“BASEL”



作者：佚名    文章来源：218

  更新时间：2007-5-22


“BASEL”
New paintings by Zheng Guogu
Exhibition: May 25 to July 31, 2007
Opening: May 24, Thursday, 18:00 to 20:00


Grace Li Gallery is pleased to present the second solo exhibition of Zheng Guogu in Switzerland.  Zheng Guogu is one of the few Chinese artists who will participate in Documenta 12 in Kassel from June 16 to September 23, 2007.

Zheng Guogu is a highly influential figure in Chinese contemporary art.  He is an innovative conceptual artist known for his experimental photography works, text paintings and large scale installations and public projects. 

This exhibition is dedicated to Zheng Guogu’s recent large scale paintings (approximate size of 183x300cm, oil on canvas) with the global contemporary art world as the theme.  The “Basel” series is a development from his “Miami” series in 2006.  As the title “Basel” suggests, most of the images of the paintings are from Art Basel, the most prestigious art fair in the world taking place every June.  In fact, all the images and texts in these paintings are from official website of Art Basel.  They are the scenes we are so familiar with: eager people walking into the Art Basel Entrance under a huge clock; dynamic crowds in the courtyard with food and drink stands; happening scene in front of the Art Unlimited building with water fountain; charismatic director of Art Basel Sam Keller giving a speech…  You may find yourself in these paintings, being part of this dynamic contemporary art world.  From a distance, these paintings appear to be photography.  The paintings are indeed highly photo-realistic painted.  And they are so well painted that even when you stand in front of the paintings closely, you would still be amazed that it is not photography but painting.  The bigger surprise is the hidden texts in the paintings.  The artist painted the official press release of Art Basel and the press quotation praising Art Basel in all different languages into the images.  The sizes of the texts vary from tiny as ants to normal computer text sizes.  The texts are spread out in different parts of the paintings.  And the color of the text is always the same color as the background of the painting.  The result is the texts are hidden and well integrated with the images.  One extraordinary characteristic about these painting is: taking any part of the painting, it can be another painting itself. 

One painting in the exhibition to point out is “Miami-text only” (183x309cm).  This is the only painting that has no image but purely text.  The artist made this painting as a closure to his “Miami” series (2006), in which he applied the same concept, but only replaced Art Basel with Art Basel Miami Beach.  In this painting, the images of the hyped art scene of “Art Basel Miami Beach” disappeared.  What is left there is beautifully painted mixed color press release of Art Basel Miami Beach 2006.  They are displayed on the canvas as six panels, with poetic rhythm and order. 

Zheng Guogu has always been challenging what is painting.  It started from his famous “text painting” series from late 90s, when he switched from making one photography work with thousands of negatives to creating paintings purely with texts on all kinds of experimental media such as wool, artificial leather or fabric.  Experimenting with images and text, he has invented his own artistic language.  In this stage of his creation, image and text come together harmoniously.  To him, painting is a kind of system (he emphases “system” is different to “style”) of an individual, a kind of invention of an individual.  Perhaps it is because of this belief, his paintings are intelligent and witty, innovative and playful.  Just as with this series of paintings, they are made with great efforts that appear to be effortless.
 
About the Artist:
Zheng Guogu (b. 1970) lives and works in Yangjiang, China. 

Upcoming exhibitions:

Documenta 12, Kassel, Germany (June 16—September 23, 2007)

“China Welcomes you…desires, struggles, new identities”, Kunsthaus Graz, Austria (June 7—September 2, 2007)

Current exhibition: The Real Thing: contemporary art from China, Tate Modern Liverpool (March 30 to June 10, 2007)

Zheng Guogo has been exhibited at: Tate Modern Liverpool; Kunsthaus Graz; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego; Villa Arson, Nice; 50th Biennale di Venezia (Canton Express), Venezia; International Center of Photography, New York; PS1, New York; MuHKA (Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp) and KMSKA (Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp), Antwerp; Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China; Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki; Guangju Biennale 2002, Korea; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; Hayward Gallery, London; International Photography Biennale 1999, Centre de la Imagen, Mexico City; Secession, Vienna; The Open Museum of Photography, Tel-Hai, Israel.

For further information and images, please contact Grace Li Gallery at
Telephone: +41 44 289 5612 or mail@graceligallery.com.

Grace Li Gallery is located at Claridenstrasse 35, 8002 Zurich, Switzerland

Gallery Hours: Monday to Friday 11:00—18:00, Saturday 12:00—16:00, or by appointment.


Grace Li Gallery will be at VOLTA SHOW from June 11—June 16, 2007.
Booth Number: G23

Artists represented on the booth at VOLTA SHOW: QIU ANXIONG, ZHENG GUOGU.
Other artists’ works available: Liu Wei, Cao Fei, Liu Ding, Yang Jiechang, Zhou Zixi, Qiu Zhijie, etc.