DF2 Gallery
Los Angeles
314 N. Crescent Heights Blvd
323 7829404 FAX 323 7829407
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Becoming
dal 2/5/2008 al 20/6/2008

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DF2 Gallery



 
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2/5/2008

Becoming

DF2 Gallery, Los Angeles

A survey of the personal journeys of Qiu Xiaofei, Shen Liang Li Jikai and Chen Ke. All 4 artists are inspired by memories and images that continue to resonate with them from childhood objects and experiences, exploring the transition and transformation of the nostalgic within the context of the present.


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The work of Qiu Xiaofei, Shen Liang, Li Jikai and Chen Ke, all born in the 1970s, marks a significant shift in the unfolding vocabulary of Chinese contemporary art. Becoming, a group exhibition of four of the most prominent members of this generation, will open Saturday, May 3, 2008 from 6:00 - 8:00 PM at DF2 Gallery.

Chinese contemporary art, as it has so often been presented in the West, conjures up notions of irony and bridled cynicism. By blending images symbolic of China's bitter, post-1949 political history with the American/European visual discourse spanning roughly the same period, many Chinese artists born in the 1950's and 60's have left an indelible impression on viewers worldwide. However, these concerns no longer dominate

contemporary Chinese cultural dialogue the way they once did. China's younger generation of artists have largely replaced this debate over the political past with an awareness of individual history, investigating the complex relationship between the artists’ personal histories, present realities and visions of the future. Focusing on the self, they examine their states of being, questioning and positing the responsibilities of the individual in modern China --- a nation that is itself hurtling towards self-definition. Such a change in the artistic climate echoes the shift in Chinese social structure from collectivism in a fractured world to individualism amidst the globalized connectivity of the 21st Century.

Becoming is a survey of the personal journeys of Qiu Xiaofei, Shen Liang Li Jikai and Chen Ke. All four artists are inspired by memories and images that continue to resonate with them from childhood objects and experiences, exploring the transition and transformation of the nostalgic within the context of the present - each presenting a different understanding of China, the world, and the artists' place within both.

Qiu Xiaofei, born in Heilongjiang province in 1977, graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2002.
The seven paintings presented in this exhibition are part of a series of works based on notebooks, travel guides and photographs which function as memory conduits. Tuned to the honesty of childhood, Qiu finds inspiration and strength in artifacts from the past to respond to the current reality and his present existence.

Shen Liang, born in Liaoning province in 1976, graduated with a MFA from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2003. Shen Liang shares an interest with Qiu Xiaofei in graphic images prevalent in China in the 1970s and 80s. The books, magazines and pencil-boxes in Shen Liang’s work, however, were not his personal belongings. These printed objects depicted by Shen Liang have been laboriously discovered, selected and collected from antique markets and secondhand bookstores, representing a collective culture and experience. The pencil-boxes and comic-book covers that have been enlarged and transformed as paintings, serve as a surface for the artist to irreverently vandalize with his own graffiti, doodlings of men & women’s genitalia or crude commentaries. Exquisitely painted and irreverently undermined, Shen Liang's work lightheartedly examines the serious nature and centuries long tradition of painting in China.

Li Jikai, born in Sichuan province in 1975, graduated with a MFA from the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts in 2004. Li Jikai’s work offers the viewer insight into the artist's unknown, subconscious impulses, often triggered by found objects. The listless young boy in his paintings and sculptures represents the place of the individual in the psychoanalytic process of recognizing and processing the destructive moments of the past in order to reach an understanding of the present moment.

Chen Ke, born in Sichuan province in 1978, graduated with a MFA from the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts in 2005. Chen Ke’s series of photographs documents the elements of the installation "With You I'll Never Be Alone" that occupied much of the artist's time and thoughts for the past 18 months. Using old furniture and objects from her childhood home, Chen Ke explores the remains of a life vastly different from that of an artist living and working in 21st Century Beijing. Functioning as both token of gratuity to her parents and the symbolic closure of her childhood, the 45 intimate photographs articulate the many conflicts between China’s rapidly disappearing heritage, and the current, equally rapid, importation of foreign products, ideas and cultures.

Opening May 3, 6-8pm

DF2 Gallery
314 N. Crescent Heights Blvd - Los Angeles
Free admission

IN ARCHIVIO [5]
Ling Jian
dal 21/11/2008 al 16/1/2009

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