Platform China Contemporary Art Institute announces that “Wu Shan 2020”, the solo exhibition of artist Wu Shan, will be presented on October 17. As the second important solo exhibition of Wu Shan held at Platform China after Winding Path, this exhibition will have three independent units to constitute the narrative structure. Wang Min’an and Liang Chao will be invited to be the academic advisers of the exhibition.

Wu Shan (born in 1960) was graduated from the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in the early1980s. Later, he studied in the US and acquired the master’s degree from the Graduate School of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He lived and worked in the US for more than 20 years and was absorbed in studying on and practicing painting languages. On the one hand, Wu Shan took example by the principles of form of high modernism during his creation; on the other hand, he absorbed and transformed the aesthetic experience of Chinese tradition. He found the unique way of connecting his concepts and aesthetics in the experiment of lacquer materials and established the artistic style with personal features.

In order to intensively demonstrate the context of the artistic practices of WuShan, Platform China will separately display three parts of the exhibition at the principal space and dRoom:

On October 17, the principal space of Platform China will put on display the recent lacquer paintings of Wu Shan to show the mature and perfect artistic style of the artist. Well-balanced and slender lines draw the outlines of abstract images in elegant, rectangular color blocks. They mobilize the special visual experience either in the background or visibly. The figures often show a closed and complex planar space. Like the name used to denominate, the changes of shapes present elegant rhythm, while the surface covered by lacquer also renders the works with physical peculiarity and charm. The exhibition hall will display these works on a large scale, and different, extremely austere color blocks will constitute the theatrical combination. Wu Shan describe them in this way, “Due to the utilization of fine lines in my works, they form figures slowly like hairspring. I also use lacquer, so the works do not have the emotional passion of abstract painting like general expressionism. I believe they are so great that I feel I am creating an artwork rather than drawing an abstract painting.”

On October 17, dRoom Space will display the colorized paper works, earlier lacquer paintings and some manuscripts of Wu Shan simultaneously. Selected from his lengthy time clue, these works are important parts of his art course. They provide a summary of the image book of the works to study on the individual cases of Wu Shan. The audience can realize the experiment directions of Wu Shan in different periods, and can find that he has gradually shifted from the acceptance of western modern art to the expression of Chinese aesthetics. Noticeably, recent watercolor paintings and the color block lacquer paintings in the principal space constitute an indivisible work system, showcasing the generation path and logic of the recent works of Wu Shan.

On November 28, the principal space of Platform China will present the third important part of the exhibition, i.e., the sketches created in nearly thirty years. For him, the manuscripts are comparable to daily classes, demonstrate his most direct consideration of painting and reveal his private emotion. He went to the US in the early-1980s. In the lengthy time of 20-plus years, he experienced both bald and tedious life, and irritative, curious, sorrowful, depressed, lively, confused, abandoned, excited and illusive life. However, the changeable life did not wear down his tough individual will. Thanks to his extreme belief in and reliance on art, he accumulated abundant manuscripts – the spiritual diaries of the artist. The exhibition hopes to demonstrate the person through these dairies, from which the audience can get a glimpse of the era.

Somebody lives like a bright flag, while others exist like a transparent paper. WuShan is definitely the latter – we can find from him that the existence of life gradually settles down to art. He was born and grew up in Hangzhou. The context typical of the regions south of the Yangtze River nourishes artists like Wu Shan. He spent forty years to make his life explicit gradually, and leaves behind those elegant lines.

About the exhibition

Dates: Oct 17, 2020 - Nov 23, 2020

Venue: Platform China and dRoom Space

Courtesy of the artist and Platform China, for further information please visit www.platformchina.cn.