Chen Jie’s Solo Exhibition
On View from April 10th - April 20th, 2021
2021年4月10日，艺术家陈劼个展《微弱关系》于上海喜玛拉雅美术馆正式开幕。本次展览呈现了艺术家在过去两年特殊语境中，从所处的时代与现成品之中获得灵感、对材料进行探索所创作的35件代表性作品，包括架上绘画、综合材料创作、装置，以及影像。开幕式上，策展人顾耀峰、艺术家陈劼、展览学术主持陈瑞就展览主题分别致辞。南京艺术学院美术馆策展人、上海可美术馆执行馆长陈瑞先生展览撰文《微弱关系——一种时代化的敏感表达》。
开幕式现场 从左到右依次为 陈瑞 陈劼 顾耀峰
摄影/刘骏
“微弱关系”作为本次展览的主题，与其说是陈劼在2020疫情期间思考和创作的总结，更不如说是在后疫情、后全球化时代从艺术家个人角度对人与人、人与社会关系的直观表达以及对时代的回应。整体作品数量虽然不多，却是在延续其一贯的表达理念的基础上，融合了切身际遇和反思创作了一系列作品的最新呈现。
陈劼的创作方式一直具备着多元性和生长性，他擅长把自己放置在当代艺术发展以及现代美术思潮的脉络中去对标和定位，所以从他的作品中不仅能看到对波普艺术、贫困艺术等经典流派的熟练运用，最重要的是在其作品里仍然保持类似于上世纪八十年代那种单纯的理想主义气息和带有“草莽精神”的独立艺术家气质。虽然一直以来简单直接的方式去表达，如不断重复排列的方格、佛头的剪影符号、加减乘除的标志，但这种创作方式本身带有深层次的逻辑：即如何和这个复杂的世界简单化的相处，这也为其构建了较为完整的观念脉络和行为基础。“加减乘除”是陈劼代表系列作品，作为符号化的表达一直贯穿在其各类作品中，已经成为理解其作品的重要主线。“加减乘除”是最基础的数学运算方法，但又是最具有哲学意味的人间真理。在这个明确的主线中，不断与其他图像、材料、技法进行并置融合的过程中，拓宽了作品的维度，形成了“分”与“合”之间对立又统一的关系。在当代艺术创作中找到一个符号并不难，难的是长时间对符号进行创造性的重复和再创作。就像那句歌词中唱的：“什么都别说，重复是你最好的选择”，这种行为本身就具有某种哲学观念和时代意义，同时又带着强烈而又无奈的理想主义色彩。
本次展览展出了一批最新创作的装置作品，创作的材料来源都是拆迁现场或者路边随手捡拾的建筑垃圾、废弃品，陈劼将贫穷艺术的创作方式和精神理念注入到作品表达及其精神内涵中，包括砖头、亚克力、木头、锯末、石子水泥等元素的运用，就像是在大型施工现场中“淘金者”，那些常人所遗弃的，也许正是最珍贵的，陈劼也是这样一点一滴如春燕衔泥般构建自己独特的精神堡垒。
《关系-10》 33.5×39×68cm 空心砖、VAE乳液、不锈钢、木、铁 2020如果说上世纪八十年代把走出国门到国外生活比喻成“文化游牧”的话，生活在当下每个人都可以称之为“游牧者”，“随波逐流”亦或“逐水草而居”，只是选择不同。伴随着移动互联网时代不断的扁平化，文化的交流已经快速而便捷，最大的变化不在外部，可能就在身边，特别是城市化发展带来的住房、环境、人口、食品等问题，每个个体无时无刻都被裹挟在“内卷化”的焦虑之中。陈劼敏锐地观察到了这一点，用一种简单的方式把这一切记录下来并融入到自己的创作中，让自己的艺术符号和创作理念与这个时代产生了某种微妙而又脆弱的——关系。
《微弱关系-1》220×380cm 布面沙土、丙烯、VAE乳液、白乳胶 2019A SENSITIVE EXPRESSION OF THE TIMES"Subtle Connections" is a summary of Chen Jie's thinking and creativity during the 2020 pandemic. More importantly, it is the artist's intuitive expression of human-to-human and human-to-society relations and response to the times in a post-pandemic and post-globalization world. The limited works exhibited this time present the artist’s most recent creations. These works combine contemporary art's intercultural research these experiences. They also carry on his earlier concepts.Chen Jie’s creative techniques have always been diversified and expanding. He is brilliant at benchmarking and positioning himself by placing himself in the context of contemporary art development and modern art trends. From his works, we can not only spot his proficient use of Pop Art, Arte Povera, and other classic genres but the pure idealism and "wild spirit” artistic temperament of independent artists from the 1980s. His expression patterns are simple and direct, such as the repeated arrangement of squares, the silhouette symbols of the Buddha's head, and the symbols of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. This creative technique possesses a profound logic: How to get along with this complex world in a simple way. This also builds a relatively complete conceptual framework and behavioral basis for it.
《加减乘除19-2》62×100cm 布面丙烯综合材料 2019"Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division" is Chen Jie's representative series of works. It has appeared in many of his works as a symbolic expression and has become an important thread for understanding his works. "Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division" is not only the most basic mathematical operations but also the most philosophical truth in the world. Along with this definite thread, the process of continual juxtaposition and integration with other images, materials, and techniques broadens the works' dimensions, forms the unity of opposites between the "separate" and the "united". It is not difficult to find a symbol in contemporary art creation; the real challenge is to repeat and recreate the symbol over the years creatively. Just like the lyrics "Don't say anything, repetition is your best choice”, this kind of behavior embodies a certain philosophical concept and spirit of the times while being tinged with great but impotent idealism.
This exhibition presents some of Chen Jie’s latest installation works. All of them are made of construction waste or scrap randomly collected from demolition sites or roadsides. Chen Jie infuses the creative methods, spirits, and concepts of Arte Povera into the expression and spiritual connotation of his own works. The usage of bricks, acrylic, wood, sawdust, stone cement, and other elements appears to be a "treasure" from a large-scale construction site. Things abandoned by normal people may be the most precious. This is how Chen Jie built up his own unique spiritual fortress little by little and bit by bit.
《微弱关系-2》62×71×129cm 石头、丙烯、不锈钢、木、土、VAE乳液、丝带 2019
If in the 1980s, leaving China to live abroad was likened to "cultural nomadism”; everyone living in the present can be called “nomad”— “following the flow" or "living by the water and grass". Just a matter of choices. With the ongoing flattening of the mobile Internet era, cultural exchanges have never been swift and convenient. The biggest changes are not external, but most likely around us—especially the housing, environment, population, and food issues brought on by urbanization—individuals are constantly engulfed in the anxiety of "involution". Chen Jie was keenly aware of this. He used a simple way to record and integrate these phenomena into his works so that his own artistic symbols and creative ideas bond the times with subtle and fragile—connections.
南京艺术学院美术馆策展人，南京艺术学院刘海粟艺术研究中心负责人，上海可美术馆执行馆长。从事当代艺术展览的策划、研究与教学工作。2009年至今策划、主持展览70余场，发表论文多篇。近年致力于推动当代艺术的跨文化研究与本土艺术的国际交流，独立或联合策划了“一分钟影像二十周年特展”、“滚动中的雪球·南京”、“无名城市——2000年后的德国影像艺术”、“开放的边界”、“平行·上海”、“学院光谱——全国美院师生联展”、“艺本——南京艺术书展”、“美丽书——中德当代书籍设计展”、“荒木经惟·花幽”、“对流——中德当代摄影介入”等大型展览活动，引进了“德意志制造联盟100周年特展”、“新的旧物——处于传统与革新张力间的设计”、“德国：艺术之域”等重要展览，并在韩国、法国、英国等地策划展览及活动多场。Curator of the Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts, head of Liu Haisu Art Research Center of Nanjing University of the Arts, and executive director of Shanghai Ke Art Museum. He has been dedicating to the curation, research, and lecture of contemporary art exhibitions.Since 2009, he has curated and hosted more than 70 exhibitions and published many articles. In recent years, he has been committed to promoting contemporary art's intercultural research and the international exchange of native art.He independently or jointly curated “Ways of Seeing the Future—Celebrating 20 Years of One Minutes”, “Rolling Snowball - Nanjing”, “The Unnamable City”, “Art Space/Open Borders”, “ParallelismShanghai—International Contemporary Art Invitational Exhibition”, “College Spectrum—Exhibition of Chinese Art College Teachers and Students”, “Art Book Nanjing—Book Fair & Art Exhibition”, “Beautiful Books— Exhibition of Contemporary Book Design in China and Germany”, “Kayu, Nobuyoshi Araki”, “With/Against the Flow” and other large-scale exhibitions.He introduced “Deutscher Werkbund—100 Years of Architecture and Design in Germany”, ”New Olds—Design between Tradition and Innovation”, “Art Space—Germany” and many other important exhibitions to China.He has also planned and curated many exhibitions and events in South Korea, France, the United Kingdom, and other countries.
当前展览：《断片》当代艺术的失语与失忆展览时间：2020.11.11 -
开放时间：周二至周日 10:00 - 18:00 (17:00 停止入场)
票价：60 元Exhibition on view: Black Out | The Aphasia and Amnesia of Contemporary ArtDates: Nov. 11, 2020 -Open Hours: Tues - Sun, 10 am - 6 pm (Stop entry at 5 pm)Tickets: 60 RMB
回顾 | SHM上海喜玛拉雅美术馆
樱花路869号3F/4F
(请乘坐喜玛拉雅美术馆中心A5/A6电梯)
每周二至周日 10:00-18:00 开放
Open: Tues-Sun 10 am-6 pm
17:00停止入场 Stop entry at 5 pm
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Web：himalayasmuseum.org
Email: info@himalayasmuseum.org
Tel: 021-50339801