Ling Jian
dal 21/11/2008 al 16/1/2009
Segnalato da
21/11/2008
Ling Jian
DF2 Gallery, Los Angeles
Red Seed. Ling's paintings bear many of the earmarks, stylistic and expressive, with which we have come to associate in Western figurative art. Given its pop-art antecedents and its sensitivity to current social conditions, her art finds continuity between the two cultural poles and locates itself in between.
DF2 Gallery is pleased to announce the solo
exhibition, Red Seed, by Ling Jian.
Ling Jian’s art is a carefully negotiated
hybridization calibrated to his expressive
concerns. Having lived and worked between
China and Europe for 20 years, Ling’s struggle
deals with the fact that “home” is no longer a
refuge, but has become part of the stage. Ling’s
paintings bear many of the earmarks, stylistic
and expressive, with which we have come to
associate in Western figurative art. Given its
pop-art antecedents and its sensitivity to
current social conditions, Ling’s art finds continuity between the two cultural poles and
locates itself in between.
The sharp and theatrical, yet casually presented violence that
pervades Ling’s paintings of women is made possible by the acceptability of such
presentation in current Western art; it is made necessary by the lingering Chinese
resistance to such imagery, a resistance rendered almost hypocritical in a burgeoning
Westernized social milieu. In Ling’s knowing recontextualization, the violence is part of
his immersive conjuration of sexuality and provocation of desire. With their swollen
heads, elongated necks and limbs, odd gestures, and tendency to weep bodily fluids other
than tears, his subjects are mannerist caricatures, surrealized parodies. They amplify
secondary sexual characteristics according to contemporary tastes; but more often
deliberately overshoot those tastes, resulting in frightening enactments of the appearance
disorders that plague young women today.
opening november 22, 2008
DF2 Gallery
314 N. Crescent Heights Blvd - Los Angeles
Free admission