55 is delighted to announce that Tianming ZHENG will show his major works created in the past three years in his first solo exhibition after he returned from Italy under the title of “The Birth of A ( )”.

Language and narration are very important issues for Tianming ZHENG. Painting became his placebo fighting against loneliness and alienation during his two-year-stay in Italy. Continuous artistic creation instead of the language became the media to communicate with the outside world and enabled him to obtain his presence. He paid more attention to the more informative images and text, such as movies, video games, news photos, stories and poems, due to the lack of social activities. Existing images and text could only convey accurate information in a specific context. In his painting, Tianming ZHENG changed the original context to the absurdity through the appreciation and replacement of images. Just like putting a group of actors and props into a space, they will automatically rehearse. So the drama’s ending would be beyond control. It might turn out to be a tragedy, or a comedy. Tianming ZHENG indulged in this kind of runaway ending, and explored the outcome, in addition to how to affect the audience.

*image (left)
courtesy of the artist and Gallery 55