Press Release
Irrational · Transcendent: Li Zhenwei Solo Exhibition
Li Zhenwei – Irrational · Transcendent
Li Zhenwei uses various mathematical systems to create his work. The paintings in his exhibition at Telescope, Irrational · Transcendent, are based on Pi, a mathematical constant that is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to it’s diameter. Its decimal representation never ends and never settles into a permanent repeating pattern. In mathematical terminology, it is an “irrational” and a “transcendental” number, it never repeats and never ends. Li uses Pi to determine the numbering, spacing, color, and densities of the points of paint he applies to the canvas. Although mathematics is involved in his process, it is just another material in the artist’s hand. Li’s deeper relationship to Pi is in the psychological, emotional, and spiritual understanding of the irrational and the transcendent. Together Pi and paint are a foundation for his creative process and a path for him to go beyond his limitations and find new ways of expressing his innermost being. Irrational · Transcendent is Li’s first solo exhibition and features his newest large scale painting, None, #20, a 600cm x 200cm painting of thick undulating hues of red dots and blank spaces. It is a dynamic and hypnotic work, which is rather like watching a swarm of static on a massive television screen. The patterns of dots, extruded by hand from tubes of oil paint into long rows, never repeat and seemingly never end. The painting could go on forever if there was enough canvas, oil paint, and time and space in the world.
