The Red Mansion Foundation, London, mounts its fourth exhibition of works by Yang Qian, known for his gauzy and dreamlike 'photorealist' paintings of women at their toilette, at its space in Portland Place, London. Yang Qian, born in Chengdu, Sichuan province, in 1959, has exhibited internationally, including spaces such as the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul, and the Taipei Art Museum.
Richly lit and sensuously positioned, Yang Qian's steamy shots of showers and bathrooms nevertheless contain a certain Oriental reticence; the veils of steam that coil around the figures conceal as well as reveal their form, creating an erotic tension between subject and painter, viewer and voyeur.
In this new exhibitioin, curated by Huang Du, editor of Avant Garde Today, Yang Qian continues to play with the notion of multiple layers of meaning. He seeks to deconstruct the ocular-centrism of art and to liberate the act of observation and appreciation. In the 'Bathroom' series, images overlap between truth and illusion as the subject is viewed through the film of a mirror, a sheen of water-droplets, and mist. Following the hidden realities of these reflective and reflected images, Yang Qian’s new work is often put in a category described -- for want of a clearer definition -- as 'dual painting.' His technique involves painting over surfaces of already finished pieces of work, using a colourless fluorescent paint, so that the painting presents a different visual image, depending on whether they are viewed in regular or UV light. This allows for a multiplicity of images, and a new aspect of interaction to emerge.
Yang Qian states that his aim with this series of 'dual paintings' was to formally disrupt and go beyond the perceived limitations of a two-dimensional painting. His new work seeks to engage and interact with the surroundings in a way that totally contradicts the expected restraints of painting. His 'dual paintings' are classic in style, but also absorb new media, thus creating a new form of art. Yang Qian’s new work also involves the concept of kinetic painting -- which involves interaction with the viewer with unexpected results, breaking with the traditional preconceptions. The exhibition as a whole illustrates how the artist seeks to subvert the normal concept, and redefine the connotation and extension of the paintings through the idiom, “Only renovation can rejuvenate painting."
30 April-4 June, 9 – 5.30pm, Monday to Friday, by appointment . The Red Mansion Foundation, 46 Portland Place, London W1B 1NF. T +44 (0) 207 323 3700.
