A recent graduate of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, Chi Peng has already exhibited extensively in his homeland and is on the verge of an international career abroad. Born in 1981 in the Shandong Province of Yantai, Chi Peng is considered one of the most promising young artists of China’s new avant-garde. He exhibited at Chambers Fine art in a 2004 group show, One to One and again in 2005 in View Points. He has also exhibited in France, Australia, Denmark and Germany.
Chi Peng’s works heavily rely on the image of body as a catalyst for political and cultural change. “Rather than trading in a Mao suit for a business suit”, he rebels through the street s of China. His photographs of multiple Chi Pengs sprinting stark naked in hallways, through corridors and into China’s modern landscape capture the fast-pace, hectic and consumer -oriented face of “new” China.
For his first solo exhibit at Chambers, Chi Peng turns fantasies into reality. His photographs of passionate sexual encounters set against the backdrop of modern China’s ubiquitous locations, such as telephone booths and office cubicles, have a hyper-realistic quality. On close observation, these lovers in amorous copulation are in fact both Chi Peng. Not one to shy away from bold statements, Chi Peng’s images are deliberately provocative . This affirmation of self-love and bold sexual desire, once discouraged, is now slowly accepted in a more liberal and tolerant China. By casting himself into these urban dreamscapes, Chi Peng reminds us of the alienation one can feel in a country of billions.
His audacious use of nudity has become part of his repertoire and his ongoing experiments with self representation challenge the viewer to reflect on issues of identity in the modern world. Chi Peng’s first one-person exhibition in the West is a bench-mark not only in the rapid development of his own art but of the dramatic transformation in the social landscape of contemporary China.
*Catalogue Available
展出的艺术家迟鹏今年夏天刚毕业于中初中央美术学院，但已经在中国多次参加各种艺术展览，并正在建立自己的国际艺术生涯。迟鹏于1981年出生于山东省烟台市，是中国当代前卫艺术新生代中最有潜力的艺术家之一。他曾参加前波画廊2004年的展览《一对一》和2005年的展览《视角》，并曾在法国，澳大利亚，丹麦和德国等地展出。
迟鹏的作品多用身体形象作为政治和文化转变的催化剂。“迟鹏没有穿上中山装或西装，”反而在中国的街道上反抗。他的摄影作品中有无数的迟鹏在大厅里奔跑，跑过走道，跑进中国的现代建筑物，捕捉住快速变化着的，消费主义至上的新中国的面貌。
在这次前波画廊举办的迟鹏的首次个展中，他将幻想变为现实。炙热的性爱接触的背后，是现代中国无处不见的电话亭和办公室的背景，创造出一种极端现实的效果。观众仔细观察后会发现，这些正在享受性爱的恋人们其实都是迟鹏自己。迟鹏所创作的画面具有特意的挑衅性，没有一幅作品避开大胆的宣言。这种对自爱和性欲的渴望曾一度被禁止，但逐渐被越来越开放和容忍的中国社会所接受。迟鹏将自己处置在都市的梦幻场景中，提醒我们一个人在亿万人口国度中的疏远感。
迟鹏在作品中大胆地使用裸体，并将其作为自己的艺术语言。他不断尝试自我的表现的方式，同时挑战观众去反思现代世界中的各人身份问题。迟鹏在西方的第一次个展不仅是他个人艺术生涯上的一个里程碑，也标志着当代中国社会的快速而剧烈的变迁。
*前波画廊为此展览出版了展览图录