TANG MAOHONG, HE WEI

As the gallery’s first solo presentation of He Wei, this show indicates the artist’s recent explorations on abstract painting. Through repeated superimposition and infiltration, the washes of pigment on He’s canvas merge into chaos, while the slowly rising geometric shapes and the fleeting traces of ‘strong light’ modulate the whole picture in a singular way. Persistently experimenting with abstract planes, colours and lines, the artist is looking for transitions between the intertwined sense and sensibility, as well as ways to confront the contradictions and opposites of the two qualities.

Another exhibition brings together five large-scale paintings by Tang Maohong under the title Five Big Men, marking a significant departure from the artist’s use of found images in earlier practice. This new suite of works features the simplified, stretched human bodies, which appear constantly on the ‘coordinates’ constructed by composition lines-with all kinds of self-satisfied postures; the huge cones, in particular, make the picture even more absurd, suggesting Tang’s endeavours in dispelling all the specific meanings, and returning to the spatial relationship between objects.

About the Artists

He Wei was born in 1980 in Xinjiang, graduating from Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, Oil Painting Department in 2005. He now lives and works in Beijing. Major exhibitions include: A Composite Leviathan, Luhring Augustine Bushwick, New York, U.S.A. (2019); He Wei: Primary Colour, C-Space, Beijing (2016); He Wei: Contradiction, Telescope, Beijing (2015); Summer Discovery, A Thousand Plateaus art space, Chengdu (2014); He Wei: Place Beyond Touch, ART SEASONS, Beijing (2010); New Interface 3 - Searching the Future, Liu Haisu Art Museum, Shanghai (2007).

Tang Maohong was born in 1975 in Guangxi, graduating from China Academy of Art. He lives and works in Beijing and Seoul. Major exhibitions include: Tang Maohong: Noa Noa, Southeast Asia Residency Exhibition, ShanghART Singapore (2019); Tang Maohong: Riverbed, ShanghART Beijing (2017); Video Art at Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai, India (2014); Tang Maohong: Exclave Con, ShanghART Beijing (2013); Nomadic Report 2012, Arko Art Center, Seoul (2012); The 7th Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai (2008); Tang Maohong: Sunday, Gwangju Art Museum, Gwangju, Korea (2006); Tang Maohong: Orchid Finger - Video & Silkscreen Prints, ShanghART H-Space, Shanghai (2006).