ShanghART Gallery
Shanghai
Bldg 16, Nr 50 Moganshan Rd. 200060
86-21 6359 3923 FAX 86-21 6359 4570
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I/ We
dal 7/3/2003 al 15/3/2003
862163593923 FAX 862163594570
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Zeng Fanzhi



 
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7/3/2003

I/ We

ShanghART Gallery, Shanghai

I/We: the Paintings of Zeng Fanzhi 1991-2003 gives an overview of Zeng Fanzhi's impressive body of works of the past 12 years. The show includes over 40 of Zeng Fanzhi's works, many borrowed back from private and public collections for this occasion.


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The Paintings of Zeng Fanzhi at the Shanghai Art Museum

Opening Saturday, March 8th 2003, 4.00pm

With the opening of his solo exhibition at the Shanghai Art Museum in March 2003, Zeng Fanzhi is only the third contemporary Chinese artist to enjoy the privilege of a retrospective show in the Shanghai Art Museum.

"I/We: the Paintings of Zeng Fanzhi 1991-2003" gives an overview of Zeng Fanzhi's impressive body of works of the past 12 years. The show includes over 40 of Zeng Fanzhi's works, many borrowed back from private and public collections for this occasion.

The exhibition is not only a unique chance to review the work of one of the most interesting young artists working in China today - Zeng Fanzhi is only 39 years old -, but will also be a good opportunity for the public to get further understanding of Chinese contemporary art through the work of one individual, outstanding artists.

The exhibition will be accompanied by an extensive catalogue with essays by Robert Morgan, Li Xianting, Pi Li, Toshio Shimizu and Karen Smith.

Some history:
Zeng Fanzhi was born in 1964 in Wuhan, Hubei. In 1991 he graduated from Oil Painting department, Hubei Academy of Fine Arts. After his first exhibition in Wuhan got good reactions from critics in the capital, Zeng Fanzhi moved to Beijing in 1992 as an independent artist. This was very rare at that period when most artists were associated to a school or an other 'unit'.

In the last decade, Zeng Fanzhi' works were exhibited in a number of important international exhibitions, such as China's New Art, Post-1989, (1992, Hong Kong Art Center), Out of Middle Kingdom: Chinese Avant-Gardes Art (1995, Santa Monica Arts Center, Barcelona), House of World Culture (1995, Berlin), Question Marks (Singapore National Museum of Arts, 1997), Paris-Beijing (Espace Cardin, Paris, 2002) etc.

Since the middle-1990s, Zeng Fanzhi began again to exhibit more also in China itself. His works were shown in different museums und galleries from Beijing, to Shanghai, Guangzhou etc. Exhibitions include: 50 Years of Chinese Oil Painting (1999, National Art Museum), New Images (2001, National Art Museum Beijing; Shanghai Art Museum; Guangzhou Art Museum; Sichuan Art Museum, Chengdu). Zeng Fanzhi held several solo exhibitions in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing.

The work:
Zeng Fanzhi likes to use the painting brush and the language of his brush work is direct. The success of Zeng Fanzhi's works is closely related to his mature expressionist style and the attention he pays to his subject, the young urban people, people from his own generation, the generation of the 20something at the beginning of Zeng Fanzhi's carrier to the 30something of today. You can follow the dreams, anxieties, worries, wishes, the happiness, regrets and search for identity of this generation in Zeng Fanzhi's work of the last 12 years. Zeng Fanzhi gave this generation a face.

In his earlier works - when the artist was only in his late twenties - Zeng Fanzhi dealt in very direct, expressionistic stile with the theme of death, sickness and pain, creating very convincing image of people rather defenceless exposed to the troubles of everyday's life.

After Zeng Fanzhi moved to Beijing, the mask became the most significant symbol of his paintings. For the years to follow, Zeng Fanzhi painted his figures - often depicted in front of simple, smooth backgrounds - with masks which try to cover the face, but still didn't hide the feelings of his figures, their emotions remained clearly expressed.

Zeng Fanzhi is driving his search for expression relentlessly forward and is developing his style continously. The figures he started to paint in the past years where without masks again, direkt portraits of people facing the life.

In his recent works, another transformation occurred. The directness of Zeng Fanzhi's early works re-emerged. In addition to the normal bush strokes with which he build the even larger faces, the artist began to cover the painting with a second structure of quick, round lines. While they are destroying the integrality of the image, they also provide it with a new sense of dimensionality and urgency.

Just like any work of art, the works of Zeng Fanzhi will provoke different reactions from different people. But what is sure, there is a clear line of development in Zeng Fanzhi's work over the years, a development which is related to the unprecedented urbanization and change of Chinese society which the artists and his generation experienced in the last few years.

Image: Zeng Fanzhi (born 1964), Untitled, oil on canvas, 250x250cm, 2002

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at ShanghART in March 2003 - March 6-31, 2003: The Camels by Zhou Tiehai Airbrushed works from Zhou Tiehai's studio.

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ShanghART
Feng Mengbo, Shanghai
Tel (86) 21- 6359 3923 or 5382 0418
Fax (86) 21- 63594570

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