OPENING: SATURDAY 7 NOVEMBER, 3:00 – 6:00 PM
HDM Gallery is pleased to present “Jade Branch”, He An’s first solo exhibition in Hangzhou, introducing 11 works, including “He Taoyuan”, “Wind Light as a Thief”, “Miho Yoshioka” and “Jade Branch”, a completely new work.
The exhibition features He An’s iconic neon installations, composed of stolen characters from different public signs in Wuhan, the native city of the artist, and recombined to create new words. They are not only a memento of the artist’s personal experience, but also a reflection of the relationship between men and their metropolitan environment. His recent round LED installations can be interpretations of passages in the bible or metaphors of the cycle of life and death. Adopting Chinese characters as the core elements of these works, the artist traces the bottom line of the work-title’s characters and joins them in a circle.
Besides “He Taoyuan”, the name of his father, “Jade Branch“, the name of his mother is exhibited for the first time, and regarded as a pivotal turning point in He An’s neon lights series.
He An, born in 1971 in Wuhan, Hubei province, dropped out from the Hubei Academy of Fine Arts in 1996. His installations have received worldwide attention in recent years. His work was selected to be part of the “Unlimited” section of Art Basel. He has received support from some of the world’s top commercial galleries including Galerie Daniel Templon (Paris, France), Madein Gallery (Shanghai, China), Pace Beijing (Beijing, China), Tang Contemporary Art Center (Beijing, China). He has also received the support of international institutions such as Saatchi Gallery (London, United-Kingdom), Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, United-Kingdom), Carnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh, U.S.A.), La Maison Rouge (Paris, France) and MAXXI (Rome, Italy).
