Everyone has a box, like everyone has a secret. My body is the box of my soul, and I borrow the box to contain my hidden thoughts on art and life.

–Wang Huaxiang

Within the current art field, Wang Huaxiang is a talented fighter of art, he was first known for woodblock print “People from Guizhou” when he was graduated from CAFA and then he was dedicated to creations of oil painting, “Cultural Pop” series made his artistic perspective change from the surrounding reality to the deconstruction and reflection of culture and history.

Wang Huaxiang does not only keep the passionate vigor in artistic creation, at the same time he also has a unique, personal perspective of theoretical thinking, such as the theory of drawing “Following the Wrong” which was put forward in the early years, the continuous updating “Wang’s Dictionary”. Wang Huaxiang is a quick-change artist, and his latest solo exhibition entitled “Three Lives” presents his most vivid state of art, while the opened suitcases also open the new entrance to understand his artistic ideas.

On the morning of September 11, 2015, “Three Lives” A Solo Exhibition of Wang Huaxiang opened at CAFA Art Museum, which is the 5th CAFA Annual Fine Arts Nomination Exhibition, it is curated by Liu Libin and draws the outline of the art process of Wang Huaxiang in the form of a retrospective, starting from the early classical prints to the multiple exploration of the language of oil painting and the recent installation piece with a combination of paintings and ready-made articles. President of CAFA Fan Di’an, Deputy Party Secretary of CAFA Wang Shaojun, Ma Lu, Dean of School of Plastic Arts, CAFA, Wang Xiaolin, Dean of CAFA Office of Academic Affairs and old professors from CAFA Wu Biduan, Song Yuanwen, Sun Jingbo, Guang Jun, Yuan Yunsheng, Weng Naiqiang attended the opening ceremony of the exhibition, Vice President of CAFA Su Xinping presided over the opening ceremony of the exhibition.

President of CAFA Fan Di’an addressed the opening ceremony and he stated that, CAFA attached great importance to the artistic creation and research of the teachers, when Su Xinping served in the School of Plastic Arts, “CAFA Annual Fine Arts Nomination Exhibition” was established, which is dedicated to showcase the important achievements of the teachers, and this has already became an important academic platform, “Three Lives” was the latest achievement of the exhibition brand. President Fan Di’an praised Wang Huaxiang who had thought a lot on academic inheritance and opened up a new idea for the teaching of printmaking. For his artistic creation, President Fan said, he stuck to his own artistic faith when there was a change to the ideological trend of the 1980s, when he did not only have a traditional study, but also deep theoretical thoughts and his works perfectly combine the thought on culture and the pursuit of the contemporary, to be a multidimensional visual expression. Ma Lu thought highly of the theory “Following the Wrong”, which found a new direction, found the wrong principle in the “wrong”, “Following the Wrong” is actually an innovative process. Curator Liu Libin introduced the context of the planning of the exhibition, as a critic, he devoted himself to bringing contemporary art into the overall cultural framework, through writing, reviewing the change of the narrative method of Chinese contemporary art, Wang Huaxiang was definitely a treasure for him.

The exhibition is entitled the “Three Lives” which manifests Wang Huaxiang’s multiple identities on the one hand, and highlights his dynamic status of existence, creation and thinking on the other. If it’s specific to his indentity as an artist, he continues to embrace the combination of “printmaker”, “drawing master” and “painter”. The exhibition presents a series of classic prints created in the early years, represented by “People from Guizhou”, and a series of oil paintings, at the same time it also displays a group of small manuscripts and sketches to present a creative clue, while the exhibition has a new interpretation on “Following the Wrong” in the form of an exhibition wall. It mainly features the recently created installation of “The Opening and Closing”, and it is the first time for Wang Huaxiang to try to combine painting and ready-made materials for creation, the opened suitcases, branches, flowers, teaching tools for plastering, puppets and palettes, which are often seen in the paintings of Huang Huaxiang, these are fixed in the boxes by resin, Wang Huaxiang breaks the relationship with these familiar objects, and recombines them by grafting and misappropriation, to create a dramatic scene, and to activate his in-depth thinking on the “physical property” of oil painting.

The exhibition is on display at the 2nd floor of CAFAM, continues to October 9.

Text by Zhang Wenzhi, Photo by Yang Yanyuan/CAFA ART INFO

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO