Li Qing
dal 7/3/2008 al 11/4/2008
Segnalato da
7/3/2008
Li Qing
DF2 Gallery, Los Angeles
Collision in the Air. The artist's work examines the possibility of painting, its continuing relevance and the visual experience. His images are realized in the seam between the fragmentation of daily events.
Born in 1981, Li Qing is representative of the new generation of Chinese artists, whose education and practice, while rooted in China, is strongly informed by the global history of contemporary art. Less consumed with the exhuming of China's recent political past, many of these artists, brought up in a post-Mao China, address ideas in their work from a more personal perspective; yet at the same time, reference the visual vocabulary developed in China over the past two decades, as well as the traditional Chinese imageries. Li Qing’s work examines the possibility of painting, its continuing relevance and the visual experience. His images are realized in the seam between the fragmentation of daily events and their portrayal within the context of compositional concerns.
Li Qing's new series of 8 quadriptychs (2 photographs and 2 paintings), titled “Collision in the Air” will be on view at DF2 Gallery from March 8 to April 12, 2008.
In physics, the word “collision” refers to the exchange of energy between particles. Proceeding from this concept, Li Qing studies the process of contemplating, constructing and deconstructing. Two analogous paintings, while still wet, are pressed face to face. Subsequently, the works are pulled apart, creating two new mirror images. Before this action is taken, the artist photographically documents the original state of the individual images. The suggested brushstrokes and images recorded in the photographs cease to physically exist after the action. The new compositions emerging from this process are the combined results of the artist's conscious actions and the chance interactions of the painting's physical elements. By installing the photographs next to the original paintings, Li Qing invites the viewers to analyze four images at once in order to examine the shifts of time, physicality, space and memory. Juxtaposition is one of the key methodologies emphasized in Li Qing’s art, employed to unveil the tension between the related yet divergent subjects. In the end, viewers are rewarded with messages, often humorous and satirical, camouflaged in the subtle process of undoing and uniting.
Li Qing has remarked: “Chinese contemporary art is often evaluated only for its cultural exotics, and not given consideration in terms of art history; probably due to the fact that recent Chinese contemporary art has contributed little to art methodology and theory. I think many Chinese artists are now bringing about a change within this context; I believe that Chinese and Western heritages can coexist in the context of contemporary art history”.
Li Qing lives and works in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China.
DF2 Gallery
314 N. Crescent Heights Blvd - Los Angeles