November 2012 - 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong, unveiled a major solo exhibition by leading Chinese contemporary artist Wang Keping, a founding member of the 1979 Beijing avant-garde group The Stars (Xing Xing). The exhibition comprises 24 sculptures which have never been seen before in public and runs from 23 November 2012 – 28 January 2013.
The sculptures mark the continuing evolution of Wang Keping’s technique and exploration of the human form. Erotic and inviting, they convey a highly sensual representation of the female body, of man and woman, mother and child. Highlights from the exhibition include: Desire (2008), an over-sized pair of highly polished lips, slightly parted, with a glossy tongue appearing to approach the viewer; and Madame Butterfly (2000) a dancing woman, formed from a slice of tree trunk nearly one metre in width. This monumental work has an appearance of lightness and movement despite its dense weight.
Wang Keping reveals the natural forms of the wood: the grain; knots; and flaws to evoke the contours of the figures in his work. Beginning the carving process while the wood is still fresh and moist, Wang Keping encourages cracks to form which, once dried, create details such as hair, clenched fists and folds of skin.
Katie de Tilly, founder of 10 Chancery Lane Gallery says: “Wang Keping is one of China's foremost sculptors. His work defies definition. Inspired in his early years by masters of European Modernist and African sculpture, his search today stems from Zen or Buddhist ideas of simplicity and nature, material and the non-material, physical and spiritual. Through his bestial erotic forms and swirling lines he works with a language of natural intuition of space and object, collaborating with his material and the secrets it has to reveal.”
A founding member of Beijing avant-garde group The Stars (Xing Xing), Wang Keping was the most outspoken and widely recognized non-conformist artist of the group, who emerged from Communist China’s highly controlled and almost non-existent art environment in 1979 with groundbreaking sculptures Silence (1978), Idol(1979) and Chain (1979), now part of the M+ Sigg collection, representing a radical departure from over 30 years of Socialist Realism promoted by Maoist government officials. Keping’s early work was noted to be the most provocative of the group, depicting shocking portraits of faces with their mouths plugged into silence, eyes blinded from seeing, chains around the neck, bodies being squeezed by enormous hands, and grotesque tumors, which Keping described as ‘cancers’. Keping explained at the time, “It is about people who can see but are forbidden to look. They have mouths but are forbidden to speak. This is what happened to the grassroots movement in China.” The legendary portrait of Chairman Mao, Idol, portrayed Chairman Mao as a Buddha-like figure not to be questioned showing a shocking rebellion unseen in China at that time.
Other members of the “Stars” group include Huang Rui, Ma Desheng and the young Ai Wei Wei. Wang Keping today states: “30 years ago, the 'Stars' twinkled in the dark night; today, they are still smiling in the daylight.”
10 Chancery Lane will present Wang Keping at Art Paris from 28 March to 1 April 2013. The artist lives and works in Paris, France.
WANG KEPING: Wood Flesh Form Nothingness
23 November 2012 – 28 January 2013
10 Chancery Lane Gallery
G/F, 10 Chancery Lane
Soho, Central
Hong Kong
Notes to Editors
Wang Keping
Born in Beijing in 1949, Wang Keping is one of the founders of non-conformist artist group “The Stars” (Xing Xing), formed in 1979 during the post-Cultural Revolution “Beijing Spring”. His work has been presented worldwide at museums including; The National Art Museum of China, the Fukuoka Museum in Japan, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Musée Maillol in Paris, the Groningen Museum in the Netherlands, the He Xiangning Art Museum in China, The Musée Cernushi in Paris, The Musée Zadkine in Paris and on the Avenue des Champs- Elysées in Paris at Les Champs de la Sculpture.His work resides in collections around the world, including the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK; Collection de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France; He Xianging Art Museum, Shenzhen, China and Museum of Asian Contemporary Art, Fukuoka, Japan. Work by the artist was recently donated to M+, Hong Kong’s future museum for visual culture by Dr Uli Sigg of Switzerland, the world’s leading collector of Chinese contemporary art. 10 Chancery Lane will present Wang Keping at Art Paris from 28 March to 1 April 2013. The artist lives and works in Paris, France.
10 Chancery Lane Gallery
10 Chancery Lane is one of the pioneering galleries on the Hong Kong scene. Founded in 2001 the gallery presents emerging and historically important movements in art across Asia-Pacific, supporting the development of the careers of the most exciting artists in the region including Dinh Q. Lê, Vietnam, Huang Rui, China and Sopheap Pich, Cambodia. The gallery is committed to documenting the development of the highest quality art in the region through survey exhibitions, talks, forums and publishing. There is a strong curatorial focus. Important shows are conceived and hosted with some of Asia’s leading curators, Feng Boyi (China), Erin Gleeson (Cambodia), Zoe Butt (Vietnam) and Iola Lenzi (Thailand). There is a particular focus on artists from South East Asia and visual and performance art from China including that of the 1979 Beijing avant-garde group “The Stars”. Represented artists have important museum shows. Dinh Q. Le was the first Vietnamese artist to exhibit at MOMA New York in June 2010., while the Australian artist John Young was shown at the Guggenheim in New York. Gallery artists have exhibited in the Venice Biennale, Documenta, Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Fukuoka Triennial, Singapore Biennial, Guangzhou Triennial and Busan Biennale. Four artists represented by the gallery were included in dOCUMENTA13. 10 Chancery Lane Gallery supports the development of contemporary art in Hong Kong as a founding member of the Hong Kong Galleries Association and through its HKFOREWORD Series, showcasing the work of young artists from the city.
10 Chancery Lane represents work by: Anothermountainman, Arlo Mountford, Atul Dodiya, Bui Cong Khanh, Cai Yuan and JJ Xi, Cang Xin, Carol Lee Mei Kuen, CHAN Dany, Chen Wei, Christine Nguyen, Dinh Q. Lê, Fiona Pardington, Gonkar Gyatso, Guan Wei, Hannah Bertram, Huang Rui, Hung Liu, Irene Lau Kwai Ying, John Young, Julian Schnabel, Ken Matsubara, Khvay Samnang, Ko Siu Lan, Leang Seckon, Li Wei, Lindy Lee, Malcolm McLaren, Map Office, Maya Hewitt, Meng Jin and Fang Er, Muchen and Shao Yinong, Nandan Ghiya, Nov Cheanik, Ouk Sochivy, Pan Jian, Petroc Sesti, Phu Nam Thuc Ha, Rich Streitmatter-Tran, Rong Rong and Inri, Serge Clément, Shi Guorui, Sonia Mehra Chawla, Sopheap PICH, SORN Setpheap, Surekha, Svay Ken, Than Sok, The Propeller Group, Thi Trinh Nguyen, Tu Duc Nguyen, Tuan Andrew Nguyen Tuan Thai Nguyen, Vandy Rattana, Vann Nath, Vincent Fantauzzo, Wang Guangyi, Wang Keping, William Furniss, Winus Lee Yee Mei, Xiao Lu, Yang Zhichao.
