Sculptors Born After the Year 1970 Group Exhibition

The title “New Language in Sculptures: Sculptors of the 70’s Group Exhibition” is aimed to highlight the exploration and studies in sculptural arts on the part of these sculptors of the 70s, who, inspired by the Chinese aesthetics and their life experience, brilliantly captured the essence of the relation between the progress of the modern world and the demand for visual culture, which enabled them to create sculpture in a way that is strikingly different from the tradition in matters of concepts, techniques and material, and so on, therefore displaying the new language unique to a new generation of sculptors.   

To Xia Hang, “play” is the essence of his sculptures and “disassembly” the feature. By focusing on the interaction between works of art and viewers, he, in a playful and interesting manner, invites people to approach his works and assemble them in a magical world of games, and thus the hidden instinct for play in human nature gets stimulated. He came to an insightful conclusion. “In our age characterized with highly developed information technology based on the Internet, also an age of the one child generation, play on the individual level and entertainment and game become a feature of modern world. The playful part of art probably echoes in an artistic fashion the playful attitude toward life.”

Zheng Lu, on the other hand, elaborates on “interpreting nonexistence”. In view of the title, “interpreting” means “reading or reading aloud”. The sculptures are based on characters comprising lines or passages for reading, so as to establish the connection between the artistic charm and the theme. “Nonexistence”, on one hand, derived from the pierced works’ visual feature, indicates the visual dissociation from the physical reality and the “existence” of hollow frame; on the other hand, “nonexistence”, carrying the meaning of “nonbeing” and “etherealness”, stresses the pursuit of intrinsic beauty of life particular to the East. The appeal of words and their connotation are highlighted, and “emptiness” and “hollowness”, “Yin” and “Yang” are reflected as well. The illuminated works thus begin their journey of inexhaustible changes and extension, wandering between “to be or not to be” and “to be fantasy or to be reality”.

Fan Xiaoyan chooses stainless steel (such as machine parts, tools, etc.) as material with reference to the figure’s identity, offering the work a strong visual effect—the hard and cold stainless steel forms a sharp contrast with the delicate and supple female body. These works seem to be ushering in a new era. She questions and reflects upon human beings in modern times who, thanks to the progress in modern technology, begin to embark on their journey of competition in a “wider and freer world”. It is particularly true for women. Her works are a collection of her realistic and prospective thinking about the urban life and human being in general, about their self-improvement, progress in science, future world, and many other fields. Zou Liang, concerning himself with “counter-gravitation”, attempts to achieve the artistic effect of “momentary congelation” by largely resorting to the “fluid” expression of “the natural flow of enamel” in “Tang tricolor”. The fluid accumulation conveys the instability and mutability of the contemporary world, its people and events. It is, moreover, expression of the ever-changing world and the human longing for history, both emotional and ideological, which allows the human race spiritual salvation and release of humanity. When the soft flows converge into solid combination, there is an outburst of man’s struggle, liberation and transcendence of the self.

Su Zhipeng presents a new series called “Cotton Quilts”, which contrasts the visual coldness and rigidity with psychological warmth and softness. They take us back to our childhood, evoke nostalgia for our home and hometown, or reveals the artist’s reflections on the expatriates, the migrating labor force and their community in the attempt to point out some problems that have become evident in urbanization in China today.

Wang Liwei, by using leather as material, challenges traditional aesthetic visual experience with unconventional visual imagery based on the study on the composition and analysis of images in order to depict the split human existence.      

Starting the new year with this group exhibition, New Age Gallery will be committed to “the discovery of the future” by persisting in her effort to find new talents and keep informed of progress and accomplishment made by the young generation.