Zhang Gong – The Watcher

Klein Sun Gallery is pleased to announce “The Watcher,” a solo exhibition of paintings by Beijing-based artist and animator Zhang Gong. This marks the artist’s fourth exhibition with the gallery and shows his first new body of work since 2012.

Zhang Gong is best known for his appropriated figurative paintings featuring a coterie of oddball characters. In these paintings, iconic symbols of pop culture – South Park characters, Michael Jackson, Mickey Mouse, Wallace and Gromit – as well as Zhang Gong’s own creations, replace human figures within familiar artworks such as Edward Hopper’s ‘Nighthawks,’ and George Seurat’s ‘Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.’ With his paintbrush, Zhang Gong rewrites the archaic narrative of art history by rendering these scenes in explicit contemporary light and by amassing these characters in a style reminiscent of an epic, traditional Hollywood set. Zhang Gong’s tendency towards the grand mise-en-scène also translates into his animation work for which he has received several international awards.

In the exhibition “The Watcher,” Zhang Gong presents three new series of paintings revealing the artist’s maturation in themes of abstraction.

The “Dissolve the Night” series conflates Zhang Gong’s meticulous character drawing with the universe’s structures of ever-shifting, ever-expanding atoms. These canvasses present swirls of kinetic objects in the dozens: planes, ships and flying ‘heroes’ such as Astro Boy, Mike Wazowski (Monsters Inc.), Jack Skellington (The Nightmare Before Christmas), as well as Zhang Gong’s frequently appearing panda, a figure which represents the human self.

The panda also makes an appearance in another series of the exhibition, “Flying to the Void.” Here, the artist has painted minimalist shapes in the form of a crossroad and has placed the panda at the center. Winged and suspended in the paintings, the panda is faced with a choice in direction. He is equipped to fly but does not understand his own path yet. At the same time, the crossroads, which are painted in an array of luminous hues, appear like rays of light and charge the paintings with a spiritual vigor.

Finally, “The Watcher” series presents quiet narratives in an imagined forest, thick with trees set apart in a formulaic pattern. In the spaces between the trunks of these trees, characters act out mini scenes as if each grid were an individual stage; these interactions appear to have no correlation to one another, yet are connected by the larger enclosure of this strange forest. Zhang Gong’s questions about society ring clearest here, in his studies of these beings that move as if unseen in these shadowed lands. The artist asks: who are these people guarding and protecting? And who is watching over them?

Zhang Gong was born in Beijing, China, in 1959. He graduated with an MFA from the Central Academy of Arts and Design in 1993 and is currently Professor at the Information Department of Art and Design at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. Zhang Gong’s work has been the subject of solo shows, including “A Tale of Metropolis – Solo Exhibition of Zhang Gong,” Kwai Fung Hin Gallery, Hong Kong (2014) and “Where We Go,” Eli Klein Fine Art, New York, NY (2012). His group museum shows include “Scenes from Within: Contemporary Art from China,” Blackbridge Hall Gallery, Georgia College, Milledgeville, GA (2011); “Hypallage – The Post-Modern Mode of Chinese Contemporary Art,” The OCT Contemporary Art Center, Shenzhen, China (2008); “FICTION LOVE – Ultra New Vision in Contemporary Art,” Singapore Art Museum, Singapore (2006), MoCA Shanghai, Shanghai, China (2006); “8+8-1: Selected Paintings by 15 Contemporary Artists,” Schoeni Art Gallery, Hong Kong (1997), Connaught Brown, London, England (1998); and “China!” Kunstmuseum, Bonn, Germany (1996), Modern Art Museum, Singapore (1996). His animation films have been featured at international festivals such as Cinémathèque Québécoise, Montreal, Canada; Brussels Animation Films Festival, Brussels, Belgium; London International Animation Festival, London, UK; and Without Borders Film Festival, Rome, Italy.

凯尚画廊将荣幸地于2016年6月30日至8月19日推出北京艺术家、动画创作人张弓的绘画个展《守望者》。作为艺术家在凯尚画廊的第四次展览，本次展览将展出艺术家自2012年起的新作。

张弓闻名于以一群古怪角色为主的挪用人像绘画。艺术家在这些绘画中运用标志性的流行文化象征——南方公园中的角色、迈克尔·杰克逊、米老鼠、超级无敌掌门狗，以及其个人的创作。运用这些文化符号，艺术家替换了广为人知的艺术作品中的人物形象，例如出现在爱德华·霍珀的《夜鹰》和乔治·修拉的《在拉·格兰德·加特岛的一个星期天下午》中的人物。张弓用他的画笔为这些作品中的场景着上鲜明的当代色彩，将这些人物角色聚集在一种怀旧式的，史诗般的传统好莱坞场景中，重写了古老的艺术史叙述。这种在张弓作品中所体现出的将宏大的舞台布景与动画相结合的趋势，使他受到广泛关注并获得了多个国际奖项。

在本次展览《守望者》中，张弓将展示三组新的绘画系列，这些作品体现了艺术家的作品向抽象表达发展并日渐成熟的过程。

《夜远去》系列融合了张弓精细的人物绘画，与千变万化的不断扩张的原子的宇宙结构。这些绘画呈现出许多富有动态的充斥着物件的漩涡，其中包括：飞机、船、和飞翔的“英雄”，例如铁臂阿童木、麦克·沃佐斯基（怪兽电力公司）、骷髅杰克（圣诞夜惊魂），以及张弓作品中频繁出现的代表人类自身的熊猫形象。

艺术家作品中的熊猫形象也出现在这次展览的另一个系列，《飞往虚空》中。运用极简的手法，艺术家描绘出一个熊猫位于中心的交叉路口的情景。带着翅膀并悬浮在画面中，这只熊猫需要对飞行的方向作出选择。他已准备好飞行但却不知自己的路在何方。与此同时，由大量明亮色彩构成的交叉路口光芒四射，为整副作品更增添了精神活力

最终《守望者》系列展示了在一片幻想的森林中的静谧叙事，密集的树丛将整个画面分割成公式化的图案。在树干间的空隙里，作品中的人物表演着迷你剧，放佛每一个格子都是一个独立的舞台；这些人物间的情景互动似乎互不相关，但却被这片奇怪森林的巨大场域所相互联系。张弓对社会的拷问清晰的体现在这里——在这片阴影覆盖的土地上，艺术家通过研究这些移动的却又放佛无法被看见的生命体来提出质疑：这些人在看着谁？谁又在看着他们？

张弓于1959年生于中国北京。他于1993年获得中央工艺美术学院硕士学位，现任教于中国北京清华大学美术学院信息艺术设计系。张弓的作品曾在多个个展中展出，其中包括《坐看繁城—张弓个展》, 季丰轩画廊，香港（2014）和《我们去哪里》，艺莱画廊，纽约（2012）。他所参与的美术馆群展包括《里面的风景：中国的当代艺术》，黑桥大厅画廊，乔治亚大学，米利奇维尔，美国（2011）；《移花接木——中国当代艺术中的后现代方式展览》，华·美术馆，深圳，中国（2008）；《虚拟的爱-当代新异术》，新加坡美术馆（2006），上海当代艺术馆，上海，中国（2006）；《8+8-1：15位当代艺术家精选作品》 少励画廊，香港（1997)，康诺布朗，伦敦，英国（1998）；《中国!》，艺术博物馆，波恩，德国（1996）；现代艺术馆，新加坡（1996）。张弓的动画也曾入选多个国际电影节，如魁北克电影资料馆中国动画短片放映单元，蒙特利尔，加拿大；布鲁塞尔动画电影节，布鲁塞尔，比利时；伦敦国际动画电影节，伦敦，英国；地中海环境奖，罗马，意大利。

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