Ting Zhou, Night in D.C

Ting Zhou, born in Changsha, Hunan, China, has received her BA and MFA in oil painting from the China Central Academy of Fine Arts where she currently works as a lecturer. She has exhibited at CAFA, the New Beijing Gallery, Jiu Chang Ai Zong Art Space, Dun Art Gallery, and Art@GoldenSquare in London, UK. She has also won the College Light Prize and the Rolling Sponsorship from the Fine Arts, Handwriting, and Photography Creative Talents Program of the First China National Arts Fund.

In this exhibition, Zhou explores street scenery through a windshield on a rainy day. In each painting, Zhou carefully balances the tension between the blurred foreground and reality depicted in the background.

Preface

It has been almost a year since I arrived at one of the Ivy League school -Dartmouth College as a visiting artist and scholar. My impression about the town of Hanover also changed. I was a newcomer at the beginning, and now I feel at home. Someone said, you would love the place as you live there for quite a while. That is definitely true for Hanover, which is one of the most amicable New England towns. I like Hanover for its white cloud and blue sky; I like Hanover when it all covered in white snow; I also like Hanover in rain. When it is time to say goodbye, the beautiful scenes have always in my mind, and touched me from time to time. The only way for me to remember is to present them in my art work.

The exhibition is like a ‘reporting show’ for my year as a visiting artist and scholar at Dartmouth College. Most of the works continue the style of my previous ‘Taste of Memory’ series. The previous paintings are about the city of Beijing, where I lived for more than two decades. The current paintings are about the cities of Washington DC, New York, Boston, and Hanover. These places inspire me even though I am a guest. In these works, I added new experiences and sentiments to my previous expressing. I like strolling in the rain, and when the rain blur my view, I could even discover a different kind of scenery. Once, I was in a taxi slowly passing the streets of New York, and it reminded me about Beijing Siyuan Bridge, which made me feel like a twist of time and space. The dreamy colors are dotted on the blurred and distorted windshield, which is beautiful and poetic. There is a magic connection between Beijing and New York, memories and reality, blurred and clear .

Someone said, ‘You can either travel or read, but either your body or soul must be on the way.’ During this year in united states, I spend lots of time reading in Sherman Art Library of Dartmouth College, and I also traveled in New York, Rhode Island, Washington, and Boston to visit famous museums. For me, it is a journey for my body and soul and also a discovery for new arts.

Ting Zhou

April 2018, Hanover

About the exhibition

Title of Exhibition: IMPRESSION· IN THE RAIN

Artist: Ting Zhou

Opening Reception: 5:00-7:00 pm, April 13, 2018

Artist Talk: 4:30 pm, April 13, 2018

Exhibition Time: April 13 – April 27, 2018

Location: AVA Gallery & Art Center; 11 Bank St, Lebanon, NH

Courtesy of the artist and AVA Gallery & Art Center.