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Zhang Xiaogang, Mao Yan, Qiu Xiaofei

Past
Nov 22 – Dec 21, 2019
Hong Kong

Pace Gallery is pleased to present Zhang Xiaogang, Mao Yan, Qiu Xiaofei, a group exhibition featuring three renowned Chinese contemporary artists whose works explore notions of identity, memory, and history through the power of painting.

Exhibition Details

Zhang Xiaogang, Mao Yan, Qiu Xiaofei
Nov 22 – Dec 21, 2019

Above: Installation view, Zhang Xiaogang, Mao Yan, Qiu Xiaofei, November 22, 2019 – February 5, 2020, Pace Gallery, Hong Kong © Zhang Xiaogang; Mao Yan; Qiu Xiaofei

Gallery

12/F, H Queen's
80 Queen's Road Central
Hong Kong

Press Release

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Pace Gallery is pleased to present a group exhibition featuring three renowned Chinese contemporary artists: Zhang Xiaogang, Mao Yan and Qiu Xiaofei. These painters, active in the international art scene, explore notions of identity, memory, and history through the power of painting as both a process and a medium of expression and communication. The show includes new paintings by Zhang Xiaogang, which have never been exhibited before, as well as Mao Yan’s and Qiu Xiaofei's signature works from recent years. Through their unique and signature styles, these artists all possess a dynamic approach to painting that compounds realism, abstraction, and expressionistic qualities through portraiture, still life, and landscape. The exhibition will be on view at Pace Gallery in the H Queen’s building from November 22 – December 21, 2019, with an opening reception on Thursday, November 21 from 6 – 8 pm.

Zhang Xiaogang is recognized for integrating the introverted and sensitive qualities of his personality into stylized portraits and scenes rendered through somber greys and saturated colors as well as extremely refined brushwork warm with life. The exhibition focuses on the artist’s continued use of narrative scenes and portraits, composed through a lens of constructed memory and imagination, with new paintings that build on the artist’s continued impact on the international stage. The technical and figurative composition of this work reflects the artist’s broad interrogation of the nature of painting as a physical manifestation of the unconscious and as interpretive of individual and collective memory, here reflecting on the cultural terrain of contemporary China and individual notions of identity.

Mao Yan_Oval Portrait of Thomas No. 2_2013_oil on canvas_110 cm x 75 cm © Mao Yan.jpeg — Mao Yan, *Oval Portrait of Thomas No. 2*, 2013, oil on canvas, 110 cm x 75 cm (43-5/16" x 29-1/2") © Mao Yan

The portraits by Mao Yan included in the exhibition display the artist’s signature aesthetic of grey ashen tones. In his work, such as the well-known Thomas series, Mao Yan depicts everyday faces with fine and delicate brushstrokes, guiding his audience to enter a state of meditation and tranquility within the fast-paced world. In conjunction, his works draw on an historical legacy within the art of portraiture, seen through his use of various motifs, as in the oval as a framing device. Mao’s physical and explicit subjects flirt with abstraction through layered paint and deemphasized features that blend into and out of their surroundings. Through portraiture and still-life, he conveys a profound connection between the physical application of brushstrokes and the interior world of his emotions, exuding an existential yet poetic exploration that transforms his paintings into a spiritual medium that surpasses everyday reality.

Qiu Xiaofei_Replanted No. 4_2017_mixed materials on canvas_180 cm × 180 cm_© Qiu Xiaofei.jpeg — Qiu Xiaofei, *Replanted No. 4*, 2017, mixed materials on canvas, 180 cm × 180 cm (70-7/8" × 70-7/8") © Qiu Xiaofei

As the youngest artist in the group exhibition, Qiu Xiaofei has undergone enriching transformation in style and vision. His recent works shift into expressive all-over abstractions that contain broad brushstrokes meandering across fields of color on the surface of the canvas. Still, Qui’s paintings hint at objective things including landscapes and figures, retaining his approach to narrative through the context of autobiography and the history of painting. This exploration builds on a creative dialogue between material and concepts of memory and representation. “Painting starts with imagery and finally returns to imagery,” he says. “In fact, my works are not purely abstract. There is concretization in my paintings, like spatial specifics...there is always a relationship between that and your consciousness and intentions…” Qiu’s recent works, such as The Trotsky Wilderness (2018), reveal further reflection toward images and the language of painting through historical reflection—here recalling the Soviet revolutionary Leon Trotsky. As such, his examination and approach attempt a more conscious initiative: to awaken the potential of human perception hidden in the depths of the mind and collective memory through shapes, colors, and the act of painting itself.