|Exhibition Info|

Duration: 2020. 05. 23 — 2020. 07. 05

Open Hours: 11:00 - 20:00

Add.: Kui Yuan Gallery, No.9, Xuguyuan Road, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou (广州市越秀区恤孤院路9号 逵园艺术馆)

Nearby metro station: Dongshankou (东山口), Line 1 or 6

'Embroidery Soap Opera-Aerobics' Oil & embroidery on canvas 120×90cm 2018 (Photo provided to Newsgd.com)

An art exhibition entitled 'This Is Not A Theater' will be held at the Kui Yuan Gallery in Guangzhou from May 23rd to July 5th, 2020.

Artist Zhang Zhaoying was born in 1988 in Guangzhou. He graduated from Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts in 2013 and from Brussels Institute of the Arts (l'Université libre de Bruxelles) in 2015. He is now teaching in the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts.

Zhang has held about ten solo exhibitions and taken part in dozens of group exhibitions across the county and overseas. Some of his artworks have been collected by a number of famous museums both in China and abroad, including the National Art Museum of China, the White Rabbit Gallery, the Today Art Museum and the Jan Van Der Togt Museum.

'Through The Second Eyes' Oil on canvas 80×100cm 2019 (Photo provided to Newsgd.com)

Song Zhenxi, curator of the exhibition and founder of ABI, said in the foreword for the exhibition that "as a representative of the outstanding artists born in the 1980s, Zhang Zhaoying’s works are epochal with obvious mark of this time."

"Zhang's works remind us that over the first decade of the 21st century, the contemporary art made by young artists are more of multi-media, cross-language and inter-perception, and also raises up a challenge to new art criticism," Song said.

Song thinks the creative path of Zhang Zhaoying is clear and defined. Zhang intends to transform all individual ideology and perception experiences into drama-like visual representations which are relatively rich in both fun and attitude. Observers are thus driven to mobilize their own knowledge system and form different interpretations of themselves. And the works also have an impact on the artist himself so that his experience and cognition are changed along.

'Fairy Tale-A Well-being Journey' Oil on canvas 170×120cm 2018 (Photo provided to Newsgd.com)

With nine years of studying performance, Zhang has more confidence in the diversity of drama as an art language. "He integrates several identities including director, narrator, painter, photographer, and even the Creator. All forms are used to express the arrangement and presentation of the fable structure,” Song pointed out, “Moreover, the works are not only subtle and detailed, but also bearing the establishment of ideology behind the narrative.”

Song said, “In his exploration of painting language, Zhang Zhaoying also takes drama elements as the core in expression since we can strongly feel the narrative arrangement in his paintings.”

“In terms of the form in visual experience, his paintings also have two critical features; firstly, the merging of multiple artistic form; and secondly, the reminiscing or ridicule of the classical oil paintings,” Song added.