ZHAO XUEBING

Before arriving in Shanghai in early 2010 Zhao has spent the last 7 years living and working in Paris and New York City. The Central Park paintings are based on images and recollections of NYC’s Central Park’s back wood areas. These haunting, painstakingly painted landscapes emit a sense of deep wilderness amidst autumn decay or just after a storm. In subdued tones and washed out surfaces Zhao’s original painting style plays with light as an aperture on the camera would, reminding us that like photography the landscape is inextricably entwined with memory. In another series Zhao shows his dexterity with an altogether different but complimentary painting style. The Grass series depicts imaginary reed-like vegetation with red and black graphic lines. These artificial reeds appear as an intricate web of corrosive constellations and speak to man’s growing manipulation and alienation from nature.