Michael Ku Gallery will present Wei Jia’s latest solo exhibition, “Sudden Brilliance,” in March on 2017. Wei Jia, one of the most representative contemporary Chinese artist born after 1970, ventured into painting from lithography in 2003, and is about to enter his 15th year of this journey.
The year of 2016 had particular significance for Wei Jia; it was the year that he moved from his converted warehouse-studio to the new campus, where trees grew tall and lush and all was lively and prosperous. It was also the year in which he accepted the position as director of the printing department and emerged from his reclusive lifestyle opening his studio doors to regain contact with the outside world. His approach of exploring humanity as an observer returned back to exploration through interaction and exchange. Wei Jia has created a number of larger-scale works that all have a life of their own; their individuality brings to mind the fortune poems mentioned in Dream of the Red Chamber. Sudden Brilliance is — just as its title implies — a sudden burst of brilliant prosperity. The World of Fiction is a quiet and steady moment of immersion in art. Buried in Cloud exudes Wei Jia’s exquisite, almost royal quality. River is a stunning world of water and fog in which spirits flow gracefully. Perhaps Youth Survivor of a Bygone Age was painted for those who exist simultaneously in two times and wander between two spaces, or for those who leave their world just to step back into it again to find that it is ever vibrant and blossoming. In End of the Year, a brilliant noon sun blazes down on a man who is holding a palette and palette knife, as if pledging his allegiance to the art of painting.
Wei Jia, who will soon turn 42, is still holding his palette and progressing at his own leisurely but vigilant pace.
About Wei Jia
Wei Jia was born in 1975 in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. Having graduated from the Print Making Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 1999, he currently teaches in the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute and lives in Chongqing. During his studies in the Central Academy, he has already won several important awards in the field of print making before shifting to oil painting as his focus. By fully expressing the immature feelings of youth, Wei Jia’s early work has become a favorite for the viewer, making him one of the representative contemporary Chinese artists born in the 1970s. His current work remains focused on one’s internal side. Moreover, as he grows elder, his vision is expanded to include his feelings with others and groups in the society. Wei Jia’s paintings are realised with skillful techniques while a certain painting language such as the sense of color and the feel of hand is exploited so as to express further prospects. They explore one’s spiritual side with subtle sentiments, attracting continuous attention from the viewer.
