"The fundamental questioning of what painting is capable of offering in post-ideological and critical terms, must, so it seems when one considers Nashunbatu’s art, also be treated on equivalent terms in the realm of the figurative and of the evocative potential of painting."
– Frankfurt based curator Felix Ruhöfer

Pékin Fine Arts is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by Nashun Nashunbatu. Spanning the gallery’s three exhibit spaces, Ambivalent Landscape is Nashunbatu’s first exhibition after joining the gallery.

Nashun Nashunbatu, born in Inner Mongolia in 1969, graduated from university in Ordos, and earned graduate degrees in Germany. Today, he divides his time between his studios in Beijing and Frankfurt, Germany.

An ethnic Mongolian, Nashunbatu is fluent in the Mongolian language, as well as Chinese, English and German, and is representative of the latest artists from Mainland China emerging on to the international stage: Polymaths, well studied and well travelled, and actively engaged with both Western and Chinese (and Mongolian) art history, literature and philosophical discussions; hence, deeply aware of current affairs on the local as well as international stage. Nashun’s exhibit history, especially in Europe and particularly in Germany, is extensive. He is currently preparing works for exhibits both in China and abroad. In 2012 and 2013 Nashunbatu’s works will be shown in solo exhibitions in museums in his native Inner Mongolia.

As an “Overseas Returnee” (part-time in China and full-time in Germany), and like many of his generation, Nashunbatu, often finds himself in the awkward position of being more familiar with the European art scene than he is with China’s contemporary art world discourse. As a relative outsider to the Chinese art scene, Nashunbatu, both ethnically and by virtue of his pursuits, is naturally more cosmopolitan and more prone to deviation from China’s established social order in his artistic practice. As such, his successes and failures as an artist in China are particularly representative of the diversity and unpredictability that typifies the group of highly individualized avant-garde artists working in and around Beijing. This lack of adherence to one dominant aesthetic or philosophical approach liberates his creative impulses and pursuits, while at the same time creating obstacles to easy understanding and categorization of his artistic practice.