Upcoming Exhibition ｜ The Texture of Expression

2022 · Summer Exhibition

The Texture of Expression

Artists: Ou Ming, Wang Zhiyuan, Yin Changzhi, Yang Guangnan, Yao Hai, Miranda Fengyuan Zhang

Exhibition Dates: July 5th to October 23rd, 2022

Address: Xixian Fengdong Cultural Center, Feng River East Road, Xi’an

The question “what is art?” has long been asked and explored by successive generations of artists. So, when artists ask “what is art?”, what really interests them are new forms and practices that have not yet been fully explored. They seek other possibilities that they can draw upon to expand and enrich what we think of when we think about what art is. Here, six artists, Ou Ming, Wang Zhiyuan, Yin Changzhi, Yang Guangnan, Yao Hai and Miranda Fengyuan Zhang, show how, using simple materials in unusual ways, can achieve new perspectives on sculptural form and the composition of a picture or image. 

Aesch No.3

64x40x40cm, ceramics, plaster, color paste, 2020

©Ou Ming

A Whisper that Screams 

200x200cm, acrylic, charcoal, spray paint on canvas, 2020

©Wang Zhiyuan

Ou Ming has been working solely with the medium of plaster to create sculptural forms that come as close as possible to capturing a sense of the essence of life. He describes his works as sculpture that breathe. 

Wang Zhiyuan's works are forged through a direct interaction between the artist and the material. Between the tool and the body, he finds means to evolve his language process in general, and to develop each work individually. 

Yin Changzhi takes the conventions of painting, from the surface plane and the pictorial space to the frame, each of which are disrupted, or “broken” in order to construct compositions as his means of rethinking painting practice. The artworks he creates exist between painting and bas relief sculpture. 

Uncertain Background

110x80cm, acrylic on canvas, 2018

©Yin Changzhi

Window_Sky of Monet's Garden 202110 (detail)

119x119x5cm, resin, oil based pigments, wood, acrylic, 2021

©Yang Guangnan

Yang Guangnan’s art is structural, and built upon disparity. Her process reflects how the process of making art according to a purposeful questioning of its basic functions gives renewed understanding of art and life. 

Yao Hai uses a variety of methods such as poured pigment, collage and sewing to achieve sculptural forms. These material languages intersect in his ongoing creations, opening up more dimensions of visual experience in space, colour and form. 

Miranda Fengyuan Zhang’s textile works thread together evocative shapes and colours that project a labyrinth of feelings, memories, and imagining. The innate softness-meets-tensile strength of the works conjures simple yet powerful feelings of individual life and its complex relationships, of human connections and moods.

2022 - Free #1 (side front/ back side)

117.5x83cm, paper, acrylic, cord, 2021

©Yao Hai

A Night in the Desert

152.5x107cm, wool on wood, 2020

©Miranda Fengyuan Zhang, courtesy the artist and Capsule Shanghai

Art was ever an arrangement of colour, texture and shapes, in combinations conceived to approximate a sense of space, of form, and of light, natural, real or imagined. In "The Texture of Expression", raw materials are both the substance of the physical artworks as well as the essence of their content. Here, materials are used to achieve structures that are every bit as intriguing as conventional modes of painting or sculpting forms. At times, these might seem more direct for they produce an unusual, surprisingly emotional effect, which is exactly that which art touches within us.

The exhibition runs from 

July 5th to October 23rd, 2022

Stay tuned !

About the Artists

Ou Ming was born in Hubei in 1983, he graduated from Sculpture Department of Central Academy of Fine Arts with MFA in 2013. Now works and lives in Shanghai.

Wang Zhiyuan graduated from China Academy of Art with BFA in 2013, and San Francisco Art Institute with MFA in 2015.

Yin Changzhi was born in Dongzhi, Anhui in 1984, he graduated from Fine Art Institute of AnHui Normal University with BFA in 2005, and China Academy of Art with MFA in 2009. Now works and lives in Wuhu, Anhui.

Yang Guangnan was born in Hebei in 1980, she graduated from Sculpture Department of the China Academy of Artwith BFA in 2006, and Sculpture Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts with MFA in 2009. Now works and lives in Beijing.

Yao Hai was born in Zhangye, Gansu in 1980, he moved to Hong Kong and New York in 2009 and 2014 respectively, now works and lives in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Miranda Fengyuan Zhang was born in Shanghai in 1993. In 2016, she graduated from New York University with a BFA in Studio Art. Lives and works in New York, USA.

About OCAT Xi'an

Launched in November 2013, OCAT Xi'an is the fourth site for OCAT Museums, which began with OCAT Shenzhen in 2005. OCAT Xi'an is devoted to contemporary art: its mission is to draw upon local and international resources to promote Chinese contemporary art to an international standard as well as to support a range of cultural exchange programs in Xi'an. Our focus is contemporary, exploring artistic innovations that extend backwards and forwards in time and, geographically, west to embrace cultures along ancient routes that, like China today, are home to over evolving forms of artistic expression. It is said that in ancient Xi'an east met west. OCAT Xi'an continues that convergence through the contemporary practices of artists at the forefront of the era.

Address: Xixian Fengdong Cultural Center，Feng River East Road, Xi'an

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