Meng Zhou 周蒙, Mother of Pearl 1 子安⻉ 1, 2024
Nan Ke Gallery is pleased to announce its participation in the West Bund Art & Design, presenting works by Meng Zhou, Lingrou Xie, and Hao Zhou in booth B105. The space is shaped as a three-dimensional construction divided by geometric structures, presenting philosophical thoughts about nature, life, memory and emotion with a restrained sense of order.
Meng Zhou
Because I Am Still Alive（Start Chart Edition）, 2024
Meteorite, silver, metal supports, booths, mats, resin
400h x 400w x 380d cm
© Courtesy of the artist
Meng Zhou's public art installation “ Because I Am Still Alive ” (Start Chart Edition) will also be featured in the DREAM xiàn chăng section of this year's West Bund Art & Design. Atop the ramp of this installation, Meng Zhou has enlarged one of his iconic paintings with the same title ”. The work seems to place ancient cave paintings of gods in a giant crystal ball, with totems of the eighty-eight constellations embedded in meteors frozen in time.
/ Meng Zhou
Meng Zhou
Mother of Pearl 2, 2024
Wood, meteorite, silver, bronze, mineral pigment,
wax, clamshell powder, seashell, seed, pearl
76h x 58.5w x 21d cm
© Courtesy of the artist
Meng Zhou's creations stem from a profound humility towards nature, and the richness and uniqueness of this creation often comes from his experiences traveling in remote or extreme environments. Meng Zhou is an observer and explorer, searching for cultures and their venues, as well as the places that feel closest to the universe. In his work, making connections and gaining a more precise understanding of the information hidden beneath the visible surface is an important part of creation. He never judges directly, but through his work he interrogates society and its structures.
Among the recent works on display, the “Mother of Pearl” series shows giant shells that have survived or been reborn from the flames. A relic eroded by time. Burnt images cling to wooden substrates, refreshed by the heat, telling stories of demise and rebirth. In “Hero Game:Arrow”, the conflict in human nature is playfully written as a game, mapping both the entertaining temperament of modern society and locating the humble position of humans in front of nature and the occult.
Meng Zhou
Hero Game: Arrow, 2024
Bronze, arrow body
90h x 7w cm x 1.2d cm
© Courtesy of the artist
/ Hao Zhou
Hao Zhou
O.1705154-7, 2017
Oil on canvas
88h x 126w cm
© Courtesy of the artist and MUD Gallery
The work of the late artist Hao Zhou is represented by Nan ke Gallery and MUD Gallery. Born in Shanghai in 1960, Hao Zhou studied oil painting and printmaking at Musashino Art University in Tokyo. In his creations, the simplicity of painting is constantly explored. From the material, to the brushstrokes, to the canvas and the frame, Zhou Hao tirelessly pursues a sense of precision and handmade craftsmanship. He describes the frame as “the skeleton of the painting”, which supports the soulful dialogues that may be captured on it. He handles everything with reverence for nature - the faint burrs on the wooden frame, the uneven canvas, the wild mix of textures, the meticulous and calm lines that combine to form endless thoughts, like a large blank space in the mind or a long darkness.
Hao Zhou
O.120584-5，2012
Oil on canvas
65h x 53w cm
© Courtesy of the artist and MUD Gallery
Based on meticulous materials and techniques, Zhou Hao's creations are deeply rooted in his unique understanding of space and time. His paintings are not just an accumulation of visual elements, but also an exploration and discovery of human emotions and state of being. Through the accumulation of brushstrokes, he consciously guides the viewer to discover the hidden complexity and conflict under the calm surface of the two-dimensional world. In this world, the boundaries between static and motion, surface and interior, artificial and natural are blurred and even dissolved. The “blurring” is especially reflected in his treatment of time. The color blocks and shapes in his works are like the traces of time deposited in the works, peeping into the condensed time.
/ Lingrou Xie
Lingrou Xie
We are waiting for the dawn, 2024
Oil on canvas
140h x 100w cm
© Courtesy of the artist
Lingrou Xie's creative process maps out an “affect” experience. The artist's interaction with a certain image, its characters and scenes triggers her indescribable emotion, and this feeling that goes straight to her body forms a flowing force that pushes and rushes her, which is difficult to be recognized by the consciousness and described by words, and therefore takes shape on the canvas and is born from the image. The image inside the box and the phantasmagoria of giant plants growing outside the box do not seem to be related in terms of subject matter, but the seemingly isolated barriers are in fact a web of holes, and the “emotion” triggered by the image permeates and flows into every corner of the picture.
Lingrou Xie
Lost, 2024
Oil on canvas
130h x 90w cm
© Courtesy of the artist
In her latest works, the artist extends her vision from her own personal history to individuals, real or fictional, in a wide range of time and space, especially women. In the paintings, the regular square becomes a faithful container for fragments of consciousness, reflecting like a mirror a certain aspect of the “woman” as a whole; while the connected leaves and flowers stand in the darker but extended back to hint at the direction of the creator's emotions that lurk underneath the skin.Lingrou Xie will also present her double solo exhibition project at Nan Ke Gallery in mid to late November, so please look forward to the wonderful presentation of her unique painting language.
Text by Roxane Fu
