Seen in Passing: New Works by Shi Jing

Exhibition Dates: May 29 – July 7, 2010
Opening Reception: Saturday 29 May, 2010. 3 – 6 pm

Chambers Fine Art Beijing is pleased to announce the opening of Seen in Passing: New Works by Shi Jing.

Shi Jing is an artist who is fascinated with the idea of questioning the way we see the world around us. He explores the process through which the human mind creates shifting images using the visual information gathered by the eye. The ordering of this information is a subliminal process and can result in a strange moment when perception shifts from one understanding to another – when one discovers something is not what it appeared.

In the enigmatic works presented in Seen in Passing the artist conjures entire landscapes, portraits and even night time galaxies from an apparently blank monochrome canvas. He achieves this effect through stippling the surface of the paint so that the image appears only when light passes across it from specific directions.

In some works Shi Jing works with playful intent – his dark green landscapes for instance depict tranquil and somehow unsettling tree-lined waterscapes.

In other paintings Shi Jing adds the element of the passing of time to his work; in a series of circular deep blue ‘star map’ works the viewer is invited to focus on one of the stars of the Big Dipper – the Delta Ursa Majoris which is the star of good fortune and achievement in traditional Chinese astronomy. Through walking around the canvas the star shifts its position through its spring, summer and fall placements and so suggests a lifetime of achievement and happiness.

In a third series of small white-on-white paintings Shi Jing explores the territory of philosophical paradox – a dialectical tradition which is the basis of much Taoist and Buddhist teaching. In these paintings a series of objects appear which can never fulfill the function for which they were apparently designed - bladeless woodworking tools, unusable glass tableware, closed jugs incapable of being filled with liquid and so on. Through this choice of subject matter the artist introduces a metaphysical element to his work; the sensation one feels with a shift in visual perception acts as a metaphor for moments of sudden spiritual insight.

Shi Jing has produced a special LED lighting system that is attached to each piece as the direction and source of the light is of crucial importance in his work.

Shi Jing was born in Dehongzhou,Yunnan, province in 1971. He lives and works between Beijing and Yunnan. Chambers Fine Art has been working with the artist for the past three years with works included Blog It: New Wave of New Wave (2008 Chambers Beijing, Chambers New York) and Dream Or Reality-Chinese Art Today (2008 Amsterdam). Shi Jing has been widely exhibited in China including a solo show in the Today Art Museum (2009) and the Nanjing and the Guizhou Triennials (both 2008). Internationally his work appeared in China Now, ESSL COLLECTION, Vienna (2006), Grounding Reality, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, Korea (2005) and Mahjong: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection, Kunstmuseum Bern, Cologne, Germany


For information please contact the gallery on + 86 (0)10 5127 32 98 or bj@chambersfineart.com