DU Kun "众神闹- Revels of the Rock Gods"

Mizuma Art Gallery is delighted to announce the opening of the exhibition ‘Du Kun: Revels of the Rock Gods’ on Wednesday 13th January 2016.

This is the first exhibition in Japan of the works of Du Kun, who was born in Sichuan, China, in 1982. Under the influence of his art teacher father Du began studying painting from the age of four, later graduating from Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts’ Oil Painting program. Today he works between Tianjin and Beijing as his base, and is widely renowned among young Chinese artists for his creativity and the brilliance of his techniques. Further, since his student days in addition to his work as a painter Du Kun has been applying his talents in the field of music. He made his professional debut as a rock musician when he was still at art school, and his since frequently demonstrated his musical prowess.

Developing from the city paintings series of his early career, pervaded by an atmosphere of intense mysticism, Du Kun has advanced toward a method of expression that makes use of allegories of religious aspects and contemporary societal criticism, as well as provoking rumination upon the actions of humanity itself. The artist began working on the ‘Gods of Rock Festival’ series shown in this exhibition in 2014, and it is clearly created with the passionate zeal of a rock musician. While the works are all portraits of Chinese rock musicians, within their portraits we see depicted tall pagodas, Confucian mausolea, Buddhist shrines and other traditional Chinese architectural structures. Gods that appear in ancient legends, majestic mountain and cliffs, magnificent seas and rivers, crashing waterfalls and the leisurely twilight are woven together to create a subtle and unique world - a world in which both time and space, tradition and the avant-garde, music and painting are adroitly melted together. These works are at once masterfully original portraits, and surely they are the sacred land that exists in the heart of every rock musician.

We urge you not to miss the special opportunity to view them in this exhibition.