Jian-Jun Zhang: Jade Mountain & Ink River

CHRISTIAN DUVERNOIS GALLERY OPENING:
“JADE MOUNTAIN & INK RIVER”
Jian-Jun Zhang

/NoHo, New York City – Christian Duvernois Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of the highly acclaimed Chinese, Shanghai based artist Jian-Jun Zhang, on view from May 20, 2015 to July 10, 2015.

The opening reception is on Wednesday, May 20, 2015, from 6 to 8 PM.

The exhibition brings together a selection of Zhang’s works created since 1991, presenting the artist’s intricate and multifaceted practice in various media. By using ink, oil paint, acrylic, natural materials and rice or translucent papers, he poetically speaks about space, time, cultural legacies and environment. The works reference traditional Chinese landscape and ink painting as much as Western abstraction art history. Zhang’s contemplative compositions, playfully occupying the space between figuration and abstraction, embody uncertainty and emphasize the process of transformation, metaphorically relating to the artist’s preoccupations with Chinese history and most recent times.

Water is the most prominent motif in the works exhibited; it stands as a symbol for transparency, permeability, mobility and omnipresence, calling for the viewer’s immersion and reflection. Besides the two dimensional compositions, the exhibition also includes a video and one of Zhang’s widely praised silicone rubber sculptures, which both comment on man’s relationship to nature.

Jian-Jun Zhang’s works are in major private and public collections in the United States, Europe, and Asia. His work has been featured in numerous publications and presented through solo and group exhibitions, at the institutions such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York; Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China; Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China; Guangdong Museum of Art; Guangzhou, China; Contemporary Art Museum, Rome, Italy; Kunstmuseum, Lucern, Switzerland; Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, California; Dresden Art Museum, Dresden, Germany; and Socrates Sculpture Park, New York, New York, among others. Zhang also participated in major exhibitions such as The First Shanghai Biennale (Shanghai Art Museum, China, 1996); Markers (Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, 2001); The Fourth Shanghai Biennale (Shanghai Art Museum, China, 2002); The 5th Gwangju Biennale (Gwangju, Korea, 2004); and Voice of the Unseen: Chinese Independent Art 1979 – Today (Arsenale, Venice Biennale Collateral Exhibition, Venice, Italy, 2013).