Opening Reception:
Feb 21 2009 4 pm

Can anxiety, despair and infatuation cast a veil over a scene and its objects? Tang Nannan, Hang Mingshi, Wang Yuming and Zhang Xiaoming are four artists of a shared epoch whose painstaking compositions reveal their misgivings regarding present-day society and lead the viewer into a mire of doubt.

Does Tang Nannan's prostrated cat truly portray each one of us?  His dark alleyways and passersby confront our preconceptions of deprivation and question our right to judge human relationships. Does Hang Mingshi's rusty swinging frame bear the burden of lingering memories or merely emphasize the absurdity of such vestiges of the past?

Through Wang Yuming's poetic images of fragmented water lilies can we still hear the elusive call of nature, or is the path between our present-day reality and the landscape of the soul irretrievable? Zhang Xiaoming offers us a glimpse of ancient China, yet can we truly feel and experience the desolation of performers working in the snow?

These four artists' passion for the lens lead to ever deeper and subtler explanations.