Solo Show. Zhou Tiehai has been one of the most important Chinese artists on the international scene in the last few years. He is known for his creative peculiarity and for the personal role he plays. His symbolic figure declines every kind of classification and categorisation. He is his own agent, his own spectator and at the same time he is his own self-critic as well as a critic for the art of his times.
"Zhou Tiehai has been one of the most important Chinese artists on the
international scene in the last few years. He is known for his creative
peculiarity and for the personal role he plays. He was born in Shanghai, where
he still lives and works, and he reflects this modern and rapidly growing city
in his outlook.
His symbolic figure declines every kind of classification and categorisation. He
is his own agent, his own spectator and at the same time he is his own
self-critic as well as a critic for the art of his times. He is a sort of
'meta-critic' He perceptively examines the observations that foreigners and
Chinese mutually make and studies the surrounding environment to understand the
tendencies and demands which he satisfies with exceptional speed and ability.
In fact, from his work it is easy to understand that his point of view is not
exclusively Chinese nor Occidental but he seems to observe his own people with
Western eyes and to observe the rest of the world with typical Chinese
curiosity.
Zhou Tiehai knows what he wants and how to obtain it. In one of his creations,
the winking Joe Camel addresses everyone with the phrase, 'Hurry up! The
history of art won't wait for you!' This is a parody of a famous Chinese
proverb that says it is not great if you do not climb to the top."
Eleonora Battiston
Zhou Tiehai, born in 1998, got First Prize, Contemporary Chinese Art Award,
(CCAA Association, Switzerland) in 1989, lives and works in Shanghai now.
ShanghART Gallery 2a Gaolan Rd. Shanghai, 200020, China,
tel: 86-21 6359 3923 fax: 86-21 6359 4570