After two years, the famous painter and art educator Wu Xiaoyan's series of theme painting exhibitions "Migration and Eternity" returned again, and on December 31, "Between Migration and Eternity - Wu Xiaoyan Oil Painting Exhibition" opened at Shenzhen Chao Art Museum, exhibiting 74 of Wu Xiaoyan's latest works.
The opening ceremony of the day was followed by a New Year's vintage music party. The famous cartoonist and founder of the WeChat public account "Wa Shuo" Zhen Qidong (alias Xiao wa) carried out comic creation on the spot, Yang Jian, a well-known musician in Shenzhen, the founder of the "base area" brand and the founder of the Shenzhen base area heavy locomotive club, and the artists of the club brought a wonderful New Year's Eve music performance, and the rock music, Harley and art painting exhibition stirred up a wonderful spark in the cross-Chinese New Year's Eve.
It is reported that the exhibition is curated by scholar Han Wangxi and painter Wu Xiaoyan, with Yang Jian as the music curator, Xiaoyan Painting Academy and Chao Art Museum, and will last until February 10, 2022.
74 new works to analyze "between square inches"
For a long time, the name Wu Xiaoyan was well known in the industry because the Xiaoyan Painting Academy, which she and her husband Dong Jianguo co-founded, wrote a strong mark in the history of Children's Art Education in China. In order to devote herself to the cause of children's art education, Wu Xiaoyan, who studied printmaking, gave up her dream of becoming an artist very early. Over the years, she has taken her children's paintings to nearly 30 countries such as the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Switzerland, Japan, etc., visiting and holding exhibitions, so that Chinese children can become the best group of small artists recognized by the world.
On November 28, 2019, Wu Xiaoyan held her first solo exhibition "Migration and Eternity", which is not only a commemorative exhibition of her 40 years of art, but also a public presentation of her many years of artistic achievements, and also marks her transformation from an art educator and artist to a curator. After the opening of the exhibition, it attracted much attention from the industry and was described by critics as "providing a new artistic language for the art world".
Wu Xiaoyan plans to continue to create "Migration and Eternity" as a long-term series of themed painting exhibitions. The "Between The Migration flow and the eternal square inch - Wu Xiaoyan Oil Painting Exhibition", which opened at the Shenzhen Chao Art Museum, is the second exhibition of this series of theme painting exhibitions, with the theme of "between the square inches", including "between the square inches one", "between the square inches two", "between the square inches three", "The Wizard of Oz" and other group paintings, 32 large paintings, 42 small paintings, a total of 74 works, all of which are the latest works created by Wu Xiaoyan in the past year.
"What is eternity? Migration is eternal. When many people are still carefully imitating this earthly world, Xiao Yan recalls the brilliance of the quiet world in her heart with the unruly soul she has created. The painting in front of you is completely freehand and heart-written. Speaking of the main theme of the exhibition, curator and scholar Han Wangxi told reporters that he greatly appreciates Wu Xiaoyan's paintings, and there is a kind of power from the heart in the color and shape, "The colors of her paintings are like torrents rushing from the heart, spewing out thinly, and the sound outside the painting is like a stringless piano, like crying." Your soul must resonate with her in order to understand her every stroke and understand her every word she says. ”
A creative perspective in four dimensions of time and space
In Han Wangxi's view, compared with the 2019 "Migration and Eternity" exhibition, wu Xiaoyan's 74 new works created this year with the theme of "between square inches" have a stronger sense of space and narrative, and also present a transition from figurative to abstract expression style.
Twisted braids and long skirts were once Wu Xiaoyan's iconic outfits. She had 12 years of long hair, from elementary school to college, and the twist braids of the ground became a scenery in her hometown of Maoming, because she wanted to study in the provincial city of Guangzhou, which was not as convenient as washing her hair at home, and only cut it into short hair.
In many of the paintings on display, a woman with braids repeatedly appears, with different outfits, postures and scenes. "That's where I am in every life, and my relatives and friends." Wu Xiaoyan said that she stitched her memories in different time and space into the same picture and placed them in different spaces, just like watching a long river of fragments of a person's life under a four-dimensional space-time vision.
One of the paintings in the series of paintings "Three Inches Between Square Inches" is a typical representative of this view of time and space. In the picture, the young Wu Xiaoyan and her sister carry a school bag to school, they look at the back of a girl with long braids in the distance, this is the child's she is watching the girl's her, and the girl's she, her eyes are on a horse in the distance, the horse has become an old photo of memory. As the motif of Wu Xiaoyan's creation, the horse is the projection of her spiritual self.
The reporter saw at the scene that the three groups of works " between the square inches "between the square inches", "between the square inches between the two", and "between the square inches" are full of this wonderful view of time and space, as well as the aesthetic interest of "you stand on the bridge to see the scenery, and the scenery people look at you upstairs". Especially when they are combined together and cover the entire wall, it is like seeing a person's life divided into fragments of time and space, which is a creative perspective in four dimensions of time and space.
It is worth mentioning that in order to explore the sense of time and space in painting, Wu Xiaoyan also introduced architectural elements, specially customized a three-dimensional drawing board, which converts the common two-dimensional drawing board into a three-dimensional drawing board, and creates a time memory exclusive to her in a convex and concave space. This domestic first three-dimensional drawing board, has been registered as a patented product, in the exhibition site is more attracted to the attention of many audiences, "this carrier has the language of sculpture, the language of architecture, the language of painting, is a new attempt of three-body integration, in different natural light, with the transfer of light, its illusion and sense of space can be changed at will, it is really wonderful!" One visitor told reporters.
The reason why we want to explore the sense of time and space in painting, Wu Xiaoyan said, "All artists have to solve, one is the modeling problem, one is the color problem, the other is the creative problem, and more importantly, how to express the problem of time and space." Now that technology is developing rapidly, there are too many new concepts, including the 'metaverse', which confuse us, and I want to try to express it with painting and think about some new topics. And my performance of the past, present, and future is also a kind of migration and eternity. ”
Her characters leave only their backs
In addition to using painting to explore the sense of time and space, the narrative of Wu Xiaoyan's new works is also particularly prominent, and the works in this exhibition are full of stories and plots.
Wu Xiaoyan's previous paintings have no figures, only horses, birds and plants, which is the motif of her creation. For the first time in this year's new work, there are characters, and almost all of them are backs, and they all look into the distance. "The back is a symbol of anticipation, prospect, longing, a symbol of looking back at the old days, this hazy, vague memory, everyone will have a familiar resonance." Wu Xiaoyan said that she has unconsciously entered a stage of life that looks back at her youth, and there are her memories in the paintings, and there are traces of her life.
One of the largest paintings on the exhibition site is a work created with the name "Xiaoyan". Large areas of red, green, black, purple, blue, stitched together a strong visual impact, the whole painting takes the initials of "Xiaoyan" pinyin, in the shape of X and Y composition, the theme of creation is still the horse. Compared with Wu Xiaoyan's previous series of works, the horses in this painting are more abstract.
The group painting "The Wizard of Oz", which consists of 6 vertical strips of paintings with very narrow sizes, is still the theme that Wu Xiaoyan is good at: huge plants from the subtropics. Wu Xiaoyan told reporters that these vertical and long drawing boards were originally the remaining scraps created by colleagues, and the shading was a row of sails, and she recreated them on the original picture, painting lush green plants that covered the sky, bathed in golden raindrops, dancing with flexible and powerful branches and leaves, brilliant to the extreme; and the horses hidden in the depths of the forest, birds and non-bird species, added a touch of magic to the picture.
The exhibition also features 42 small paintings by Wu Xiaoyan, in an abstract and ethereal style, which is the direction she will explore in the next stage. From figurative to abstract, this exhibition is in a sense a transition, and Wu Xiaoyan is quietly completing her style transformation.
Talking about the mental process of creation, Wu Xiaoyan said that many of her artistic creations are the strokes of God, just like the opening of time and space in an instant, allowing her to enter another door. And the horses she often appears like elves are the guides, leading her through this door to find her dreams.
"Art is an indispensable thing in my life, my life state, my life pursuit, whether it is being an artist or teaching, it is my pursuit with my heart." I use painting to express my past, present, and future, the bloom of each season in spring, summer, autumn and winter, and find the attitude and meaning of life in every inch. Wu Xiaoyan said that everyone can see the grass and trees facing the sun, but who can see its shadow? As an educator, you should have this ability to observe in detail. She understands children, just as children read her works, students are also her works, and education and artistic creation are inseparable.
[Reporter] Guo Yue
【Author】 Guo Yue
【Source】 Southern Press Media Group South + client