图像来自 image：十二块顽石 Twelve Rocks，2020，布面油画 oil on canvas，30.2×20 cm，31.7×21.5 cm, framed
空白空间高兴地宣布，张弓于空白空间的首次个展《到来》将在2022年3月12日开幕并持续至5月4日，展出艺术家于2020年以来创作的26幅布面油画及纸上综合材料绘画作品。与艺术家以往直接触及流行文化、城市发展、社会图景等题材的绘画不同，本次展览以艺术家近年来个人对宗教史经典文本的研读与体悟为主要创作线索。展览题目“到来”来源于基督教中的重要节日“将临期”（Advent），以此提示出作品所触及的题材、内容、绘画本体及精神性。展览中的绝大部分作品的长边在五十公分以内，堪称小巧。观众也因此势必需要走近这些绘画，与之建立起更为亲密的观看和阅读关系；而当观众近距离地面对着这些绘画，难免不被小小的方寸间所容纳的极为丰富的内容与细节所触动。
来了 3 Advent 3，2020，布面油画，铅笔，油画棒 oil, pencil and oil pastel on canvas，42.2×37.1 cm，43.6×38.5 cm, framed
画面中的主体仍是艺术家于长期绘画与动画创作中塑造的充满想象力的卡通造型。画面中的人物或动物时常瞪大着双眼，震惊的神情与憨态可掬的身姿让人忍俊不禁。艺术家虽然借用了动画、漫画等样式中以硬边勾勒造型的方式，但厚重、细致且富于变化的点状、线条与色彩，使得原本接近“扁平化”的画面中生发出如浮雕般立体的形象、光影与物质感。由此，绘画传神地表现出七天使吹响号角预示灾难来临、诺亚方舟承载着万物生灵逃离劫难等具体文本叙事中的惊险时刻，而悲哀、哭号、疼痛、挣扎、平静等复杂的情绪与原本可爱的形象形成了强烈的反差，更加强了毁天灭地的神与魔、无力地等待审判的凡众共同构造的戏剧性张力。
来了 1 Advent 1，2020，布面油画 oil on canvas，45.6×65.5 cm，47×67 cm, framed
而在不同的画作中，尽管画面上具体的形象乃是凝固的，但艺术家采用了不同的“策略”来捕获方舟、使徒、骑士、天使、恶魔们“到来”的动态瞬间及其改变世间的力量：清晰且连续的油画笔触形塑出波涛的翻涌，刮刀在天空刻入的痕迹暗示着此时海风的凛冽，诺亚方舟拯救的成双成对的动物们在劫后余生中仍惊魂未定(《方舟 1》)；背景中分区域横向涂抹的大面积色彩，与以撒旦为中心四散开来、肆意游走的铅笔线条，描绘出这位恶魔奔涌并挥动肢体造成巨大破坏时留下的残影或印记(《来了 2》)；而马匹夸张抬起的四肢，绵延而细长的云朵，乃至地面上纷纷倾倒的众生，都提示出象征着饥荒的黑马骑士飞驰向前时不容置疑的强大气势(《来了 1》)。
方舟 1 The Ark 1，2021，布面油画 oil on canvas，20×20 cm，21.5×21.5 cm, framed
这些绘画虽不似画家过往作品中直接应对具体的社会情境或现实的题材，但通过对上述颇具寓言性质的经典母题与主题进行持续的个人式转译再造，提示着艺术家于当下希望与失望并存的时刻中内省的精神向度，以及对新天新地终将到来的信念与心境。
伊甸园 1 The Garden of Eden 1，2021，布面油画 oil on canvas，37 x 45.9cm ，38.5×47.2 cm, framed
张弓于1959年出生于北京，曾任清华大学美术学院信息艺术设计系教授，工作、生活于北京。自1993年毕业于中央工艺美术学院图形想象专业后，张弓创立了扎根于超现实主义和流行文化的独特绘画风格。他的作品从美国和日本的动画人物造型及都市环境中汲取灵感，并兼具动画和摄影等媒介。张弓的作品在世界各地展出，近期的个展包括：启示录，金杜艺术中心，北京，中国（2020）；无名无界——张弓绘画展，季丰轩画廊，香港，中国（2019）。参加群展包括：《形式和效果：浮世绘到动漫》，克雷斯吉基金会画廊，拉玛珀学院，玛华，美国新泽西（2017）；《移花接木——中国当代艺术中的后现代方式展览》，华·美术馆，深圳（2008）；《虚拟的爱》，新加坡美术馆，新加坡；外滩18号创意中心，上海；上海当代艺术馆，上海（2006）。他的动画作品出现在众多国际电影节上，如魁北克电影资料馆，蒙特利尔，加拿大；布鲁塞尔动画电影节，比利时；伦敦国际动画电影节和无边界电影节，罗马。张弓的动画短片《树》（2003）亦先后获得中国北京电影学院动画学院第3届动画“学院奖”，法国里昂第10届亚洲电影及文化电影节优秀电影短片奖（2004）及第3届中国视协动画短片奖“优秀二维动画艺术短片奖”（2004）。
我的灵 My Soul，2020，布面油画 oil on canvas，75.1×60.1 cm，76.6×61.6 cm, framedWHITE SPACE is pleased to announce the opening of Zhang Gong's first solo exhibition at WHITE SPACE, Advent, on March 12. The show continues until May 4, 2022, featuring twenty-six oil on canvas and mixed media on paper the artist created since 2020.
Unlike the artist's previous paintings that directly touch on subjects such as pop culture, urban development, and social scenes, the exhibition is based on the artist's study and understanding of the canonical texts of religious history in recent years. The exhibition's title is derived from the important Christian festival of Advent, indicating the subject matter, the content, the painterly essence, and the works' spirituality. The majority of the pieces in the exhibition are relatively small, measuring less than 50 centimeters in length. As a result, the audience must get closer to view and read the paintings, forming a more intimate relationship of reception with them; and when confronted with these paintings up close, the audience is inevitably touched by the richness of content and detail contained in their small size.
来了 7 Advent 7，2021，布面油画，铅笔，油画棒 oil, pencil and oil pastel on canvas，45.5×65.5 cm，47×67 cm, framedThe subjects of the paintings remain to be imaginative cartoon characters created by the artist during his many years of painting and animation practice. The human or animal characters in the images are often wide-eyed, with expressions of astonishment and adorkable postures that amuse the audience. Although the artist borrows the style of animation and comics in which the shapes are outlined with well-defined hard strokes, the thick, detailed, and varied dots, lines, and colored patterns render the nearly "flat" image somewhat three-dimensional, characterized by its relief-sculpture-like imagery, light and shade, and materiality. As a result, the paintings elegantly represent the thrilling moments in the specific textual narratives, such as the seven angels blowing the trumpet to herald the coming disaster and Noah's Ark carrying all living creatures to escape the calamity. Meanwhile, the complex emotions, including sorrow, wailing, pain, struggle, and calmness, form a strong contrast with the supposedly lovable characters, strengthening the dramatic tension jointly constructed by the gods and demons who destroy the world and the mortals who are powerlessly waiting for judgment.
我的灵 1 My Soul 1，2020，布面油画 oil on canvas，40.2×60.2 cm，41.5×61.5 cm, framed
In terms of the different paintings, although the specific characters are solidified in every image, the artist uses different "strategies" to capture the dynamic moments of the "advent" of the Ark, the apostles, the knights, the angles, the demons, and their world-changing power: the precise and continuous oil paint strokes shape the churning of the waves, the marks of the scraper carved into the sky insinuate the brisk sea breeze at the moment, the animals, in pairs, rescued by Noah's Ark are still in a state of shock in the aftermath of the disaster (Ark 1); the large color patterns applied horizontally in separated blocks of the background, and the pencil lines scattered and wandering around the figure of Satan in the center, depict the shadows or traces of the tremendous destruction as the demon gushes and wields his limbs to wreak havoc (Advent 2); the exaggeratedly raised limbs of the horse, the stretched and vimineous clouds, and even the collapsing beings on earth, all suggest the irrebuttable power of the knight on the black horse, a symbol of famine, as he gallops forward (Advent 1).
Although these paintings do not directly respond to specific social situations or realities like the artist's previous works do, through reinterpretations of the above-mentioned classical subjects, which are somewhat allegorical, they suggest the artist's introspective spirituality in the present moment: a combination of hope and despair; a belief and state of mind that new heaven and new earth will eventually come.
我的灵 3 My Soul 3，2020，布面油画 oil on canvas，30×20.3 cm，31.5×21.8 cm, framed
Zhang Gong was born in Beijing in 1959. He was a professor in the Department of Information Art and Design at the Academy of Fine Arts, Tsinghua University, and lives and works in Beijing. After graduating from the Central Academy of Arts and Design in 1993, he started to develop his distinctive painting style rooted in surrealism and pop culture. Drawing inspiration from a panoply of American and Japanese cartoons and the environments of urban spaces, Zhang works with mediums such as animation and photography. Zhang has exhibited worldwide, his recent solo exhibition include Revelations, KWM Art Center, Beijing, China (2020); Beyond Description, Beyond Boundary - Paintings of Zhang Gong, Kwai Fung Hin Art Gallery, Hong Kong, China (2019). His works have been shown in Forms and Effects: Ukiyo-e to Anime, Kresge Foundation Gallery, Ramapo College, Mahwah, NJ (2017); Hypallage - The Post-Modern Mode of Chinese Contemporary Art, The OCT Contemporary Art Center, Shenzhen, China (2008), FICTION LOVE, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore; Bund 18 Creative Center, Shanghai, China; MOCA Shanghai, Shanghai, China (2006). His animation films have been featured at international festivals such as Cinémathèque Québécoise, Montreal, Canada; Brussels Animation Films Festival, Brussels, Belgium; London International Animation Festival, London, UK; and Without Borders Film Festival, Rome, Italy. He has been awarded for his animated short film Trees (2003) at: 3rd Animation Academy Awards, Animation School of Beijing Film Academy, Beijing, China (2003); 10th Asian Film and Culture Festival, Lyon, France (2004) and 3rd CTVA Academy Awards, China (2004).
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