Zheng Lu “Object Distance “

April 17 – June 21 2010

Opening Reception April 17, 3 - 6 pm

F2 Gallery presents a solo exhibition “Object Distance” by emerging young Chinese artist Zheng Lu from April 17th to June 21st 2010. The exhibition is a site-specific installation containing several new sculptural works.

Zheng comes from a family with a strong and deep traditional Chinese intellectual background. Since a young age, he was greatly influenced by Chinese literature and calligraphy. Later, his formal Chinese and foreign art education opened up his way of looking at and understanding of contemporary art; the mixed and almost contradictory experiences in his life have helped him to re-examine both Chinese and Western artistic theories.

The works in this exhibition take a different direction from his previous hollowed-out stainless steel series that was shown last year in the exhibition “Interpreting Nonexistence,” which are largely inspired by traditional Chinese literature, calligraphy and Taoist beliefs. This new series shows a side of Zheng that is more in touch with Western and Chinese contemporary aesthetics. The four large-scale works — a Map of China titled “Object Distance,” a Beijing Opera Phoenix Cornet titled “Putting on Airs,” a car titled “Crash No.1” and an airplane “Crash No.2” are seemingly a random choice of subjects.

Each part of the installations shares a common conceptual thread: a reflection of the artist’s recent contemplations on social reality and change, embodying metaphors worthy of close observation and consideration.

The car and airplane “Crash” pieces are a continuation of his “Double Happiness” series from 2008, where both the car and the airplane are in a slow motion crashing action, which forms a contrast and an irony of the symbols of “double happiness” that are embedded in the sculptures.

The Beijing Opera Phoenix Cornet is partly made from scraps of Zheng’s former studio he had lived and worked in for five years, and which was torn down a few months before the exhibition.

The gigantic stainless steel Map of China curls to the same degree as the surface of the earth. It’s highly polished and is as reflective as a mirror on both sides, forming an interesting optical phenomenon, with one side functioning as a concave mirror and the other side as a convex mirror.

As audiences move around the work, their own reflections together with the reflections of surrounding objects within “China” changes continuously responding to their movements.




The artist borrows the “object distance”, a basic physics concept, into this work. Once the curvation of a paraboloid is set, then focal point and focal distance are fixed, only the object distance is changeable. In the exhibition, the concept of object distance only becomes valid when an audience is standing in front of the work, thereby completes the work.

The artist also integrates the wall space as part of the exhibition. The whole installation creates a stunningly strong visual impact as it draws the audience into a different artificial environment of Zheng’s creation, and the visitors themselves become a part of the small world of Zheng’s reality.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Zheng Lu was born in Inner Mongolia in1978. He graduated from Lu Xun Fine Art Academy with a BFA in sculpture in 2003. In 2007, he received his MAF in sculpture from Central Academy of Fine Art.

In the mid of his graduate study at CAFA, he also went on an advance study program at École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris in 2006. Since 2001, Zheng has been participating in numerous exhibitions in China and abroad. His selected recent exhibitions include Object Distance: Zheng Lu Solo Exhibition, F2 Gallery, Beijing (2010); Asian Landmark-Toyota Art Project, Iberia Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2010); Interpreting Nonexistence – Zheng Lu Solo Exhibition, New Age Gallery, Beijing (2009); Fresh Vision – The Contemporary Young Artists Invites the Exhibition, Su Zhou Art Museum (2009); Multiple Realities, F2 Gallery (2008); CHINA GOLD, Musée Maillol, Paris (2008); Out of Order, F2 Gallery (2006). Zheng now lives and works in Beijing.

ABOUT F2 GALLERY
F2 Gallery is located in the cutting-edge Caochangdi area of Beijing adjacent to the world-renowned 798 Art District. The gallery is set in an idyllic courtyard and distinguishes itself by its lush surroundings, reflecting the very private relationship that the owners have with their clients and the artists whose work they represent and collect.
F2 Gallery aims to contribute to the cross-cultural exchange of blue chip and cutting edge contemporary art, in all its forms, between China and the West. Furthermore, F2 Gallery provides specialist consultancy services to artists, private clients, corporations, public institutions and museums.
Visit F2 Gallery online at www.f2gallery.com
Fabien Fryns Fine Art opens in Los Angeles with the exhibition
MadeIn “There are new species! What do you suppose they are called?“
May 15 to June 26, 2010 at Fabien Fryns Fine Art, Los Angeles, United States

CONTACT:


F2 Gallery Public Relations

Miriam Deller
Core Power Culture and Broadcasting Ltd, Beijing

China mobile: (86) 150 1152 7797
International mobile: (43) 699 1781 0912

E-mail: f2gallery.press@corepowerasia.com

www.f2gallery.com
For further information about F2 Gallery, please contact Shasha Liu at:

Tel.: + 86 10 6432 8831

No. 319 CaoChangDi, Chaoyang District
Beijing 100015, China

E-mail: art@f2gallery.com

www.f2gallery.com