Matthew Liu Fine Arts is pleased to announce its third consecutive participation in Art 021 2016, presenting our special curated exhibition Contemporary Masters of Landscape, bringing together exceptional works created by four contemporary artists, including Thomas Canto, Lu Xinjian, Yin Zhaoyang and Zheng Zaidong. The four artists in this exhibition span over three generations, whose diverse backgrounds, experiences and mindsets greatly influenced their art. With distinct aesthetics, styles and techniques, their idiosyncratic landscapes reveal their personal interests, investigation, and struggle as well as their thoughts on the environment they reside in.

 

Known for his remarkable utility of lines, geometric forms and light, French artist Thomas Canto (b. 1979) has been creating three-dimensional works that incorporates his thoughts and experiences, rendering spectacular optical illusions that speak individually to each viewer depending on their angles in relation to the artworks. The geometrical patterns in his works evoke unspecified yet familiar architecture, city landscape and universe at large. Canto’s works are expressions of his unique views towards contemporary urban life and the notion of globalization and cosmopolitanism in different regions as he experiences it. The artist is commissioned by the fair to create a site-specific installation Still life of Spacetime (2016) at the west entrance of the fair, in front of the VIP registration.

 

For over a decade, in vibrant palette artist Lu Xinjian (b. 1977) has been depicting the bird’s eye views of boisterous modern metropolises in his stylish and conceptual abstract representations, inviting the viewers to envision these locales. While retaining the signature architectures and city designs that allow their inhabitants to recognize the places they reside in, Lu’s treatment of these plans reveals the striking similarity among modern urban spaces. In his works, the cityscape has become de-centralized and flattened. Skyscrapers and low rises are rendered in equally simplified lines and structures, demonstrating a bustling urban density that could be applied to any modern city. Manifesting a cosmopolitan mindset, these works embrace and synthesize differences across various cultures and nations, while calling the viewers’ attention towards the increasingly standardizing urban spaces around the globe.

 

Works by the renowned artist Yin Zhaoyang (b. 1970) are highly calligraphic, through simple strokes he seeks to express strong personal feelings. For our booth at Art 021 2016, Matthew Liu Fine Arts will present three new works from the artist’s most recent series, Stones from Songshan Mountains. The two oil paintings evoke magnificent landscapes that are boundless and vigorous. His bold and animated brushstrokes are effortlessly embedded with implications and wonderful subtleties. The fusion and overlapping of oil paints allows him to simultaneously present instant emotional outbreaks and deliberate thought, rendering the final images both visually intensive and full of delicate details.

 

Though profoundly influenced by Existentialism, Zheng Zaidong (b. 1953)’s works, specifically his compositions, choice of colors and brushstrokes, are the closest to Chinese literati paintings among the four artists. The color of Zheng Zaidong’s works are rich and subtle, which allows him to depict solitary sceneries with a melancholic touch. Ostensibly resembling the traditional Chinese landscape paintings, these works are indeed demonstrations of the artist’s spiritual pursuit and comments on here and now. Exquisite and ethereal, his landscape paintings offer a spiritual home for the viewers to dwell in, wonder around, and to enjoy a temporary shelter from this boisterous and complicated modern world.

 

For more information, please contact the gallery at info@mlfinearts.com or +86 21 6315 1582.