'Fragment & Identity' consists of 'dual paintings', shredded copies of currency on canvas and shredded magazine media on aluminum plate. Qian's art is based on artistic imagination, aesthetics, and social interactions. His works challenge the viewer's perception of what is both familiar and alien.
Eli Klein cordially invites you to attend the reception and private viewing of Yang Qian's solo exhibition: Fragment & Identity. Please join us at our New York location on Saturday, December 11th from 4 - 7 PM -- the artist will be present.
A highly visible and versatile artist in the first generation of contemporary artists in Mainland China, Yang Qian has been very active in the Contemporary Art scene in China and around the globe. This exhibit consists of "dual paintings," shredded copies of currency on canvas and shredded magazine media on aluminum plate. Yang Qian's art is based on artistic imagination, aesthetics, and social interactions. His works challenge the viewer's perception of what is both familiar and alien. His subject matter includes popular figures and symbols of modern daily living, and his perception of the world shifts from the mundane to the extraordinary.
Yang Qian's new work continues to play with the notion of multi-layered meaning in painting. In his "Bathroom" series, images overlap between reality and illusion as we view the subject through the film of a mirror, a sheen of water-droplets, and mist. Following the hidden realities of these reflective and reflected images, Yang Qian's new work can be categorized as "dual paintings." His technique involves the use of a colorless fluorescent paint over surfaces of already finished pieces of work so that the painting presents a different visual image depending on whether it is viewed in regular or ultraviolet light.
This allows for a multiplicity of images and a new aspect of interaction to emerge. Yang Qian states that his aim with this series of "dual paintings" was to formally disrupt and go beyond the perceived limitations of a 2-dimensional painting. His new work seeks to engage and interact with the surroundings in a way that challenges the expected restraints of painting. His "dual paintings" are classic in style but absorb new media as well. The work also involves the concept of kinetic paintings - again, these involve and interact with the viewer in a wholly unexpected manner, breaking with the traditional limitations of painting. This exhibition as a whole illustrates how the artist seeks to subvert and re-define the traditional concept of paintings, consistent with a belief that "only renovation can rejuvenate painting."
For further information, please contact the gallery at (212) 255 4388 or info@ekfineart.com.
Opening Saturday, December 11th from 4 - 7 PM
Eli Klein Fine Art
462 West Broadway | New York