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In Memory of a Landscape II | 怀•景 之二 - Lu Song, Wei Jia, Xie Fan 吕松、韦嘉、谢帆 - Exhibitions - James Cohan

 Lu Song 吕松

One Day of Being as Adam Polo 作为亚当·波洛的一天, 2015

Oil on canvas 布面油画

47 1/4 x 63 inches; 120 x 160 cm 

*Please scroll down for English.

 

上海柯恩画廊荣幸推出《怀·景 之二》:吕松、韦嘉、谢帆,作为在2014年广受赞扬和成功的《怀·景》展览的第二期。展览将于2015年11月18日开幕,持续至2016年1月3日。

 

展览标题是对晚期的弗兰克·奥哈拉的含蓄致敬——他是一位有影响力的美国诗人,并曾担任纽约现代美术馆策展人,是1960年代艺术界的传奇人物。两个展览在诗人的想法基础上探讨了艺术应当是极其私密的,而且往往是自传式的。奥哈拉的一首重要诗歌开篇写道:“我的静默中住着一个人,他是透明的……”

 

两期展览的艺术家都是用风景比喻“自我”:一个他们的回忆和最私密情感的所属地。在第一期中,观众被邀请体验无人却充斥着人类痕迹的风景(陈彧君、袁远的荒旧的室内空间或黄宇兴的受污染的河流都象征着快速城市化的产物)。艺术家感受到的焦虑和无所适从正是通过这种腐朽的风景来传达的。

 

第二期展览中的艺术家(吕松、韦嘉、谢帆)将相似的焦虑通过不同的方式转化出来。那些由污染、隔离和贪婪制造出的晦暗风景,被他们笔下自然和自然世界的超现实和神秘景象所取代。他们有意识地不去描画残酷的现实;而是选择重新展现新理想国或伊甸园的概念。这种对现实的逃避让艺术家活在了那个珍藏在他们记忆中的相对简单的时代——当自然,而非全球化,是那个最令人敬畏的、最强大的力量。

 

韦嘉,三位艺术家中最年长的一位,1975年出生于四川省。毕业于中央美术学院版画系,韦嘉的绘画方式是非常精确而系统化的。尽管每一笔笔触都极其富有表现力,每一笔却也都是精心绘制的。他的风景通过深思熟虑的层叠而成形,需花费数周乃至数月的时间。对比之下,1982年出生于北京的吕松则更随性地绘画。本科和硕士均毕业于伦敦温布尔登艺术学院,吕松对待每一块画布都像一个实验。他结合丙烯和油画颜料刷层的同时添加油灰到画的表面,然后再撕去颜色间隔之间的油灰,得到磨损或褪色的效果。如果他对最终得到的画面不满意,他就继续刷层和剥落直到一幅新的风景画诞生。

 

不同于韦嘉和吕松这两位主要用布面丙烯画风景的艺术家,1983年出生于重庆的谢帆选择了在绢丝材质上进行探索。毕业于四川美术学院油画系,谢帆试图寻找一种可以把呼吸带进画面并能让它们看上去有立体效果的材质。他发现绢丝能产生一种半透明的光晕,一种光线敲打在布面上泛起的涟漪似的微光。和韦嘉相似的地方在于,谢帆也是非常科学地画画,颜料层叠,点上叠点,花费很长时间。他的绢丝画视觉上非常活跃——近距离看很抽象;然而退远看,一簇簇的绿或蓝,这些风景明晰了,变成生动的、流淌着的河水,或巨大的叶影婆娑的树。

 

这次展览中的风景都并未被人所侵蚀。尽管在韦嘉和吕松的画中有人物的形象存在,但这些形象丝毫不占主导地位;他们甚至像是伪装一样融入其中,被当作枝叶的一部分被画了出来。在韦嘉的《一个人的河流》和吕松的《作为亚当·波洛的一天》中,人物的形象被画成棕色和绿色的,他们的胳膊和腿天衣无缝地融于植物和动物中。这些形象像是路过树丛和瀑布的幽灵,亦或灵动在风景间的精灵。相比之下,谢帆的风景并没有一个“精神性的向导”;然而那些水和树本身就是超自然的力量。绢丝的半透明特性将谢帆笔下摇晃的树和水浮现成了天上的存在。

 

更多信息,请联系俞蔚然vyu@jamescohan.com;如需媒体图片和有采访请求,请联系陆颖希alu@jamescohan.com;或致电+86-21-54660825。画廊工作时间:周二至周六,早10点至晚6点;周日中午12点至晚6点;周一请预约。

In Memory of a Landscape II | 怀•景 之二 - Lu Song, Wei Jia, Xie Fan 吕松、韦嘉、谢帆 - Exhibitions - James Cohan

Xie Fan 谢帆

Landscape 景, 2015

Oil on silk 绢上油画

78 3/4 x 19 11/16 inches x 6; 200 x 50 cm x 6 

James Cohan Gallery Shanghai is pleased to present In Memory of a Landscape II: Lu Song, Wei Jia and Xie Fan, the second installment of the highly acclaimed and successful 2014 exhibition In Memory of a Landscape (Part I). In Memory of a Landscape II opens November 18th, 2015 and continues through January 3rd, 2016.

 

The title of the exhibition gives a subtle nod to the influential American poet Frank O’Hara who was also a curator at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and a legendary figure in the art world in the 1960s. Both exhibitions play on the poet’s idea that art should be deeply intimate and often autobiographical. The opening line of one of O’Hara’s important poem begins: “My quietness has a man in it, he is transparent…”

 

The artists from both Part I and Part II use landscapes as a metaphor for the self: a place where their memories and most intimate feelings reside. In Part I, the viewers were invited to experience landscapes that are devoid of man but not mankind (Chen Yujun and Yuan Yuan’s dilapidated interiors or Huang Yuxing’s polluted rivers signifying the effects of rapid urbanization.) The anxiety and displacement felt by these artists are channeled toward landscapes of decay.

 

The artists in Part II (Lu Song, Wei Jia and Xie Fan) transfer a similar anxiety but in a different manner. Instead of creating landscapes tarnished by pollution, isolation and greed, they paint almost surreal and mystical scenes of nature and the natural world. They have made the conscious decision not to depict the harsher realities; rather, they reinvent the notion of a neo-utopia or Garden of Eden. This escapism allows the artists to live within their fondest memories of a simpler time when nature, not globalization, was the most awe-inspiring and powerful force.

 

Wei Jia, the oldest of the three painters, was born in 1975 in Sichuan Province. Trained in the art of lithography at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Wei Jia’s approach to painting is precise and methodical. Although each brush stroke is highly expressive, each is meticulously painted. His landscapes take shape over weeks and months of deliberate layering. In contrast, Lu Song, born in 1982 in Beijing, who paints spontaneously. Trained at Wimbledon College of Art London where he received his MA and BA, Lu Song’s approach to each canvas is experimental. He layers a combination of acrylic and oil paint while applying putty to the paintings surface. He then peels away the putty between the intervals of color, resulting in a distressed or weathered effect. If he is not satisfied with the final painting, he simply keeps layering and peeling until a new landscape appears.

 

Unlike Wei Jia and Lu Song, who predominantly use acrylic on canvas for their landscapes, Xie Fan, born in 1983 in Chongqing, has chosen to explore the medium of silk. Trained at the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts in oil painting, Xie Fan wanted to find a medium that would breathe life into his landscapes and give them a three dimensional quality. Silk, as he found out, produces a translucent glow, a shimmer that ripples as the light hits and penetrates the canvas. Similar to Wei Jia, Xie Fan paints methodically, layering pigment, dot by dot, over long periods of time. His silk paintings are optically dynamic—abstract from up close; clusters of green or blue, but from a distance the landscapes gel and become vibrant, flowing rivers or giant trees with rustling leaves. 

 

The landscapes in this exhibition are uncorrupted by man. Although there are human figures in both Wei Jia’s and Lu Song’s paintings, these figures never seem prominent; rather, blend in like camouflage and are painted as if part of the foliage. In Wei Jia’s One Man’s River and Lu Song’s One Day of Being as Adam Polo, the figures are painted in browns and greens, their arms and legs blend seamlessly into the flora and fauna. The figures appear to be apparitions, specters passing by the trees and waterfalls or faeries cavorting within the landscape. In contrast, Xie Fan’s landscapes do not have a “spirit guide”. Instead, the water and trees become the supernatural forces. Because of the translucency of the silk, Xie Fan’s shimmering trees and water emerge as celestial beings.

 

For further information please contact Vera Yu at vyu@jamescohan.com , for additional press images or interview requests please contact Alexis Lu at alu@jamescohan.com , or call the gallery +86 21 54660825. Gallery hours: Tuesday - Saturday 10:00 to 18:00; Sunday 12:00 to 18:00; and Mondays by appointment.

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