Chambers Fine Art is pleased to announce the opening on March 29, 2014 of Transformation: Recent Works by Wu Jian'an. Since his first exhibition at Chambers in 2006, Wu has primarily used paper cut as his preferred medium, although he has also experimented with other materials including metal and ox hide. As his works have grown in scale, the thematic underpinnings have also become increasingly complex, deriving from a wide range of philosophical, religious and visual traditions.
In Transformation Wu turns to an episode in the Chinese classic text Journey to the West for inspiration and creates an environment in which different media including painting in colored wax and water color are used to express his idiosyncratic interpretation of the legend. In his earlier work Wu used paper cut to express his fascination with hidden patterns of connectivity, frequently using individual elements in different combinations to reveal mysterious truths. For his depiction of the white ape’s nirvana Wu turns to a stylized figurative language that reflects his deep knowledge of classical Buddhist art. For the explosive energy generated at this moment leading to the creation of man and everything else in the universe, however, Wu has created sequences of works that pair repetitive depictions of human and animal forms with abstract equivalents.
The repetitive structure of 6000 Painted Faces and 1000 Fairies Painted by Qingdao Art Students in which each component is figurative and unique finds its abstract equivalent in Color Points and 792 Overlapping Colored Balls. In the spectacular abstractions as in the dizzying figurative works, Wu looks for hidden relationships between diverse forms, offering the viewer an opportunity to join him on this inward journey as he makes visual and iconographical connections between the diverse components of the installation. Overshadowing everything is the monumental Monkey Face Composed of 72 Tigers which refers to the mythological origins of Wu Jian’an’s wild journey through time and space.
As Wu Jian'an delves ever deeper into mythological and esoteric source material the scope of his ambition requires a broadening of the range of media he uses beyond his initial pursuit of the deeper meanings of which paper cut is capable. Transformation is the first impressive manifestation of this new development in his work.
前波画廊诚挚地宣布将于2014年3月29日举行展览《白猿涅槃：邬建安近作》的开幕。自2006年他在前波画廊的首次展览之后，邬建安以剪纸作为主要媒材，同时也不断尝试金属和牛皮等其他材质。近年来其作品的尺幅逐渐扩大，创作主题也随之变得更为繁复深奥，涉猎广泛领域，包括哲学、宗教及传统视觉艺术。
《白猿涅槃》的灵感来源于中国古典小说《西游记》，邬建安尝试运用彩蜡和水彩等绘画语言为这个传奇故事作了独到的诠释。其早期的剪纸作品表现出艺术家迷恋于图案之间所隐匿的连贯性，各种相同的元素在不同的组合中频频出现，传递了富有神秘气息的真相。而对于本次展览中的作品《白猿涅槃》，艺术家运用了独特的风格和造型来体现出他对经典佛教艺术的深刻理解。由这件作品为起源，创作走向两条不同的发展线索：一条通过重复描绘人脸型来表现造人，而另一条则运用抽象的手段表现造物。两条线索彼此呼应，分别走向宏观的景象，就好似物质的膨胀形成了核裂变一般。
《6000张已画完的人脸》和《1000个青岛美术生画的妖精》与《苯板上的彩点》和《792个有重叠的彩色圆球》遥相呼应。前者具有重复结构然而其中每一张脸都是独一无二；后者由成千上万个颜色组成的物理结构，色点之间界限分明，没有相交相融的地方，整体上却又呈现出一种混融的面貌。无论是在壮丽的抽象作品还是眼花缭乱的人物作品中，邬建安试图探寻多元形态中所隐喻的神秘关系，将观者引领入他的个人创作历程，让我们亲眼目睹艺术家将本次展览的不同元素通过想象和视觉相联系在一起的过程。而巨幅创作《72只虎组成的猴脸》使其他所有作品都显得相对较小，如此悬殊的视觉效应暗示了邬建安在艺术创作过程中的一次奇异时空旅程。
随着邬建安对神话故事创作主题的深入探索和研究，仅用他一直以来惯用的剪纸媒材已经无法表达这些宏大的主题和更深层的精神含义。而此次《白猿涅槃》展览中是他首次运用新的媒材及表现形式，反映出了其艺术创作中尝试更广泛媒材的发展趋势。