[Press Release]
11.01.2014 – 28.02.2014
OPENING PARTY SATURDAY JANUARY 11th, 6 – 9pm!
ART LABOR Gallery is very pleased to present a brand new exploration for artist Lu Xinjian, showcasing his new wire sculptures. This charming, energetic series is the first display of more than a year’s effort to express his cubist inspired drawings and paintings as three dimensional forms. The wires are expertly, delicately bent into angles, squares, loops and zigzagged lines, wrapped in colour or painted with black light reactive fluorescent paints. Within these spatial drawings one finds all sorts of figures and faces and beasts, especially free spirited horses (given the upcoming Chinese new year!). From different sides the sculptural view will show new forms, tell a different story, contain a different dream. The sculptures are an expression of the unconstrained freedom and zest for life that those who have had the pleasure of meeting or working with Lu Xinjian know very well is a major part of his personality.
Lu Xinjian, “Wired Space No. 9 ,” 44 x 25 x 31.5cm, wire, paint, resin, 2013
陆新建，《天马行空 No.9》，39.5x44x47cm， 铁丝, 喷漆, 树脂，2013
Lu Xinjian was born in Jiangsu province and educated in the Netherlands, with masters degrees from Design Academy Eindhoven, NL and the Frank Mohr Institute for Graduate Studies at the Hanze University, Groningen, NL. His phenomenally successful career so far has seen him added to the DSL collection in Paris, White Rabbit Gallery in Sydney, amongst numerous excellent private collections worldwide. He was chosen to be the ABSOLUT vodka artist in China in 2011, and his work will feature in Birmingham, England this year at the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, as well as a four month show at Hua Gallery in London, culminating with a showing at Frieze Art fair.
Lu Xinjian, “Wired Space No. 10 ,” 44 x 25 x 31.5cm, wire, paint, resin, 2013
陆新建，《天马行空 No.10》，39.5x44x47cm， 铁丝, 喷漆, 树脂，2013
Our gallery will be lit with black light and we request that you come dressed in at least some white clothing or smile a lot to add to the atmosphere! We thank you for your participation and promise glow in the dark drinks and some fabulous new art works from one of
Shanghai’s brightest and best!
Exhibition: Wired Space
Artist : Lu Xinjian
Exhibition Date: 11 January – 28 February, 2014
Venue: ART LABOR Gallery, #411, Bldg 4, 570 Yongjia Lu, Shanghai (near Yueyang Lu)
Contact: 021 – 3460 5331
info@artlaborgallery.com
www.artlaborgallery.com
About Lu Xinjian’s Work
Lu Xinjian’s “Wired Space” series of new sculptures, what he terms “spatial drawings”, represents another fresh and exciting addition to a productive and successful body of work that has embraced sketching, painting, installation and more. These new delicately shaped, painted or wrapped metal wires contain some elements of his expressionist earlier paintings and also the better known design forms of his highly successful CITY DNA and INIVISIBLE POEM series of paintings. Here he is expressing a clear intent toward artistic freedom, with the artist taking an obvious joy in their creation evident in the energetically expansive lines, with polite nods to the
art forms that have influenced his own work.
Lu Xinjian, “Wired Space No. 2,” 44 x 25 x 31.5cm, wire, paint, resin, 2013
陆新建，《天马行空 No.2》，39.5x44x47cm， 铁丝, 喷漆, 树脂，2013
Based on earlier sketches and paintings he created while working in Korea some years ago, these cubist inspired sculptures contain elements of the unlimited energy with which the artist approaches all his projects. From
different viewing angles these exquisite pieces might show the profile of a face, of a friend, a teacher or an influence, characters who have inhabited the zigzag path of any artist’s life. One may also discover the stretching
heads and necks of horses, an animal that perfectly encompasses the freedom with which the artist approaches his own practice and a timely wish for prosperity and joy for the coming Chinese new year.
With these new works the artist gives a inclusive nod of gratitude to the most influential artistic periods and individuals along the way of his successful career: the expressionistic and radically experimental cubists Picasso and Braques, the delicate wires and primary colors of Calder, the zest for life and playfulness of Miró. He has absorbed the essential spirit of these great artists and re-expressed that energy into forms that continue and expand on his own signature style. I see these works as one day being examined and treasured with the same level of possession that a Calder mobile holds over any serious collector.
Ranging from just over 30 centimeters to over 2 meters in height, the smaller pieces are carefully shaped from light gauge iron and then sealed in paint colors from simple primary to gold to reactive black light fluorescents, with the larger sized, more elaborate, stronger pieces wrapped tightly in colored smaller gauge wire, then coated with an epoxy resin to preserve the metal’s archival integrity. Some of the resin remains on the wire as small beads hanging from points, not unlike a coating of dew, which can very easily be seen to represent the freshness of these creations. The shapes painted in fluorescent paint will react with Black light to bring to life the very pure energy emanating from these shapes, with lines seeking every direction, exploring every artistic path, as any true artist must do.
Lu Xinjian, “Wired Space No. 16 ,” 44 x 25 x 31.5cm, wire, paint, resin, 2013
陆新建，《天马行空 No.16》，39.5x44x47cm， 铁丝, 喷漆, 树脂，2013
Martin Kemble
ART LABOR Gallery, Shanghai
