Chen Shuxia, Skyrim, 2022, Oil  on canvas, 183x308cm

Asia Art Center (Beijing) announces that “Mental Image: Artworks by Chen Shuxia” will be held from June 24 to August 21, 2022. This exhibition is the main unit exhibition of the 2022 Gallery Weekend Beijing, and it is another significant exhibition after “Winning Cards – Artworks by Chen Shuxia” held at Asia Art Center in 2020 and “@Wuhan·2021 Chen Shuxia” held at Hubei Museum of Art in 2021. This exhibition will present the artist Chen Shuxia’s recent creative state, as well as different visual expressions constructed in several crucial creative stages in the past.

Chen Shuxia, Mental Image, 2022, Oil on canvas, 183 x 308 cm. Courtesy Asia Art Center.

This exhibition will feature works in two parts. Part of it is to interpret Chen Shuxia’s concept of time as always through the edge of the canvas; the other part of the work is a confession of helplessness and awakening experiences during the COVID-19 epidemic period. She emphasizes existence through these shelved “facts” in the accumulation of daily trifles, such as sunlight, air, and breath which all stretch the meaning.

Chen Shuxia, Convex, 2021, Oil on canvas and fibreglass, 44x46cm. Courtesy Asia Art Center.

Chen Shuxia (1963~) is a vital contemporary female artist in China. Her visual images express a blunt candor, a timeless and nuanced personal experience. The rare expression of public space and collective themes highlights the evolution and extension of personal life perception, which seems plain and simple. Combing through Chen Shuxia’s artistic journey, it makes people feel that she has always maintained a sense of alienation from the grand narrative. Starting from “Primary Colors” in the 1990s, to “Virtual and Real”, “Within a Landscape”, then to “Being There”, “Edge”, and the recent series “Convex”, Chen Shuxia went through many creative stages in different periods. By comparing the past reality, her self-spirit is projected into the subject matter during the painting creation, presenting her unique self-thought core and visual image. In the series of thematic image works of “Being There” and “Edge”, the elements of mountains, clouds, water, and trees run through Chen Shuxia’s creations either implicitly or locally, while the “emptiness” on the canvas represents a flow of Chen Shuxia’s appreciation regarding Chinese tradition. In this regard, the views and realms of painting are full of charm and coexistence of reality. As for the recent works with the theme of “Convex”, these works extend and expand from the plane to the space. On the convex and concave canvas base, color elements with great visual impact seems to be sprayed out. The artistic accomplishment gained from such long-term and unremitting creation, as well as the abundant and innermost spiritual strength, Chen have achieved a female artist’s ability to control the huge-scale canvas. Regardless of the creative language, theme or life memory, Chen Shuxia is constantly pursuing and exploring the evolution and variation of personal artistic style.

Chen Shuxia, Astronomical Phenomena, 2022, Oil on canvas, 183 x 308 cm. Courtesy Asia Art Center.

For Chen Shuxia, “realism in the heart” and “image in the mind” are intertwined and overlapped from time to time. We could regard it as imagery expression, but it is the natural revelation of the artist’s inner reality. In her artistic creation, Chen Shuxia constantly reflects on, restores and then promotes it. At every time, the germination of creative desire seems to be a bud to induce an unexpected new look on the blank canvas.

About the exhibition

Dates: 2022.06.24 – 2022.08.21

Venue: Asia Art Center (Beijing)    

Courtesy Asia Art Center.