Shen Ling, Void Flower Series 39, 2020. Mixed media on paper, 56x42cm.
Tang Contemporary Art presents Shen Ling’s solo exhibition “Void Flowers, Yearly Portrait”, held in the gallery’s Beijing 2nd space. Curated by Feng Boyi, the exhibition features more than 50 pieces of works, including oil painting, paper album, and mixed media works. It’s the most important solo exhibition of Shen Ling in recent years.
Curator's Words
By Feng Boyi
Shen Ling's " Void Flower " portrays her many self-reflections over the past years and her feelings about the passage of time. It's like the mirror image of everyday life. As a kind of compensation for the short blooming days, Void Flower refers to the mundane everyday life, which is mostly languid leisure and melancholy. The " Yearly Portrait " is a metaphor for the weight of time, and the images inside it may continually shuttle and leap in the exhibition space, emphasizing the connection between her works and serving as a retrospective of her career.
Shen Ling, Void Flower Series 49, 2020. Mixed media on paper, 38x38cm.
Shen Ling, Void Flower Series 44, 2020. Mixed media on paper, 52x37cm.
Shen Qing, Portrait No. 1, 2022. Oil on canvas, 75x60cm.
Shen Ling, Toward the Sea, 2022. Oil on canvas, 200x200cm.
Over the past years, Shen Ling has been taming her inner chaos, slowing down her pace, and developing inner awareness. She travelled between the real and art worlds, eliminating the redundancy to express her unique style amid ambiguity. In addition, she even gradually erased the traces of her previous creations to get rid of all kinds of unease brought by reality. Fortunately, with painting, she can endure the tedious days, get rid of the clutter, and catch the precious pieces of life that have nowhere to hide.
Shen Ling, Creation of Graduation: Loneliness No. 4, 1989. Oil on canvas, 152.7x192.5cm.
Shen Ling, Photography Realism, 1994. Oil on canvas, 145.5x112.5cm.
Shen Ling, Qi Nan, 2011. Oil on canvas, 200x200cm.
Shen Ling, Six Records of a Floating Life 1, 2015. Oil on canvas, 200x200cm.
Shen Ling, Autumnal Wind and Rain on a Moody Day, 2016. Oil on canvas, 200x200cmx3
Shen Ling, Flush of the Morning, 2021. Oil on canvas, 200x200cn
Perhaps, for Shen Ling, painting and living by heart is true freedom and the greatest decency. Everything else is collateral and dispensable.
About the Artist
Shen Ling was born in 1965 in Liaoning Province, China. In 1985, she graduated from the Afflicted High School to Central Academy of Fine Arts, and in 1989, she received her bachelor degree from the Oil Painting Department of Central Academy of Fine Arts where she is currently working. Shen Ling’s recent solo exhibitions include: “Intensity of Concreteness”(Tang Contemporary Art, Hongkong, 2019)，“Flowers and Birds” (Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing,2014), “Fleeting Time – Works by Shen Ling”, He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen,2011). Her work also exhibited in “ The 9th Beijing International Art Biennale”(National Art Museum of China, Beijing, 2022), “In Time – Chinese Biennale of Oil Painting”, China Art Museum, Shanghai, 2018)，“The Era of Portrait - 30 Years of Contemporary Art”(Power Station of Art, Shanghai，2013)，“Self-Image: Woman Art in China 1920-2010” (Museum of Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, 2011)；“Exhibition of the Works of Shen Ling & Wang Yuping” (Today Art Museum, Beijing, 2010).
About the Curator
Feng Boyi, male, born in Beijing during the 1960s. Han ethnicity. No political affiliations. BFA degree majoring in History. Married. Blood type B; born in the year of the Mouse; Libra; rising sign: Virgo. Has been doing curating, critiquing and editing works since the late 1980s.
About the exhibition
Dates: 11.05 - 12.08, 2022
Venue: Beijing 2nd Space, Tang Contemporary Art
Courtesy of the Artist and Tang Contemporary Art.
