Rosy tender hands, rich fine wine,
The whole city blossomed with signs of spring
By the palace wall the willow swayed
To and fro, to and fro.
Li Wei, Rustling Bamboo No. 8, Chinese pigment on canvas, 130x110cm, 2015
In her latest solo exhibition Affect/Effect: Transformation in the Work of Li Wei, Beijing-based artist Li Wei continues her pictorial strategies of deconstructing and rebuilding China’s landscape scenery in her signature technique. Her latest series of works is based on a line from Phoenix Hairpin, a well-known poem by poet Lu You (1125 – 1210) written during the Song Dynasty (960 – 1279). The poem, a proclamation of love for his ex-wife, speaks of the sorrow the two former lovers experienced after an encounter in a courtyard with her new husband. Li Wei’s red and green paintings capture this sentiment by emphasizing absence through shadows and imprint, focusing on visual landscapes by using the silhouettes of natural forms as metaphors for memory and loss.
Li Wei, Thousand-Layer Green No. 4, Acrylic on canvas, 140x170cm, 2015
Echoing the melancholic tone of her red wall willows, Li Wei has created a series of green bamboo paintings as homage to her historic predecessors of traditional ink paintings for whom bamboo in poetry and paintings is abundant in symbolism. However, her willows and bamboo are similar to those of traditional Chinese ink paintings in subject only, Li Wei having developed her own contemporary technique of landscape painting. Her particular process is arduous, beginning with photo documentation enlarged to the point of pixel abstraction and later returned to a recognizable image through several layers of paint on canvas or silk. On full display in Art+ Shanghai Gallery’s presentation of Affect/Effect, the layers of process and meaning in Li Wei’s work are unfolded and revealed to viewers as they reflect on the perception of time.
About the Artiss
Li Wei (李威) is a Beijing-based female artist born 1979 in Harbin, China, who attended the Zhejiang Art Academy Middle School, the Nanjing Art Institute, and the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Her paintings are marked by a combination of imagery from traditional Chinese ink paintings and a contemporary, experimental quality that pursues originality in artistic language through layering, materiality, and vision. By deconstructing natural imagery into dot matrices, Li Wei constructs new perspectives and reflections on landscape and tradition. Notable exhibitions include solo On the Horizon (Art+ Shanghai Gallery, Shanghai) and group shows The Ode to Youth: China-Korea Young Artists Exhibition (Hongik Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea) and Silent Poetry: Chinese Contemporary Art Exhibition (China Cultural Centre, Sydney, Australia). Li Wei’s works can be found in a number of collections including the Deutsche Bank Collection, DSL Collection, Guan Shanyue Art Museum (Shenzhen), and the University of Hong Kong Museum of Art (Hong Kong).
About Art+ Shanghai Gallery
Founded in October 2007 and located along the Suzhou River within walking distance to Shanghai’s famous Bund area, Art+ Shanghai Gallery is a dynamic art space dedicated to the exhibition, promotion, and development of Chinese contemporary art. Art+ Shanghai Gallery showcases a range of established and emerging contemporary artists from within China and abroad, stimulating and celebrating the diversity of the sprawling contemporary art scene. In addition to holding group and solo exhibitions, Art+ Shanghai Gallery offers art consultation services, hosts cultural events, and participates in international art fairs.
