Arario Gallery Shanghai is pleased to present Yan Heng's solo exhibition opening on May 13, 2016, which will continue until June 24, 2016. This will be Yan Heng's second solo exhibition with Arario Gallery.
This exhibition is titled Frequency Modulation or, FM that describes the characteristic of Yan Heng's oeuvre. Like the frequency of FM, Yan Heng's works are persistent and well-balanced. Moreover, both share the characteristics of a wide amplitude of possibility and abundant amount of encoded stories and emotions.
Yan Heng has always been interested in the change of the society, development of scientific technology and the possibility they can bring to the humanity. These interest can be seen in his use of multifaceted array of medium and subject conveying the advancement of substitutes or replacements the human body or human realm. However, the science the artist wants to communicate does not have a concrete definition or constricting academic approach. Yan Heng's translation of science is poetic and closely related to humanity. The artist's persistent and stubborn belief in figurative painting, in turn, becomes a subversive context within the artist's oeuvre. Although his beautiful brushstrokes and impeccable depiction of subjects create an aura of classical timelessness, when closely studied, one notices a strong tension and violence created on the canvas which further interacts with other components either on the canvas or installed at the exhibition space.
Yan Heng, Self-Portrait, 2016; Installation, painting, 111x90cm
Along with much advanced science and technology, modernism brought an immense emphasis on individualism and uniqueness. Yet, such luxurious idea of unique individualism only becomes only an illusion and a 'myth,' in which 'there have never been autonomous subjects' and 'this construct is merely a philosophical and cultural mystification.' What modernity may have possibly brought was more fabrication and a stronger longing for nostalgia.
The pastiche that Yan Heng at times utilizes cannot be more suitable for the message he attempts to communicate. We may believe that we are living in a better time, different time than our previous generation, where one's identity and existence are much more important than ever. However, we are essentially living in a continuous imprisonment of the past of nostalgia blurred by fabricated reality and uncertainty of the future.
Yan Heng, Civilization 1–Ewe, 2016; Installation, painting, photography, 150x154x35cm
About the exhibition
Date: May 13, 2016 – June 24, 2016
Opening: May 13, 2016, 17:00
Venue: Arario Gallery
Courtesy of the artist and Arario Gallery.
