Pace Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings by renowned Chinese artist Wang Guangle. Wang’s fourth international exhibition with Pace and third solo show in New York, Duo Color will be on view at 510 West 25th Street from January 11 through February 9, 2019, with an opening reception for the artist held on Thursday, January 10, from 6 – 8 p.m.

One of the preeminent contemporary abstract painters, Wang’s work is rooted in an investigation of painting’s temporality and in the power of the canvas as a vessel of labor and marker of time. He recalls an historical tradition of ancient Chinese scholars and approaches the act of painting as a daily practice for personal moral cultivation and spiritual exploration. This exhibition will showcase a selection of 14 new acrylic on canvas paintings, which reflect the artist’s use of a uniform brushstroke and systematic application of paint. Wang applies each layer of paint beginning from the far edges of the canvas and working precisely inward to the center, creating a subtle gradation of color and the effect of an illuminated rectangle or void. This considered technique gives his paintings a potent illusionistic depth, with the varying tones of the composition acting as a subtle framing device for each work.

While in past series, Wang has focused each painting on a single hue, for this new series he has chosen pairs of contrasting colors. He slowly layers the pigments over days and months with a precision that makes one color appear to naturally progress to its opposite—evolving two originally conflicting colors into a harmonious one. Within Wang’s practice and the cultural background from which his work emerges, the notion of “color” refers to a Buddhist concept used to capture the appearance of the material world, which is considered the result of the illusions and agonies of people’s minds. The artist’s diligent act of reconciling and uniting two opposing colors can be understood as the symbolic harmonization of the conflicting relationship between the physical and the spiritual worlds—resulting in a final painting, which the artist describes as the “shape of the psyche.”

About the artist

Wang Guangle (b. 1976, Fujian, China) received a BFA in oil painting from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2000. Wang has had 5 solo exhibitions and has participated in nearly 80 group exhibitions. The artist has been included in various international exhibitions at prominent institutions, notably Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing; Zhejiang Art Museum, Hangzhou; Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany; Museum for Modern and Contemporary Art Bozen/Bolzano, Bozen, Italy; White Rabbit Art Museum, Sydney, Australia; The Orange County Museum of Art, California, U.S.A and Rubell Family Collection and Contemporary Arts Foundation, Miami, U.S.A. His works were included in Busan Biennale at Busan Cultural Center, Busan, Korea in 2010 and Prague Biennale 4 in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 2009. He currently lives and works in Beijing, China.

About the exhibition

Dates: Jan 11, 2019 – Feb 09, 2019

Venue: Pace Gallery, New York

Address: 510 West 25th Street, New York NY 10001

Courtesy of the artist and Pace Gallery, for further information please visit www.pacegallery.com.