2020 Yangtze Nanjing Contemporary Art Fair Booth : A12: Shanghai

15 - 18 October 2020
2020 Yangtze Nanjing Contemporary Art Fair Booth : A12, Shanghai

 

2020 Yangtze Nanjing Contemporary Art Fair

 Booth : A12

 Artists ：
Chen Kai ，Chen Chunmu ，Li Yan, Li Yiwen ，Martin Wehmer ，Max Huckle ，Mou Huan ,Tan Ping ，Tang Jie ，Tøru Harada ，Yan Bo ,

 

 Duration：2020.10.15 - 18

 VIP and professional visitor day 

2020.10.15-16（11:00-18:00）

 Public open day 

2020.10.17-18（11:00-18:00）

Address: Nanjing International Exhibition Center（No.300 Jiangdong Middle Road, Jianye District, Nanjing）

 

Artists Introduction  

01  Chen Kai 
Chen received his BFA in Oil Painting from Hubei Institute of Fine Arts, Wuhan, China in 2012, and an MFA from San Francisco Art Institute in 2018. He was the recipient of the Headlands Graduate Fellowship Award in 2018, and the Swatch Art Peace Hotel Artist Fellowship in 2019. Chen’s works have been included in exhibitions at Headlands Center for The Arts, Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, Root Division, Live Worms Gallery, CARe Doug Adams Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, among others. Chen’s works are in many private collections in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Brisbane, Australia and Shanghai, China. 

 

Kai Chen’s abstract paintings and drawings explore ideas of color theory, abstraction and minimalism. Through laborious and meditative hatching marks or stippling, the layering of colors and the modeling of tones, Chen attempts to complicate the relationship between gestural mark-making and notions of masculinity as dictated by the mid-20th century Abstract Expressionists. His practice and distinct visual language aims to expand and transcend restrictive defifinitions of masculinity to include a broader expression and spiritual contemplation of the sublime.

02  Chen Chunmu 

Born in Quan Zhou in 1981, Chen has participated in group exhibitions since 2002 across the globe; in 2007 he participated in the show titled Gathering—Nine Artists' Exhibition Of Contemporary Art at Quac Art Space, Beijing, China; in 2010 he participated in The Big Bangat the White Rabbit Museum, Australia and the show The World Around—Exhibition Of Tenat the Gehua Museum, Beijing, China; in 2013, he participated in the first session of the ASIAN Art Biennale, Guangxi, China; in 2014 he participated in the Fujianese Contemporary Art Exhibition, Soka Gakkai Malaysia, Malaysia, Art Expo Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, alongside showcasing New Horizons—Young Artist New Works, at 798 Arts Center, Beijing, China, as well as A Life Without the Thrill of the Order, at The Hong Kong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China; in 2015 he showcased in Meta Vision—Seven Unique Language’s Personal History at Hong Qiang Gallery, Beijing, China.

 

The Series Work of ‘Grief’，Shang means Grief in Chinese, but its original meaning is more diverse. It is often used to refer to catastrophes (accidents caused by external or internal causes), severe psychological grief and trauma, or huge sorrow and regrets.

 

The works of ‘Rebirth’ is reborn from the ashes of ‘Grief’, as things are completely changed and transformed from all the ups and downs of the reality. Human beings are living a greedy life. Constantly, they demand things from their surroundings, which goes on over and over again endlessly. Coupled with the intervention of external conditions or natural disasters, our living environment got caught in a vicious circle. We live in interactions with the outside world, where everything is undergoing changes and turning ‘sick’ in every corner of our lives! Have we already felt anything yet?

A‘seed’is suspended in the air, looking for its suitable ‘soil’, for rooting, germinating and flowering! In fact, we don’t know how many outdated things are buried under the surface! The so-called ‘nutrients’ are fermenting during the process of modification! Everything above the surface seems to be sparkling and glamorous, however, what kind of ending is concealed in the dark? Facing these everything in front of us, we are having more thoughts than ever.
03   Li Yiwen   

Li Yiwen (b.1982, Luoyang, China), artist. He received a bachelor’s degree majoring in fresco from Central Academy of Art in 2006, and a master’s degree majoring in fresco from Central Academy of Art in 2011. Currently he lives and works in Beijing, China. His solo exhibitions in recent years include Durée (Leo Gallery, Shanghai, 2018), Integrative Structure (Leo Gallery, Hong Kong, 2016), LI YIWEN (Irene Laub Gallery, Brussels, 2015), LI YIWEN (Gallery Yang, Beijing, 2014), and Twinkling (Times Art Museum, Beijing, 2013). Group exhibitions that he has participated in include The Dilemmas of Painting (Asia Art Centre, Beijing, 2017), The Third Today’s Documents (Today Art Museum, Beijing, 2016), Microscope-The Inner Mindscape of 5 Contemporary Chinese Artists (Leo Gallery, Shanghai, 2015), This is Not Painting-Exploring the Boundary of Painting (Asia Art Center, Taipei, 2015),etc.

 

Artist Statement：

In my own painting experience, the instinct feelings are particularly important. In case I haven’t painted for a couple of days, I always feel awkward when I pick up the brushstroke again. In this case I will need to practise or even doodle on some small canvases for a long time to pick up the feelings. When painting large-scale works, I am often stuck in a difficult emotional state, where hesitation and disappointment are so common. Only when I shout oneself hoarse, I feel smooth again occasionally. In contrast, it is simple and joyful to paint watercolour on paper on a daily basis. I get to capture all the thoughts that flash across my mind, all the new themes I wanted to explore, as well as the structures of the objects and images in an effortless way. The image is easy to be created with watercolour. I am able to always give it a try for different thoughts, and present some in-depth ideas in a vivid way. I find myself enjoying this process more and more.

 

Li Yiwen whose pursuit of aesthetic taste is closely related with his personal artistic experience. He casts his keen perception of art on his reading interest in art theory, engraving, physics and philosophy, yet he has the characteristics of the new generation of Chinese artists in the Internet era. Li Yiwen’s creation in recent years focuses on presenting “time” through painting. He extracted it as “the third kind of time”, which is the time about perception, in which memory, intuition, experience and feeling interinfiltrated and coagulated in his paintings.

  

04  Martin Wehmer 

Martin Wehmer was Born in Blankenstein j, Hattingen, Germany,He won the Deutscher Kunstpreis der Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken Art Award in 1996,he was Co-Curator Biennale of 798 Beijing and has a lectureship in the Central Academy of Fine Arts,Lecturer of Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts in 2012,He served as a Lectureship of Chinese-German Art Academy at China Art Academy in Hangzhou in 2015. Now I live in Beijing.
 
Martin Wehmer's selected exhibitions in recent years include Martin Wehmer Solo Exhibition “Qi”（Pékin Fine Arts, Beijing, China,2018）,The Back of the Starry Sky( Contemporary By Angela Li, Hong Kong, China,2018),PAINTING = BOX,(Leo Gallery, Shanghai, China,2016),Neigbourship In Wang Jing Park(YING Gallery, Beijing, China,2016),Martin Wehmer( Being3art Gallery, Beijing, China,2014).etc.
 

Martin Wehmer is by almost any definition a painter—and one who embraces the traditional craft of his medium by way of extraordinary skill on the one hand, and by his concise and intellectual investigations, pursued with equally extraordinary diligence, on the other. His philosophical conviction explicates the relevance of the work of the artist in his socio-political square. His work originates from the annals of art history, specifically concerning itself with material, picture, plane, and space—issues distinctive to painting. Wehmer is a manufacturer of an artifice that relies on a socially relevant commodity that stays connected through his personal desire and his predisposition. His intention is not to dematerialize nor contextualize the art to advance how we define art-making today, but he consciously embraces the restrictive property of painting. The painting therefore dictates the artistic activity that has produced it and becomes a fetishistic object of desire.

 

05   Max Huckle 
Max Huckle was born in 1987 in Heidelberg, Germany,Studied Photography at Gerrit van Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, Netherlands in 2010-2012,Stidied at Folkwang Universität der Künste, Essen, Germany in 2012-2013,Studied at Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Karlsruhe, Germany in the class of Silvia Bächli and Markus Vater in 2013,Meisterschueler, Akademie der Bildenden Künste in the class of Markus Vater in 2018.
 

Max Huckle’s work pattern is based on contingency - he follows his intuition to discover something new by chance and at the same time, apart from painting as a physical need, it is a tool to understand life - resulting in paintings depicting his emotional landscape.

 

His workflow can be pictured as a dot on a large spiral, constantly moving along.He continuously strives to develop his work to a yet for him undefined point of satisfaction, which at the same time, when he reaches that point, sets him back to point zero. Another work circle is about to begin. His works show great variation from large scale  paintings, to small drawings - nevertheless, two common features become apparent:

Lines - lines divide. lines connect. lines structure space.Fortuitous material - He prefers to work with what falls into his hands.

 

06   Mo Huan 

His works have been exhibited many times in Chinese and international art spaces, including the Chinese Culture Centre in Berlin, the Museum of Modern Art in Valencia, Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, etc. 

 

In Mou Huan's artworks, the colour bulk formed by light and shadow appears on the paper, and the visual difference caused by diverse tone seems to freeze time. Abstract painting language is accompanied by strong narrative ability. The artwork concentrates on the top of the cooling tower, the moment of plant withering, the moment of disaster...

07  Tan Ping 

Tan Ping, artist, educator, vice president of Chinese National Academy of Arts. He graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1984, studied in Germany in the late 1980s’ and received a master's degree and a Meisterschule degree. He also was the honorary doctor of Kingston University, dean of the Design Institute of China Central Academy of Fine Arts and vice president of CAFA. He is regarded as the leading figure of Chinese abstract art, the pioneer of the contemporary Chinese art design discipline and the promoter of Chinese experimental art discipline. In the 40 years’ art practice,Tan Ping has been exploring in many fields such as painting, printmaking, multimedia, design and so on, in his continuous changes and his creation full of tension, many important points of contemporary art were run through consistently. 

 

Artist Statement

"During my time in Germany, my work was a continuation of what I have done back in China, the abstract works. From broken edges to the fragments of text, in fact they are in a state that is between concrete and abstract. However, I already started to gradually avoid and clean away all the concrete and superficial factors ever since my Chinese complex appeared in my paintings. 

 

After a period of ‘leaps’, my etchings created between 1992 and 1993 have become simplified, as the pictures have gradually got rid of icons and symbols of the Chinese elements, leaving only black lines and long bars with symbolic characteristics. They still look like they are greatly influenced by the Eastern culture, however, no images of the Chinese culture can be found any more. The art of minimalism is a way of life, which coincides with the artistic conceptions pursued by Zen Buddhists in the East. When I express the mood of Zen in a minimalist form, there is a certain artistic conception hidden behind the black. This is also why when my installation works occupy the space of a traditional European architecture, it reflects not only the composition of the space, but also a strong symbolic meaning.”

 

Being familiar with his creative journey, it is obvious that this "line" is a characteristic Tan-Ping line, as they appear in his works "Bach's Cello Song", "Intruder", "A Tribute to Mark Rothko" and "Angel" from 2015. Yet in his new works, he tried to superimpose the space. Tan Ping is clever at layering spaces, since he is not following the patterns of either traditional Chinese ink painting or Western oil paintings,It's like a slice of space.

 

Along with his restless "line", Tan Ping explored the beginninglessness and endlessness. In fact, Tan Ping pursued the concept of intuition in his painting, which has led to movement and changes in color of his lines.It is difficult to define TanPing by a certain concept, because he constantly moves on and sets new rules for himself: creating, building, covering, disappearing. Nevertheless, one constant feature of Tan Ping's work is, it matches the space, by being flexible to the space. 

08 Tang Jie 

TANG JIE(b.1989,Yueyang,Hunan Province)is graduated from Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts with a bachelor's degree in sculpture in 2013, from Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts with a master's degree in sculpture in 2016, and now teaches at Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts. His research interests include installation art and dynamic sculpture, in 2016 the individual atelier was established, now lives in Dalian.. His installation works adopt natural materials as the main components, exploring relationships between man and objects, man and the society, and objects and the world. Combining technology and Chinese philosophy, his works use interactions between man and his works, presenting viewers the witty remark of the eastern philosophy of Zen。

 

Recent important exhibitions include A Misty Gaze into Infinity（Powerlong Museum, Shanghai, China,2020)，Where are you come from（Today Museum，Beijing, China，2019），Encounter（Shanghai Urban Sapce Art Season, Shanghai, China,2019）,"Different Datong" (Chinese Sculpture Biennale, Chinese sculpture museum, Datong,2018)； "See you in ten years" Zeng Zhushao scholarship Exhibition（Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenyang, Xi'an, Chongqing, Wuhan, Hangzhou，2017）；The 2nd International dynamic sculpture exhibition of "Tianxing Yidong",（Changchun Sculpture Park, Changchun，2017）；Art Beijing 2017（ Leo Gallery, Beijing, China，2017）；Tang Jie Solo Project, （Beijing Gallery & Leo Gallery, Beijing Shanghai，2017）.

 
At this moment, the work gains its poetic: the sand rises and falls in the wind repeatedly, through which Tang Jie leads the audience to the encounter of imaginary space with his unique visual language, and the resonance between the different spaces in the work and the outside world.
 
-- Dust rises and falls when the wind blows
-- Ups and downs repeatedly
-- It's sand, image, also state of mind

 

09  Tøru Harada 原田とおる (透)

Tøru Harada was born in Miyasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan.
He has a background in painting, sculpture, furniture and other mediums. 
 
Furthermore his works span a wide range from plane to solid sculpture design. His works are known for its structural simplicity and distinctive style utilizing bold lines. The unique conceptual ideas and techniques of the mosaic painting style reflect the creator's rich background in art. Toru uses the most simple design, bold lines elements along with the usage of inherent characteristics of the display space to bring the audience a brand-new sensory impression.
 
Tøru Harada has the free and bald creating style. He is good at discovering the mediums and inspirations of creation from the street. With the stylized use of living materials, minimal structure and thick lines, he works are infused with fun.

 

 

10 Yan Bo 闫博 

Yan Bo was born into an artistic family in Beijing. His father is an oil painter and his mother is an art tutor. He studied at Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts in Tianjin and The Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing respectively. His works set a speculation for the “special objects” in the mixed area of paintings and objects. Within the “special objects”, he establishes a “logical defamiliarization” which is a logic of strange context and unique technical support; so that the works are openly formed in an irregular shape and full of exquisite texture and charms of the trace, and reveal the spirit of tangibility and freedom.
Seeking freedom in art forms, Yan Bo uses the mineral material as the foundation in his work; distances himself from the boundary of rectangular or square canvas and creates works in irregular shape. To him, this is how an artist seeks freedom in creation. Every creation process is a wander to the unknowns. The initial setting was repeatedly tampered, and finally the work is completed with the psychological and visual satisfactions.
Back to Past exhibitions