As an artist, Na Wei (born in 1982) belongs to the new generation of 80s. Soon after graduating from college, he held his solo Blue and White • Isolated, thus making his debut as a leading artist of new generation of the 80s, with his unique concept of art and media for artistic expression.
This solo exhibition, at the invitation of Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, is a concrete show of the artist’s progress made in the last two years, especially, his exploration of the relationship between modern media information technology and easel painting.
As the title, “Combination of Resources: Blending and Innovation”, suggests, this exhibition highlights the combination of resources on multiple levels. Simply put, the works to be presented are to show their combination of modern information technology and easel painting techniques along with innovations in this respect, modern coding technology, for instance, which, by obscuring and setting traps in images or statements, leads the audience to rethink how to “wisely” read and open “a file”. In addition to the combination of concept of painting and media for pictorial expression, which he always values, these works stress, more importantly, interaction between paintings on the easel and the audience. Traditionally, using our visual system only, we know what is conveyed in an easel painting in a gallery; with Na Wei, however, one has to decipher in order to know more. An audience, for example, can start the game set in the painting by first shooting the “coded” images in the painting with a 3G mobile phone.
“With more ‘wisdom’, more resources and more media available, do we become ‘wiser’ or ‘more speculative’? Is our horizon broader? Is it easier for us to approach the truth? Do we have more freedom and more diversity? Are we more ‘clear-minded’ or more confused?” (Na Wei)
One has to keep two points in mind when appreciating Na Wei’s works. On one hand, his works can be taken as his tentative effort to generate new concepts of art and new artistic language for expression by blending various elements or forms (contrast, confrontation, juxtaposition, for instance), or in other words, “blending” them in a contemporary context of overwhelming development of science and technology along with the Chinese cultural tradition which highly values compromise over conflicts. He calls the combination of elements, styles and concepts “hybrid”. On the other hand, he prefers to challenge stereotyped thinking patterns by creating unconventional everyday experiences in order to understand the cognitive distance of people, events and objects. Like a magician, he keeps changing the elements in the painting in a balanced way, challenging our set thinking patterns and cognition of people, events, objects, and our logic. In his paintings, “truthful lies”, told by perfect and consummate techniques coming on end, along with the seemingly contradictory and conflicting elements, challenge our ready experience and take us to a richer world of imagination. It might be such interactive and open means of understanding that sets the tone of his artistic reality, and it is, to some degree, closer to what he intended in his works.
The 80s are the first to benefit directly from the economic boom in China, but they are subject to the increasingly fierce competition in the Chinese social transition as well. While growing up, they are separated, put in a “reserve”, and pampered with privileges that their “elders” never received. They are exposed to a great abundance of material and diversified modern technological and cultural information. Art, in this generation, is therefore doomed to be independent and unique.
As an artist, Na Wei is full of fantasies. Keen on what is novel, fashionable and modern, he is greatly intrigued by the “civilization” and “progress” brought by modern science and technology. We have every reason to believe that his solo will take the audience on a journey of proactive visual experience and reflection about “art at present and in the future”.
Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, adhering to the principle of “being original, academic and international” and aiming at “promoting contemporary art in China”, has always been a platform for outstanding young artists to show their talent and communicate on a global level. It is why they organize this solo for such a young artist as Na Wei. I believe this is an opportunity and a fulfillment as well.
