The fourth installment of Pace Beijing's annual project "Beijing Voice" focuses on "Relations"

TEXT:Sue Wang    DATE: 2013.12.18

Zhang Xiaogang_The Prisoner of Book No.4_2013

The group exhibition, "Beijing Voice: Relations" presented by Pace Beijing was open on December 10th, 2013 and the exhibition continues to focus on the field and phenomenon of Chinese contemporary art. In an open and creative forum, it deconstructs, restructures and presents Pace Gallery's understanding of today's art environment. The exhibition features, Chen Wei, Hu Xiaoyuan, Lee Tzu-hsun, Liu Ye, Qiu Xiaofei, Song Dong, Sui Jianguo, Xiao Yu, Wei Qimei and Zhang Xiaogang. These artists present artworks highlighting all kinds of relationships and "non-relationships" of accidental pullulating and organic forms of contemporary Chinese culture.

In the exhibition, “Beijing Voice: Relations”, Pace Beijing displays works from artists young and old, from a multitude of different disciplines, and works by artists whom have passed away. This significant array of Chinese contemporary artists are shown together for the first time in this exhibition. This unique collective have concerned themselves with specific problems; The preference of forms and materials, the frameworks of processing time and space, the use of specific creative elements and temperament. They egress and loom, include conflict and contrast from seemingly unrelated sides. In this sense, the exhibition can be seen as an open interpretation of all sorts of relationships and non-relationships. In the context of an artificial establishment, a potential relation web presents itself realistically and concretely in the artists’ works by collocating, comparing, reinforcing and overlapping in flexible technique.

The exhibition showcases several progressions in mutual cooperation. In Zhang Xiaogang's painting, the branches and stone work in concert with the classic technique of the literati drawing style. The weak light from the flashlight strengthens the scene of sensational realism. The face immersed in a book seems to suggest that the figure is trapped between the writing of individual experience, memory and oblivion. The autobiographical photography of young artist Chen Wei surrounds the sculptures, and builds up paradoxical and subtle topology between historical narration and personal memory. Sui Jianguo brings a completely new set of sculptures and paintings experimenting with the sense of touch and the sense of self, while retaining the plain characters of clay, graphite and other basic media materials. By contrast Lee Tzu-hsun’s large dynamic style is filled with the senses of mechanics and future. The abounding artist Qiu Xiaofei presents his exploration of complex and obscured relationships with objects and consciousness. The procedural emphasis in Hu Xiaoyuan's works is manifested more perceptively. Here the artists quietly receive the inherent limitations of materials and open their works to time, experience and chance.

The exhibition will end on February 28, 2014.

Courtesy of the artists and Pace Beijing.