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Flowers, fruits, landscapes, and other memories
Shen Xiaotong, Lu Luo, Zhuang Hong-yi, and He Tianqi -
IMPULSE GALLERY is delighted to present “Flowers, Fruits, Landscapes, and other Memories”, the gallery's first show introducing the work of Shen Xiaotong (沈晓彤). The artist's first major exhibition in Switzerland is be accompanied by Lu Luo (罗璐), Zhuang Hong-yi (庄红艺), and He Tianqi (贺天琪). These artists pay special attention to the world around us; the natural and the spiritual.
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"The world is a flower of the mind. The fruit of this flower is not any concept of the being, but the vanishment of all boundaries between all things, actions, and experiences."Shen Xiaotong, Lu Luo and Zhuang Hong-yi were not only born in the same region - the province of Sichuan in southwest China - but their creations are also strongly rooted in their ancestral culture and heritage. Lu Luo's work is known for the use of vibrant color palettes and the implementation of diverse materials such as textiles, rice paper, and jute. Materials, which are not simply added to the canvas, but are incorporated with masterful craftsmanship, enrich the work with textures and volumes, giving it a strong sculptural character. The artist, who was born and raised in the backstage of a Chinese opera house, developed very early a clear aesthetic and formal language with strong notions of identity and culture. Painting and sculpture are merged in Lu Luo’s work, resulting in a unique language that is constantly evolving. Her pieces have the richness of an opera and the versatility that their staging demands.
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On the other hand, the selection of artworks by Shen Xiaotong confronts the viewer with a more nostalgic perspective on Chinese landscapes and still lifes. Although the initial impression that his pieces offer seems rather serene, the restrained use of color infuses them with a powerful aura of simplicity and mystery. Although flowers, fruits and landscapes are common denominators in the memory of all human beings, the almost conceptual way in which the artist captures them, makes the works seem to blur on the wall like a memory, or an oneiric vision. The images that the artist shows trigger deeper, more intense, more complex remembrance in the viewer. This is the first time these pieces are exhibited after his solo exhibition “Shen Xiaotong's painting” at the Long Museum in Shanghai, which covered his artistic practice for the past 10 years.
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The flowers in Shen Xiaotong’s work are further developed using strong chromatic transitions and textures by Zhuang Hong-yi. His monumental pieces are an extraordinary homage to the ecstatic potentiality of flora. In the artist's work, flowers are not presented in the manner of classical still life where they need a vase to contain them. Zhuang Hong-yi's flowers are omnipresent. They overflow the canvas; they are the canvas; they are the horizon; they are the beginning and the end. Hong-yi's artworks offer the viewer an opulent universe of color and textures. The use of traditional Chinese rice paper is an essential part of Zhuang Hong-yi's creations; the ancient material is masterfully embedded by the artist, offering his pieces, as in Lu Luo's work, a sculptural and unique character.
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With an almost disruptive vision, He Tianqi complements and, at the same time, seems to challenge the perspectives of Lu Luo, Shen Xiaotong, and Zhuang Hong-yi. The work of this promising young artist, born in the city of Xi'an in the Shaan Xi province, is characterized by a strong geometric and chromatic dynamic. In addition, a palette of fluorescent and ultra-bright colors shading the geometric and organic forms embody the language of the artist. A language, whose strength will certainly polarize the viewer. Memories, landscapes, and still life are reinterpreted and reproduced by He Tianqi in an almost psychedelic way.
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“Flowers, fruits, landscapes, and other memories” explores the parallels in the work of these four prolific contemporary Chinese artists and pays tribute to ordinary objects and scenes in daily life. The viewer will be immersed in a magnificent and unexpected journey, while navigating between the calm bamboo forests by Shen Xiaotong and the floral horizons of Zhuang Hong-yii; or between the chromatic and objectual formality of Lu Luo and the quasi-psychedelic landscapes by He Tianqi.
Flowers, fruits, landscapes, and other memories: Shen Xiao Tong, Lu Luo, Zhuang Hong-yi, and He Tianqi
Past viewing_room
