New voices: a dsl collection story

Klein Sun Gallery is pleased to announce “New voices: a dsl collection story,” a group exhibition.

“New voices: a dsl collection story,” features works by nine artists: Chen Wei, Gao Lei, Gao Weigang, Hou Yong, Hu Weiyi, Li Wei, Wang Yuyang, Wang Sishun and Zhao Zhao. Curated by Beili Wang, the exhibition is inspired by the dsl collection, a body of work procured by Sylvain and Dominique Levy that documents the multiple narratives of art and culture in contemporary China.

Historically, art has served as the zeitgeist of a moment in time, and as a palimpsestic model on which traces of the past still remain, however faint. Contemporary art on a world stage is constantly negotiating this relationship – but what if that relationship was broken? What if a collective history was erased? Today, China faces this strange, complex issue. The nine artists in this exhibition, born after the China Economic reform (1976-1989), possess no memory or experience of the hermetic Cultural Revolution, or even the periods before those, which were rewritten by the Revolution.

Thus, “New voices: a dsl collection story,” reveals the practice and works of China’s youngest generation of artists, who have distinctly different points of cultural and historical reference in comparison to their predecessors. Within this boundless sphere, they create alien works that are transcendent of the notion of contemporary, translating their identities into a new autonomous language. Using new materials and concepts, these artists and their works are pushing Chinese contemporary art to unchartered territories, and because of that, their works are of higher value than any previous generation of Chinese artists.

Photographer Chen Wei‘s fantastical images vacillate between grandiose expectation and reality, a common symptom of a society trapped by the promises of globalization. Gao Lei expounds on a similar notion through his sinister creations of compressed carpet and restrictive wires, which also reference the oppressive governing of authoritative bodies. Gao Weigang‘s existentialist “Where #4”, a 24-carat gold ladder, juxtaposes the impractical with object functionality, and Wang Sishun uses his abstract forms of steel and lead to explain another relationship: art economy and production. Li Wei illustrates the oddities of human behavior in his sculpture bust “Hollow Man – Auditory Hallucination” and Zhao Zhao stresses the false, brittle notions of safety with his white marble piece, “Safe #5”.

Meanwhile, Hou Yong and Wang Yuyang question the trends and values of Chinese contemporary art, the former returning to the spirituality of painting in his domesticated canvasses, and the latter transposing an image of a painting onto a digital picture. Finally, the youngest artist in the show, Hu Weiyi, presents his luminous “Flirt” installation: a series of sexually charged photographs stitched together by lines of fluorescent neon lights. With this young generation facing the international stage for the first time, this exhibition tells the incredible processes of collecting Chinese contemporary art through the artists’ connections to the dsl collection.

A fully illustrated catalog accompanies this exhibition.

凯尚画廊很荣幸宣布群展“新声音：一段dsl collection的冒险”将于2016年5月7日至6月18日展览。

“新声音：一段dsl collection的冒险”展览囊括九位画家：陈维，高磊，高伟刚，侯勇，胡为一，黎薇，王思顺，王郁洋和赵赵。此次展览由王贝莉策展，灵感来自于Sylvain和Dominique Levy收集的dsl collection。他们收藏的作品纪录了中国当代社会中有关艺术与文化的多元化对白。

在历史的长河中，艺术一直是一种时代精神运动，好似一本被抹去然后又被重写的书一般，残留中保留着过去的痕迹。在世界舞台上，当代艺术往往在这样的关系中徘徊，但如果历史与艺术间的关系被打破，会如何？如果集体性的历史痕迹被抹去了又会如何？当今中国面对着这样一个奇异复杂的问题。此次展览中的九位画家都出生于改革开放时期（1976-1989），且没有对文化大革命时的封闭，或是被革命改写的历史时代拥有任何记忆。

因此，“新声音：一段dsl collection的冒险”揭示出中国最有年轻活力的一代画家以及他们的作品，他们对文化以及历史的视角与他们前辈的不同，体现出后生可畏的特性。他们拥有无限大的空间，在其中他们创造出了超越诠释当代艺术的相异作品，这些超凡脱俗的作品将他们的身份转换成为了一种独立语言。这些画家通过他们作品中所运用的新式材料以及概念，引领中国当代艺术进入了标新立异的地域，从而也给他们的作品带来了前所未有的价值。

摄影师陈维所创造的奇幻图像在伟大的幻想和现实之间逗留，从中体现出现今社会被所谓国际化的承诺而压制的现象。高磊也探索了相似的概念，他所创造的压缩地毯和限制性的铁丝充满了危险的征兆，比喻权威体制的压迫性统治。高伟刚的存在主义作品Where #4 是一个镀24K金的爬梯，这个作品将不现实性和客观功能性进行了对比。王思顺则利用抽象的钢和铅制品来诠释艺术经济和生产力的关系。黎薇通过他的胸像雕塑作品“空心人”表达人类行为的古怪，赵赵则在他的汉白玉作品“保险箱＃5”中强调出所谓安全感中的错误和脆弱性。

与此同时，侯勇和王郁洋共同质问中国当代艺术的趋势和价值，前者在他体现家庭景象的画面中回访作画本身的灵性，后者则是将一幅画的影像移植入数码图像。最后，本次展览中最年轻的画家胡为一展出他的发光装置作品“Flirt”：一系列饱含性感的照片由荧光冷光线缝合。此次展览是这群才华横溢的年轻一代第一次在世界的舞台上亮相，这一组作品通过艺术家与dsl collection的关系而讲述收藏中国当代艺术精彩历程。

一本完整的图示目录配合此次展览。于2016年5月7日，凯尚画廊将主办座谈会，由Eli Klein主持，以及来自于dsl collection的Sylvain Levy和来自于亚洲艺术文献库的Jane DeBevoise参加。

Gallery hours Mon-Sat 10 am – 6 pm

www.kleinsungallery.com

Location:
Klein Sun Gallery
525 W. 22nd Street
10011 New York, NY
United States