Mulan Gallery will re-visit works by Beijing Contemporary artist, Lu Peng and sculptor, Zhang Hua. During the past two decades, Lu Peng has become the most singular voice in Chinese Contemporary Art. His lively art encompasses a rich narrative of traditions and life’s timeless individual and collective rituals. A silver medallist in the 2008 Olympic Landscape Sculpture Design International competition, Zhang Hua is well-known for his family themed sculptures which are crisp, genteel, rarely bulky and lively. He is recognized as one of China’s most formidable sculptor.

Chronicling a life that straddles two of the most intriguing period of recent Chinese Cultural and Political history, Lu Peng’s extensive range of paintings, drawings and etchings are thought out precisely so as to capture the social and cultural details, the characters and the rhythms that will later emerge in his oeuvre of works. Lu Peng has a unique perspective amongst the Contemporary Chinese artists. In terms of composition, he uses the Tibetan Buddhist religious Thangka scroll as the reincarnating spatio-temporal method of description.

Lu Peng’s paintings are like an attempt to make the body fly away from the barrier of walls using contemporary drawing-style. The paintings are a carnival of desire, aspiration and decadence. The paintings perform in the range of truth and falseness, history and reality, which is similar to the classical Chinese opera but also has realistic aspects to it. Voyeurism also plays an important role in Lu’s narrative.

‘Through The Wall’ captures the “opportune encounter” between Lu Peng’s real growth of his art talent and the confusion stemming from the shackles of history. The infinite charm of Chinese culture is akin to “walls”.

Over the last few years, Lu Peng has gained international recognition for his work, with collections by international private collectors and museums around the world. He was invited to participate in the Italy-China Biennale in 2012 and 55th Venice Biennale in 2013. In addition, his works have seen a growing demand in the auction market.

Extenuated limbs and bodies, flowing lines, motion and youthfulness are the extension for hopes, energetically rushing towards the future with dreams of reaching their final goal. Zhang Hua’s successful representation of arms stretching upward, reflecting the inner desire of people today and bringing out the spirit from within. The human figures are invariably caught in mid action and never appear still, posed and static. It is this dynamism and the gaiety of the bodies that capture the gender.

His life-size sculptures can be found dispersed around China, Seoul and France. One can easily spot ‘Sea Breeze’ in the China Olympic Park, ‘Flower Charm’ in Beijing International Sculpture Park, ‘Eagle Catching Chicks’ in Xinjiang and so on.

-Mulan Gallery

Image: © Lu Peng