Born in Taidong, Jiangsu Province in 1968, Wang Qiang graduated from Xiamen University in 1994 and is currently living and working in Nanjing. Creative Realms will be the first solo exhibition of the artist at Red Gate Gallery. The exhibition features more than twenty works of Wang Qiang made from 2011 to 2013, including installations, sculptures and paintings. Different from his previous works that directly address the urbanization and consumerism in contemporary society, the new works are in a way re-visiting and re-thinking traditions.

In the period from 2011 to 2013, Wang Qiang made use of elements of Huang Gongwang’s Living in the Fuchun Mountains, thereby adding a dimension to the original classic work through his replication of it. In a way, the copy is simply an illusion created by the painter, because even though the material he uses is still rice paper, the resonance of the brushwork inked onto the paper - what we might call the intellectual mood of the work generated by the language of the original work’s painting mood - has now been dispelled. The author had no intention of restoring the original or re-creating a visual work conforming to the same aesthetic realm as Huang Gongwang’s original work, nor did he have the intention of dispelling or questioning the intellectual mood created by Huang Gongwang. Replication effected through techniques of conversion is actually more akin to the introduction of the Other. From a material space created by brush and ink to a physical space that is tangible, within the same dimensions the line of sight is transformed from an “eye level” view to a perspective in which we gaze down. The artist’s handling of what is present and what is not present has effected a new and extremely subtle change of perspective. 　　　　

Other works featured in the exhibition include Seeing Ma Yuan in a Trance series ,Time Trace series and the Psychedelic Love series.

Image: © Wang Qiang, Red Gate Gallery