Zhao Gang
Zhao Gang is a painter’s painter and a key figure in the development of Chinese contemporary art. The youngest member of the Stars Group—China’s first modern art movement—Gang left China in 1983 to study, live, and work in Maastricht, the Netherlands, and New York. On his return to China 24 years later, in 2007, Gang developed a dynamic, provocative painting practice that freely combines Western and Eastern influences while reflecting on the profound changes affecting his native country. Before Gang left, there was no such thing as “Chinese contemporary art”; by the time he returned, globalization had ushered in not just multiple styles and forms of art, but also an entire art economy.
Gang is often referred to as among the “only members of his [artistic] generation who truly understands both East and West.” Though the artist is both Chinese and American, he is considered (and considers himself) an insider’s outsider in both cultures. As native and newcomer, Gang has developed a dark, ironic, often crude approach to depicting Chinese history. His new suite of Virus canvases is no different. Still lifes that directly allude to Old Master paintings, his pictures also invoke the daily reality of quarantine as experienced in the artist’s Beijing studio, where bottles of Clorox and an N95 mask share tabletop space with fish, flowers, and bowls of fruit. At a time when relations between China and the U.S. have shifted radically, this glimpse inside a Chinese-American artist’s practice and mind is both rare and precious.
— CVF, USFCAM
“During this quarantine era, I painted and cooked in my kitchen. Sitting there, I thought of Chinese eating habits and [the country’s] legendary cuisine. A Chinese chef will never tell you how he makes his specialty. The ingredients, the recipe, his prolix process are the highest value of that deep secret. This mystery in cooking is just like this country, which resists any close peep from outside and keeps its mysterious soul. So my eyes fall on the still life in my kitchen, the basis of dishes and the basis of paintings. This super pandemic and lasting quarantine triggered thoughts of my past. When I arrived in New York in 1983, that young me imagined [my life there] as a self-imposed exile from my hometown. It seems to [have resulted] in [another kind of] reality—I come and go between New York and Beijing, living in both cities and their cultures, perpetually roaming the world. Once the virus and the quarantine era arrived—I'm segregated.”
— Zhao Gang
Zhao Gang, Virus 7, 2020. Oil on canvas. 19-5/8 x 25-1/2 in. (50 x 65 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Long March Space. Photo credit: Zhao Gang Studio.
Zhao Gang, Virus 8, 2020. Oil on canvas. 19-5/8 x 25-1/2 in. (50 x 65 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Long March Space. Photo credit: Zhao Gang Studio.
Zhao Gang, Virus 9, 2020. Oil on canvas. 25-1/2 x 19-5/8 in. (65 x 50 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Long March Space. Photo credit: Zhao Gang Studio.
Artist Zhao Gang.
About Zhao Gang
(Beijing, China, 1961)
He lives and works in New York, Beijing and Taipei.
Zhao Gang began his artistic career when he was 18 years old as a member of the Stars Group in Beijing, one of the first avant-garde artist groups to open the era of contemporary art in China. He lived in Europe and the U.S. for over two decades, developing a complex body of work. After returning to Beijing, Zhao Gang has focused his practice on Chinese history and his personal past. His unique position as a native and a foreigner has influenced much of his recent artworks. His work has been shown in exhibitions at the Perez Art Museum Miami (Miami, Florida), Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (Santiago, Chile), Suzhou Museum (Suzhou, China), Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (Beijing, China), Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation (NYC), and the Guangzhou Triennial (Guangzhou, China).
Artist Instagram: @zhao___gang
Gallery website: longmarchspace.com