CHEN RUO BING, ABRAHAM DAVID CHRISTIAN

Painting and Sculpture Galerie Albrecht 20 September–8 November 2025 Berlin

Press Release

In their work, both Chen Ruo Bing and Abraham David Christian pursue a goal that they never reach, and that always remains a challenge. It cannot be put into words. This text can describe and try to approximate. But the works can only be really grasped by experiencing them directly.

Chen Ruo Bing’s oeuvre can be divided into two groups: Firstly, square slightly convex paintings on a square canvas: these paintings are available in small (20 x 20 cm) to large (200 x 200 cm) formats. Secondly, there is the narrow landscape format with a freely floating, seemingly three-dimensional rod extending the length of the painting. These paintings, too, exist in various formats, lengths varying from 110 cm to 300 cm. The exhibition includes both square and landscape formats.

In the square formats, the artist works with colour contrasts. The convex square, floating in the centre, does not just stand out from the background in terms of shape, but also of colour, and it can be multicoloured or monochrome. It can also have lighter or darker tones to align itself with the background. The basic principle is infinitely variable. The landscape formats have horizontal colour gradients. They are reminiscent of landscapes or views of the sea or sky under changing light conditions. The floating, three-dimensional rod, however, contradicts the idea of a landscape, so these paintings, too, are to be read as abstract representations of colour and light. The structure of the paint and canvas remains visible due to the intentionally thin application of paint. The light that illuminates everything: that is how we might sum up Chen Ruo Bing’s endeavour.

The iron sculptures by Abraham David Christin were wrought out of massive iron drums in an elaborate process that can take up to a year. They are 14 to 20 cm tall and between 8 and 10 cm in diameter. It seems as if they were assembled as modules that were developed from an originally round shape. In each sculpture, they are put together and varied in a new way. The five sculptures shown in the exhibition are both similar and different. Their structure is reminiscent of a human figure or a vessel. At the bottom they have a broad base, getting narrower towards the top, and the final module is just a fraction of the size of the base module. But they could also be handles, or miniature representations of boxwood cut into shapes.

A great variety of interpretations is possible. Depending on what ideas the beholder associates with them, they get a name and a context. Until then, they are intentionally open invitations to behold them, in line with the artist’s belief that the understanding of a work of art takes place in the mind of the beholder, and should not be prescribed from outside. To capture the diversity of reality in a simple form – that seems to be the artist’s intention.

Chen Ruo Bing (born in China, in 1970) is one of the leading contemporary artists both in Europe and in Asia: in Japan, South Korea, and China. In his work, far-eastern and European thinking fuse harmoniously.

Abraham David Christian (born in Düsseldorf in 1952) has been an indispensable figure in contemporary art since the late 1960s. His boxing match with Joseph Beuys at the 1972 Documenta in Kassel is legendary. He is a great traveller with strong links to Japan and Switzerland.