Shanghai—Pearl Lam Galleries is pleased to presentFLUX, an exhibition of works by eminentartist and artistic director Wang Huangsheng, which include ink on paper, ink on newspaper,mixed media installations, and video works. Wang, who is versed in classical forms of ink, willexhibit a range of expressive artwork that exudes a sense of expansive and creative energy.Curated by Dr. Katie Hill,FLUX features Wang’s experimentation with the form of lines fromthe perspective of magnetism, which reinvents traditional‘xie-yi’ painting using contemporaryart language, and hints at the renewed cursive intertwining lines as a constant flux—a fluid, radiant energy in the realm of physics.
In his works, Wang presents the world as holistically or immersively inscribed in poetic terms,reflecting his inner self’s conflicting feelings when faced with complex realities. Wang wearsmany hats as Director of the Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum, curator, and as an artist—roles that intertwine and diverge like the lines in his paintings. Here, the Galleries showcases aselection of paintings from hisMoving Visions, Lines Visions and Initiating Visions series,which he began creating in 2011. In his triptychClue, Wang transitions from expressive xie-yipainting towards an exploration of pure formal elements in ink brush painting.The artist’s new body of abstract paintings is characterised by the use of continuously circlinglines that entangle each other and float on the paper’s surface to form an invisible radiant flux.Curator Katie Hill writes, “As a kind of continuum, [flux] contains a sense of timelessness andseems to describe a balance of forces […]. It also evokes experimental contemporary energyand a flow of movement inwards and outwards.”Wang’sMoving Visions series was first inspired by his encounter with a mess of electric wires,while its symbolic meaning goes deeper into the artist’s daily contemplation on the complexrelationship between ink brush art and new realities in society and in the contemporary artworld. In hisLines Visions series, Wang applies splashes of ink and intense cursive lines ontoeveryday newspapers, such as ‘Reference News’ and ‘Southern Weekly’, which report onsocietal events, in an attempt to reveal the interplay of mass media and an ‘objective truth’.Wang experiments with a Chinese ink painting rendering technique in his new series,VacancyVisions (2015), where he burns and presses the paper, revealing a delicate effect.
As Katie Hill puts it, “Wang Huangsheng’s series of ink paintings offer a dynamic flow of linesthat move across space like a murmuration of starlings, forming a singular yet massmovement of constant harmonious rhythm. In a kind of extended form of abstract calligraphy,lines transform into squiggles and squiggles sometimes merge into denser formations ofscribbles, then the scribbles become proactive non-writing or over-writing everyday political orfinancial events in the mundane ephemera of daily news.”Wang continues his exploration of lines in his mixed media installations, which use variousmaterials such as xuan paper, iron wire, glass tubes, and acrylic boxes. The works expandbeyond calligraphy and graphics to investigate materiality and spatiality. Wang’s installationSeeping consists of layers of rice paper sprayed with yellow paint, and a thin iron platestanding in a pool of black water-mixed ink. Time materialises itself in this work as the tracesof ink gradually seep into the rice paper.Talking is a pair of sofas made of transparent acrylicpacked with iron wires inside. The contrast between the comfort of sitting and the sharpnessof wires arouses a restless feeling among viewers.Wang Huangsheng will also present a site-specific performative installation entitledWrapping,which was first shown in Guangzhou last year. The work consists of a huge net of entanglediron wires that have been wrapped with pieces of white cloth. Wang sets the cloths on fire,carefully controlling the process to leave the wires with visible burn marks. Wang intends forthe sharp contrast of materials to symbolise a conflicting attitude towards life.Katie Hill writes, “Wang’s exquisitely sensitive delicate works convey a rooted sense of beingalongside a continuity of time as a constant, ever-shifting ‘presence’. With a deep connectionto literary and philosophical traditions in which the human spirit is connected through brushand ink, Wang’s body of work […] encapsulates the current contemporaneity in ink practice.”In addition to his artistic practice, Wang Huangsheng has been devoted to the course ofContemporary Chinese Art History since the 1980s. He has served as the editor and publisherof various art magazines and publications, as well as the primary curator for severalunprecedented art exhibitions. He oversaw exhibitions such as the First Guangzhou Triennial,CAFAM Biennial, and CAFAM Future, which all played important roles in shaping today’sChinese Non-Profit Art Institutions.
About Wang HuangshengWang Huangsheng was born in 1956 in Shantou, Guangdong Province. He is currently a professorat Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and Director of CAFA Museum. He received his B.A.and Ph.D. in Art History from the Nanjing Arts Institute in 1990 and 2006, respectively.In addition to being an artist and art professor, Wang is also a major contributor to thedevelopment of Contemporary Chinese Art. Between 2000 and 2009, Wang acted as Directorof the Guangdong Museum of Art, where he promoted large-scale events such as theGuangzhou Triennial and the Guangzhou Photo Biennial. In 2004 he was awarded the “KnightMedal of Art and Literature” by the French government, and in 2006, he was awarded theChivalry Honor by the Italian president for his contributions to the betterment of fine arts.Recent solo exhibitions includeBlade & Line—Wang Huangsheng New Ink Artworks (2015),CAFA International, Beijing, China;On the Run—Wang Huangsheng (2014), RMCA,Guangzhou, China;The Line to Freedom (2014), Schiller Gallery, Heidelberg, Germany;Roaming|Apparition (2013), WiE KULTUR, Berlin, Germany; and Boundless: WangHuangsheng’s Works (2009–2013), Zhejiang Art Museum, Hangzhou and Hubei Museum ofArt, Wuhan, China. Recent group exhibitions includeSpiritual as Mountains (2014), Pearl LamGalleries, Hong Kong, China;Rendering the Future (2014), Asia Art Centre, Beijing, China; andA New Context Derived from Shuimo (2014), Si Shang Art Museum, Beijing, China. His work isin many international collections, including Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK; UffiziGallery, Florence, Italy; and National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China.
About Katie HillDr. Katie Hill has extensive experience in the field of contemporary Chinese art, and has beeninvolved in exhibitions as a curator and researcher. She is the Programme Leader of Art of Asiaand their Markets at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London, as well as Deputy Principal Editor ofthe Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art (JCAA). Her recent work includesIn Conversationwith Ai Weiwei, Tate Modern; selector panel/author, Art of Change, New Directions fromChina, Hayward Gallery, London; and specialist advisor/author for The Chinese Art Book(Phaidon, 2013). Hill is Director of OCCA, Office of Contemporary Chinese Art, an artconsultancy that promotes Chinese artists in the UK.About Pearl Lam GalleriesFounded by Pearl Lam, Pearl Lam Galleries is a driving force within Asia’s contemporary artscene. With over 20 years of experience exhibiting Asian and Western art and design, it is oneof the leading and most established contemporary art galleries to be launched out of China.Playing a vital role in stimulating international dialogue on Chinese and Asian contemporaryart, the Galleries is dedicated to championing artists who re-evaluate and challengeperceptions of cultural practice from the region. The Galleries in Hong Kong, Shanghai, andSingapore collaborate with renowned curators, each presenting distinct programming frommajor solo exhibitions, special projects, and installations to conceptually rigorous groupshows. Based on the philosophy of Chinese Literati where art forms have no hierarchy, PearlLam Galleries is dedicated to breaking down boundaries between different disciplines, with aunique gallery model committed to encouraging cross-cultural exchange.Contemporary Chinese Abstract art is heavily represented in the Galleries roster. InfluentialChinese artists Zhu Jinshi and Su Xiaobai, who synthesise Chinese sensibilities with aninternational visual language, are presented internationally with work now included in majorprivate and public collections worldwide. The Galleries has also introduced leadinginternational artists such as Jenny Holzer, Jim Lambie, and Yinka Shonibare MBE (RA) tomarkets in the region, providing opportunities for new audiences in Asia to encounter their work.Pearl Lam Galleries encourages international artists to create new work which engages specificallywith the region, collaborating to produce thought-provoking, culturally relevant work.
