12 Aug - 22 Sep 2021 Ai Weiwei Guan Wei Li Jin Wang Guangyi Zhang Xiaogang
Shared Brilliance: An expanded experience of contemporary Chinese art
| Featured artist | Ai Weiwei Guan Wei Li Jin Wang Guangyi Zhang Xiaogang |
We’re pleased to announce Vermilion Art’s first Virtual Reality (VR) exhibition, Shared Brilliance, featuring limited-edition works of some of the best contemporary Chinese art. This special online project brings together the works of sought-after contemporary artists including Ai Weiwei, Guan Wei, Li Jin, Wang Guangyi, and Zhang Xiaogang.
Employing a wide variety of printmaking techniques such as lithograph, woodcut, screenprinting, and digital printmaking, these works offer an opportunity for those seeking to start an art collection or to add diversity to an existing collection.
Ai Weiwei – The Papercut Portfolio
The Papercut Portfolio includes eight works: New York, Cats and Dogs, Map of China, Furniture, Haircut, Citizen Investigation, River Crabs, and Zodiac.
In this set of works, Ai reflects on his life and work through the Chinese art of papercutting. Each of the eight pieces is meticulously cut in large-format, brightly red-colored fine-art paper, representing a turning moment within the artist’s iconic oeuvre: from his permanence in New York in the ’80s, his exploration of the traditional Chinese crafts in Beijing in the ’90s, to the political activism of his most recent production.
Each papercut is signed by the artist and collected in a portfolio accompanied by explanatory notes by Chin-Chin Yap, who has extensively worked with Ai Weiwei, most recently as a writer and co-producer on several films. Through these eight pieces, the artist offers a beautiful, personal retrospective in a unique format.
Ai Weiwei – Study of Perspective in Glass series
An extension to Ai´s Study of Perspective Series (1995-2003) photographic series; where Ai points the middle finger in front of symbols of power across the world (from Tiananmen Square to the White House) the Study of Perspective in Glass is a continuation of the same thought in a 3-dimensional space, encouraging questioning towards governmental and institutional authorities.
Transposing from photography to glass casting in an edition of superlative technique, Ai created the entire series in Murano glass. The technical expertise of glass production dates since the 13th century in the Venetian island of Murano. The Study of Perspective in Glass series offers innate light and airy qualities of the glass as a medium. Ai’s life-size cast of his hand pointing the middle finger makes explicit the artist’s rejection of any form of oppression against human freedom.
Guan Wei – The Classic of the Mountains and Seas
In The Classic of the Mountains and Seas, Guan Wei draws inspiration from the eunuch admiral Zheng He from the Ming dynasty. Zheng He led a legendary fleet of treasure ships and thousands of men and set sail for foreign lands. Over nearly three decades, from 1405 to 1433, Zheng He made a series of official voyages visiting numerous strange and wonderful places.
Zheng He and his men collected rare spices, marvelous treasures, and wondrous birds and animals. They documented the exotic plants, animals, and people that they saw. On these voyages, Zheng He and his crew navigated new ocean routes and created beautiful nautical maps.
About Li Jin’s edition works
For the first time, a selection of Li Jin’s ink works are available in silkscreen, lithograph, or woodcuts, each with a limited edition of 100 globally. Li Jin has worked closely with a leading studio in Korea specialised in fine art print making to develop this selection of works collaboratively.
Each work has been proved and signed by the artist.
Wang Guangyi – Rhythmical Dichotomy
The selected lithographs belong to the set of twenty lithographs from “Wang Guangyi´s Rhythmical Dichotomy”. This Portfolio comes as a limited edition of 165 rare books, presented in a brushed aluminum case carefully created by Wang. Each one is signed and numbered, as well as accompanied by a poem by renowned poet Fernando Arrabal.
By combining depictions of workers with logos of famous commercial brands, such as Coca-Cola and Rolex (“corrections” of the political slogans he had painted as a youth), this collection of lithographs synthesizes the schematic propaganda of two seemingly opposed systems.
The Storyteller’s Enchantments of Zhang Xiaogang
The selected lithographs belong to the set of twenty lithographs from “The Storyteller’s Enchantments of Zhang Xiaogang”, which comes as a limited edition of 132 rare books. The lithographs from the set were inspired by the old family photos and represent Xiaogang’s Bloodline series, where the artist explores the concept of family and collectivism in Chinese society.
“My artwork has survived through China’s opening-up process over the past 10 years.”—Zhang Xiaogang
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