de Sarthe Gallery is pleased to announce Wu Jianjun’s first solo exhibition in the gallery.

Some might see art as a constant innovative process, an endless evolution seizing the latest trends of a fast moving environment… Wu Jianjun goes in the opposite direction. He is painting what doesn’t change, what has always been and what will always be as long as human exist.

Wu Jianjun, Small Portrait No. 6, 2015; Oil on canvas, 45x35cm

The bodies painted by Wu Jianjun are not represented in a realistic way, they are bodies out of time: the bodies of mankind. There is no skin in these bodies, but only the tensions of the flesh. A force inhabits these incandescent carcasses and the colors used by the artist operate as a thermal camera highlighting the fire inside of them.

Wu Jianjun's art is never illustrative or narrative. It requires no interpretation, no understanding. His works are meant to be feel, they don’t appeal to our intellect but they embrace our animality. Faces and figures appear from the green background and directly strike us. They aim at our heart, they aim at our guts, and they aim at our nervous system.

Wu Jianjun, Small Portrait No. 9, 2015; Oil on canvas, 35x45cm

Sometimes disturbing, they carry an undoubtable truth that we don’t see with our eyes but perceive with our instinct. There is nothing hidden, no magnified beauty to seek, just the plain truth of human existence as it is, with its hardness but also its grace, that transpierces the canvas and the audience.

Wu Jianjun cannot be reattached to any trend, his works will echo the same truth enclosed in the canvas as long as man will be. Born in Sichuan in 1966, Wu Jianjun is living and working in Chengdu. His works have been exhibited in Europe and Asia and are featured in important private collections.

About the artist

Wu Jianjun

1966  Born in Sichuan Province, China

1990  Graduated from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Chongqing, China

Currently lives and works in Chengdu

Solo Exhibitions

2016   Wu Jianjun Solo Exhibition, de Sarthe Gallery, Beijing, China

2009  Posture—Wu Jianjun Oil Painting Exhibition, Funartspace, Beijing, China

2008  Metamorphosis—Wu Jianjun Oil Painting Exhibition, Linda Gallery, Singapore

2006  Body Pattern, Funartspace, Beijing, China

Selected Group Exhibitions

2015    Living in Chengdu, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan; Chengdu Art Museum, Chengdu, China

2014    The Future is The Past, Vienna, Austria

2013    Presence of Fragments, Blueroof Art Museum, Chengdu, China

2012    Chengdu Contemporary Art Exhibition, Chengdu Eastern Music Park, Chengdu, China

2011    Sculpture of Blueroof Artists, Blueroof Art Museum, Chengdu, China

2010   Vegetative Patient, Blueroof Art Museum, Chengdu, China

The Visible, re-C Art Space, Chengdu, China

2009   Artists Gathering Exhibition, Songzhuang Art Museum, Beijing, China

Less Is More, Endless Art Gallery, Nanjing, China

Returning, Chongqing Art Museum, Chongqing, China

Character of the Dialect, Blueroof Art Museum, Chengdu, China

2008  Corresponding Nanjing & Chengdu, Nanjing; Chengdu, China

Art Padova 08’, Padova, Italy

Art Singapore 2008, Suntec, Singapore

The Sichuan Movement, Museum Nasional, Jakarta, Indonesia

Art Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Holland

2007  China Now Now, Canvas International Art, Amsterdam, Holland

Five Artists, Art+Shanghai Gallery, Shanghai, China

Treatment GuaSha, Artistic Conception Museum, Chengdu, China

Three Years in Blueroof Art Center, Blueroof Art Center, Chengdu, China

Guiyang Art Biennale Exhibit 3th, 2007, Guiyang Art Museum, Guiyang, China

2006  Beyond Dimension—Chinese New Painting, Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing, China

Art Verona '06, Verona, Italy

China International Gallery Exposition, Beijing, China

2005  Winter'05, Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing, China

Sensus Communis-Korea, China, Japan Oil Painting Art Exhibition, Korea

Forever Intriguing, YIBO Gallery, Shanghai, China

Tu Hongtao & Wu Jianjun, Soka Contemporary Space, Beijing, China

Blue Artists, Chinese Contemporary Art Gallery, Beijing, China

18 Contemporary Artists “Living In Chengdu”, Soobin Art Gallery, Singapore

2003  The Third National Exhibition of Oil Painting, China Art Museum, Beijing, China

Sichuan Oil Painting Art Exhibition, Sichuan Art Museum, Chengdu, China

1995 The First Chengdu Exhibition of Oil Painting, Sichuan Art Museum, Chengdu, China

About the exhibition

Opening: 2016/09/03 16:00 - 18:00

Dates: 2016.09.03 Sat - 2016.10.09 Sun

Venue: de Sarthe Gallery

Address: 328-D Caochangdi, Chaoyang District, 100015 Beijing, China

Courtesy of the artist and de Sarthe Gallery.