Chen Qi, is a significant creator who has promoted the conceptual development in contemporary Chinese Water-based Woodblock in China. On the one hand, he has conducted in-depth research on traditional Chinese prints, especially the Chinese Water-based woodblock from the South of Yangtze River, and he presents a superb aesthetic style through rigorous material properties, moisture, and realistic textures of ink layers. On the other hand, from an international perspective of innovative thinking, he has explored the contemporary translation of traditional prints while observing the temporal depth and significance of life behind images and media, and then extended the grand and romantic Eastern philosophy.
The Group Photo at the Opening Ceremony
View of the Opening Ceremony
Having been engaged in highly rigorous Chinese Water-based Woodblock for more than 30 years, Chen Qi has once again realized the spontaneity of free painting and returned to the practice of ink painting. His abundant creativity and sensitivity to materials allowed him to transform “useless” water marks into “natural” brush and ink realms, and he has further built a unique visual system.
Exhibition View
Chen Qi has worked and lived in Nanjing for many years, and his first solo exhibition was held at the Jiangsu Art Museum in 1992. Therefore, “2024 Chen Qi: Where I Belong” was chosen by Jiangsu Art Museum to be the first exhibition of 2024 “Academic Invitational Exhibition” series. The exhibits cease to emphasize his trans-disciplinary aspect in art creations, but the viewing experience in a traditional dimension is highlighted through his representative woodblock printing and recent ink paintings.
Nature, 120×238cm, Chinese Water-based Woodblock, 2020
Unity No.1, 89×158cm, Chinese Water-based Woodblock, 2023
Spring River, 177×89.5cm, Chinese Water-based Woodblock, 2024
The title of the exhibition comes from the poem “The Worry in My Heart Is Where I Belong” in The Book of Songs·Cao Feng·Ephemera. It does not only lament the passage of time, but it also reflects Chen Qi’s return to his origin after 32 years which rebuilds the geographical relationship with his hometown in the south of the Yangtze River as well as a spiritual communication with ink and brush. Furthermore, the image of mayflies echoes the cosmology of silverfish and wormholes in his masterpiece “Notations of Time” to achieve the spiritual reconstruction of “We are nothing but insects who live in this world but one day, mere specks of grain in the vastness of ocean.”
Youngster, 115×85cm, Chinese Water-based Woodblock, 2016
2012 Generation and Dispersion, 380×5600cm, Chinese Water-based Woodblock, 2018
Thanks to the unique spatial advantages of Jiangsu Art Museum, the 56-meter-long super-scale “2012 Generation and Dispersion” is fully displayed for the first time. Chen Qi seeks to expand the visual boundaries of traditional art in the huge new ink paintings such as “Midsummer” and “Beautiful Countryside” through a more vivid presentation form and further create a more spatial narrative appreciation experience.
Summer Flower, 264.8×454.8cm, Ink on paper, 2019
Midsummer, 304×1288cm, Ink on paper, 2022
Curator Chen Ya wrote in the preface for this exhibition, “Chen Qi has tried his best to perfect the technology, size, and concepts of Chinese Water-based Woodblock for the tense schedule; and he has also used his inherent painting experience and familiar technical expressions to ‘be the point and come to an abrupt end’ in creating ink paintings.” His visual fantasy that rises from the traditional skills of the South of Yangtze River is an aesthetic vision that circulates in the universe, and it is also a philosophical thinking inspired by the crooning of life.
He Yuan, 304×224cm, Ink on paper, 2020
Bei Ming, 248×1060.5cm, Ink on paper, 2022
About the Exhibition
Dates: April 26 – May 26, 2024
Venue: Jiangsu Art Museum
Courtesy of the Artist and Jiangsu Art Museum, edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO.
