art to the contemporary art scene. Thereby it will be the focus of the third BEIJING VOICE to explore Zhang’s creative career, which is not only almost the longest but also one of the most constantly active among all the Chinese contemporary artists.
Reconstructing and juxtaposing typical images of history and reality, collective and private memories, Zhang Xiaogang brings history and memory to the present. Despite the fact that this period of history and its experience was a regional one, the collectivistic, Utopian spirit at its base aimed to liberate man in the spirit of cosmopolitism. Also, from the pictorial level, we can establish a certain connection between Chuck Close, Gerhard Richter and Zhang Xiaogang, which enriches the depth of the world of imagery. Close’s paintings are a logical, material and physical analysis of portraits; Richter’s paintings are a philosophy of images; while Zhang’s paintings are about the historic issues of human kind. Among these images are the birthmark-like prints and bloodlines in “Big Family Series,” the colored shades on the face and tear stains under the eyes in “Amnesia and Memory Series,” the electric wires, lamp cords, ink and pens in “In-Out Series,” the lines representing blood ties in “Green Wall Series” and the parallel tracks in “Train Window Series.” All these images extend the cultural historical memory contained in the artist’s self-exploration which is exuberant with a mildness and tenderness that are unmistakably Zhang’s. Moreover, they could also be understood as a continued personalized expression of a collective memory. It is exactly Zhang’s primitive expression and adherence to the traditional culture that brings back our belief in and worship of the narrative quality of painting. The melancholy and isolated figures immersed in contemplation in Zhang Xiaogang’s works have already been interpreted by the West as the archetypes of contemporary China. In his new works, the artist would again return to his old acquaintance the old painting and continue his stylized tone with stains of time and warmth of life.
BEIJING VOICE was held as an annual event by Pace Beijing from 2010. The first event BEIJING VOICE: Together or Isolated used the form of exhibition to explore a number of phenomenon and problems existing in the contemporary art of China. And the second event BEIJING VOICE: Leaving Realism Behind discussed the effects and interpretations of the cross-fertilization of abstract art between the East and the West. In the third event, BEIJING VOICE will place the solo show of Zhang Xiaogang at its centre. In the thirty-year history, Chinese contemporary art in general and Zhang Xiaogang in particular have both absorbed a gigantic amount of Western culture and art. Zhang’s works never sever his connection with history and memory or cease to do experiments with constantly changing forms of art. With his extensive contemplation on history and memory, we could see Zhang Xiaogang exploring not only the new possibilities of contemporary culture but also the process of the satisfaction of self-development as well as the formation of self-awareness.
Biography of Zhang Xiaogang
Zhang Xiaogang was born in 1958 in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province in southern China. Since 1989 Zhang has had eighteen solo exhibitions and has participated in nearly 150 group exhibitions. His major exhibitions include Zhang Xiaogang: Shadows in the Soul at Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane (2009), Revision at Pace, New York (2008) and Zhang Xiaogang at Sara Hilden Art Museum, Tampere, Finland (2007). His work can be found in numerous public collections worldwide, including Shanghai Museum, Fukuoka Museum of Art, National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, Pacific Asia Museum in California, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Musée de Picardie in Amiens, France.
For further information, please contact:
Pace Beijing
798 Art District, No.2, Jiuxiangqiao Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday 10–6pm
T +86 10 5978 9781
info [at] pacebeijing.com
www.pacegallery.com
