AIKE | 奶粉zhou个展“咸鱼”

LA VIE物质生活和AIKE联合呈现艺术家奶粉zhou个展“咸鱼”，展出其近年来的绘画及动画创作。此次展览作为LA VIE物质生活在G&G创意社区的内测首展，展期从2021年6月6日持续至7月28日。

展览标题“咸鱼”原指靠海为生的居民为延长食用保质期以盐腌渍后晒干的鱼类食物，因其在广东地区的普遍性而构成了世代广东人的集体记忆。“咸鱼”一词更是成为俚语，深植于粤语语言文化之中，常指涉那些与“大雅之堂”对立的朴素、散漫、停滞，甚至无望的生存境况。遍及大江南北的短语“咸鱼翻身”，就来源于粤语中的“咸鱼返生”。

布展现场

奶粉zhou以“咸鱼”这一符号概括其一贯以来的创作母题：高雅艺术和通俗文化的分野、街头涂鸦与新表现主义的边界、跨文化之间的语言转译游戏，以及对既定美学认知的挑衅。他常年在远离市区的工作室中创作，定期进城喝酒见朋友——这一“闲散”的，在艺术家口中如咸鱼般的生活姿态为作品注入了俏皮和纯粹，力图营造一种强烈的日记风格。值得注意的是，奶粉zhou的绘画创作同时承袭着国际流行文化中快速、直接、真诚的极端态度，将对消费主义的膜拜和批判，对音乐和艺术界个人英雄的神化转化为记录和反映发生在中国当下大都市中年轻人的生活轨迹和记忆碎片。

袋子先生 Mr. Bag

单通道彩色有声高清动画 Single-channel HD video, colour, sound

00'59"

2021

此次展览集中呈现奶粉zhou创作的极具代表性的绘画作品，并展出了其今年首次发表的动画创作。他因自己的英文名“Nathan”发音酷似粤语中的“奶粉”而得名奶粉zhou，并从这一看似随机的选择中拓展出一套系统性的个人视觉标签，如奶粉，奶嘴，奶力等。作品《奶粉侦探社》《奶力（缪缪）》都是将前卫文化嫁接至这一视觉语言的延续。从《黑星》《音乐的话大概可以》《谢幕演出》中，观众可以看到对音乐表演者的反复描摹以及对音乐歌 词作为文化符号的挪用。重复和谐音也是奶粉zhou惯常的创作手法，在《成功学04》中，三个“suckassful”（与“successful”同音）被并置在画面的显眼位置，隐藏于戏谑中的对社会进步论的警惕态度可见一斑。

奶粉zhou展厅窗绘

LA VIE物质生活，一个6000平米的艺术设计与生活方式融合的复合型艺文空间。以伴随深圳20年成⻓的独立书店物质生活书吧为精神原点，从根植蛇口人文社区土壤的G&G创意社区再出发。由著名设计师琚宾操刀，以人文空间的先锋实践代言深圳城市精神。艺术家将在凝聚工业时代记忆的展览空间内，以充满视觉冲击力的节奏感，融合艺术和日常，邀请观众一同体会“蛇口特色”的“咸⻥”风味。

---

LA VIE and AIKE jointly present artist Nathan Zhou’s solo exhibition “Purity, is the Most Beautiful”, featuring his recent paintings and animation creations. It is the internal test premiere taking place at LA VIE and will run from June 5th to July 28th, 2021.

The Chinese title of the exhibition “xián yú”, literally translated as “salted fish”, refers to fish seasoned with salt and dried in the sun for better food preservation. Due to its prevalence in the coastal Guangdong province, salted fish has constituted a collective memory of Cantonese people. It has also developed as a slang term deeply rooted in Lingnan culture, often suggesting a mundane, undisciplined, stagnant, and sometimes hopeless living condition, as opposed to “refined taste”. The commonly used phrase “salted fish turning over” is originally derived from the Cantonese phrase “salted fish returning to life”. 

Nathan Zhou uses the implicit symbol of salted fish to summarize his consistent creative motifs: the distinction between High Art and Low Art, the boundary between street graffiti and Neo-Expressionism, the use of wordplay in varied cultural contexts, and the provocation to inherent aesthetic perceptions. He works year-round in his studio far from downtown Shanghai, and regularly travels to the city to drink and meet friends—an “idle”, or in the artist's words, a salty fish-like lifestyle infuses the work with whimsy and purity, seeking to create a strong diary style. It is worth noting that Nathan Zhou’s work also inherits the fast, direct and sincere extremes within European and American pop culture, transforming the worship and criticism of Consumerism and the deification of his personal heroes in the music and art worlds into a reflection of life trajectories and memory fragments of young people in China's contemporary metropolis. 

展览现场图

The exhibition focuses on representative paintings created by Nathan Zhou in recent years, and also exhibits the artist’s first attempt at animation lately. He was named “Milk Powder Zhou” after his English name “Nathan”, which is pronounced like the Cantonese word for “milk powder”; and from this seemingly random choice, he discovered a systematic set of personal visual labels, such as milk powder, pacifier, and milk power. NN Detective Agency and Milk Power (miu miu) are both a continuation of the pop culture elements grafted onto this visual language. From Black Star, May Music Do The Job and Finale, the audience can see the repeated portrayal of music performers and the appropriation of musical lyrics as cultural symbols. Repetition and homophones are also the creative techniques that Nathan Zhou uses often. In Successful 04, three “suckassful” (homonymous with “successful”) are juxtaposed in a prominent position in the picture, which allows the viewers to take a glimpse of the artist’s cautionary attitude towards Social Progressivism hidden in the work’s playfulness. 

奶粉zhou与孩子们现场共同创作

LA VIE is a compound artistic and cultural exhibition space covering an area of 6,000 square meters and it combines literature with urban lifestyle. Its spirit originates from LA VIE MOOK which is an independent bookstore with a history of 20 years in Shenzhen. Inspired by the Shekou-based G&G Creative Community and structured by the famous designer Ju Bin, it represents the Shenzhen city spirit by its pioneering practices of humanity space. The artist blends art and daily life with a sense of rhythm full of visual stimulus, inviting the audience to experience the local flavor of “Purity, is the Most Beautiful”.

关于艺术家

ABOUT THE ARTIST

向上滑动阅览

奶粉zhou，1980年出生于广东东莞，2004年毕业于贵州大学英语与英国文学系。现生活工作于上海。

奶粉zhou以本人经历为创作基础，而通过充满直觉性的绘画语言表达现实场景与幻想交织的个人世界。对于涂鸦与拼贴手法的运用使他的作品呈现一种强烈的日记化风格。快速流动的主题下，图像、日历、言语以俏皮的方式重新组合，形成了充满即兴感的张力，反复出现犹如爵士乐的切分音，在不同作品中相汇。

奶粉zhou的作品曾在南京四方当代美术馆，广州chi K11艺术空间，上海chi K11美术馆，上海当代艺术博物馆，北京中央美术学院美术馆，上海MoCA，上海喜马拉雅美术馆及SNAP艺术中心等机构展出。他的近期个展包括“奶粉之路：游走，呼吸，就足够“，广州chi K11艺术空间，广州，中国，2019；“走地狗“，AIKE，上海，中国，2018；“星火闲赢——美丽新世界 1984”，Paper Wonder，厦门，中国，2018；“幽灵狗——平沙落雁”，Tabula Rasa画廊，北京，中国，2017；“亨利·痴奶斯基短篇⼩说集”，艾可，上海，中国，2016；“Jericho（耶利哥城）”，上海V空间，上海，中国，2016；

Nathan Zhou, born in 1980 in Dongguan, Guangzhou.  He graduated from Guizhou University in English Language and Literature in 2004.  He currently lives and works in Shanghai.

The artistic practice of Nathan Zhou is based on depicting individual world, where the reality and illusion interweave, through intuitive and brimming painting language.  Using graffiti and collage as primary technique he infuses his works with the strong look of a personal diray.  Deciduous topics, captivating image, narrative chronicle and artist's unique language are united as a method, creating fulfilling and inspiring tension, that echoes in different works by the artist, analogous to repeated syncopation in Jazz music.  

Nathan Zhou's work have been exhibited at Nanjing Sifang Art Museum, Guangzhou chi K11 Art Space, Shanghai chi K11 Art Museum, Shanghai Power Station of Art, Beijing Central Academy of Fine Arts, Shanghai MoCA, Shanghai Himalayas Museum and SNAP. 

His selected solo exhibitions include 'Nathan Zhou: Just Hang Out, Breathe, Till I Die', chi K11 art space, Guangzhou, China, 2019;  'STREET DOG', AIKE, Shanghai, 2018;  'Star Fires, Players Win-The Beautiful New World 1984', Paper Wonder, Xiamen, 2018;  'Ghost Dog: The Way of The Lofi King', Tabula Rasa gallery, Beijing, 2017;  'Henri Chinaski's Short Stories Collection', AIKE, Shanghai, 2016; 'Jericho', Shanghai V Space, Shanghai, 2016.

---

奶粉zhou | 咸鱼 PURITY, IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL

展期Date | 2021.6.6 - 7.28

时间Time | 每周二(Tue)至周五(Fri)，09:00 - 18:00；周六(Sat)、周日(Sun)，11:00 - 20:00

LA VIE 物质生活 G&G创意社区

地址Address | 深圳市蛇口区荔园路9号

No.9, Liyuan Rd, Shekou District, Shenzhen, China