Art News

The year of 2011 marks Li Wenguang's first encounter with paper and lines. His studio is located in Song Jiang, suburban Shanghai. He lives in the seclusion of his own home, spending eight to over ten hours a day devotedly to his work. In his creative process, Li produces art through substantial body movements, creating a physicality that is first internalised into his works and then backs away again, displaying a visual presentation of mosaic blocks. This is not the representation of his surroundings, but rather the recurrence of his daily life experience on canvas. It is not only his unique creative practice, but also his train of thought, which has nothing to do with conceptualism – it can even be considered anticonceptual. The tradition he carries is rooted deeply in the daily experiences of the city, a tradition that engraves our experiences, along with our actions, onto the canvas that almost actually existed. In the city of Shanghai, the different perceptions of life and cultural background exist in various ways. As an artist living in the modern city, Li Wenguang finds new possibilities for contemporary art to grow and prosper.

 

This exhibition unfolds in three parts. The first works exhibited present the main skeleton of Li Wenguang’s works, and how he implements physical actions in them. Zao is the most representative of the physicality and experientialism behind his works. Secondly, a display of his paper-based works will show how the daily experience is embedded into the forms and lines of his artwork. Lastly, the gallery presents a series of his experimental artwork that combines physical action with the values of the commercial society, offering a different answer for viewers in this open city.

 

Joining the fantastical realms of Lin Weixiang’s highly detailed paintings and Hu Ke’s distinctive, lonely sculptures, Rewriting Beyond Reality unfolds the multiple layers of reality and one’s perception of it, capturing the moments of self-doubt, unsettled feelings and stifled expression in the individual. Guangzhou-based artist, Lin Weixiang, presents painted works that delve beyond the facade to consider individuality and the identities we create in the world. Expressing the richness of the fantasy and unconscious thoughts innate to an individual’s reality, Lin Weixiang’s works shape dreamlike realms populated by recurrent motifs such as trees, lakes and luxuriant flora, drawing inspiration from the landscapes of his home province of Guangdong. In addition to Lin Weixiang’s works of acrylic painting on fabric, Rewriting Beyond Reality features a selection of sculptures from Chongqing-based Hu Ke. Reflecting Freud’s tripartite division of the subconscious (id, ego, and superego), Hu Ke’s works emphasize the struggle of communication between the individual, the self and society.

 

Imagine @ LWH Gallery