Wen Zhongyan Solo Exhibition of Paintings on Canvas was inaugurated at Yun Gallery, Beijing on November 5th. In these works exhibited at Yun Gallery, Wen has sustained his unique language which has been adopted for several years—circuit boards like the ichnography of the city—which represent how modern industries can reoccur in all the general appearance of paintings. After constant overlying, those concrete figures and lines produce a psychedelic effect, forming a colorful mesh gauze-like curtain through which a little strange, beautiful silence of the night against the strong artificial light is barely visible. The “New Beijing Images” in his paintings which are composed of layers of overlay circuit boards with the beautiful shades is so fascinating.

We are facing a crossroads in contemporary civilization: the strength of modern industrial civilization is at its height while the visions of traditional civilizations gradually descend. With his works, Wen brings a kind of profound thinking to the audience, confronting the conflicts between the modern and the traditional as well as the unknown results yet to happen.

Graduated from the Department of Printmaking, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Wen has taught at Tsinghua University for years.

Forward

by Tan Ping

Compared with other visual arts, printmaking is unique for its repeatability and indirectness. In addition to black and white prints, the chromatic woodcuts, etching, lithography and silkscreen prints all utilize the way of multiple overlapping methods of printing which produce rich picture effect. The emergence of a gray color probably results from the overlapping of several different colors. From the different variety of printmaking, silkscreen takes advantage in its more flexible performance of colors, its chromatography and its color coverage.

Graduated from the specialized subject of silkscreen prints in Department of Printmaking, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Wen has tried to combine the hand-painted with silkscreen printmaking in his works to create a number of unique works. By using a variety of complex technology with special complicated the hand-made techniques of printmaking, Wen's works appear so that the basis of the painting has been covered by the intricate vertical and horizontal lines of circuit boards and printed by silkscreen printmaking. With the perspective flattened, strokes denser and the color of form purer, metaphors in his works gradually extend.

Over the past decade, Wen has been living in the old urban area of Beijing and witnessing the vicissitudes of an ancient city, not only on the surface but also in the kernel. With a real and virtual, appearance, thebsubstance staggers and overlaps, it is like an invitation for greedy curiosity: hustle and bustle at downtown, lonely desires, ecstatic marketplace, lazy self-interest, etc., all in the eyes. Faced with this profound change, Wen has tried to explore a new portrayal of landmarks and landscapes of the traditional Beijing in a new way. The darkness of silent Beijing is covered with various electronic shapes, which turns the concreted landscapes into imaginary scenes while the reality is increasingly indistinct. Acting as an independent observer, Wen Zhongyan portrays complicated space by multi-level coverage of the painting with screen-print technology. He records the slices of urban impressions with his art, as if leaving us a vague memory of the past.

Exhibition Date: Nov 5-Dce 22.2011

Venue: YUN GALLERY

Add: 3818 warehouse, 798 Art District, No. 2 Jiuxianqiao RD, Chaoyang District, Beijing

Courtesy of the Artist and Yun Gallery, for more information please contact yungallery@sina.com.