LINSEED 艺术家 | 王雪冰 Kiki Xuebing Wang
王雪冰1993年生于中国郑州，本科毕业于洛杉矶加州大学（University of California, Los Angeles），并于英国皇家艺术学院（Royal College of Art）获艺术硕士学位，目前生活与工作在伦敦。在其个人经历的辗转变迁中，周遭环境的流动令其往往以新奇的角度观察并接近现代消费主义。她的绘画作品常以时装、首饰、皮包、手表等奢侈品作为切入点，物体本身的尺寸、位置和自身价值被重置、模糊、边缘化，画面中失衡或荒谬的比例令这些物件显得庞大，细碎或氤氲；备受追捧的珠光宝气从聚光灯下被移开，从巨幅商业广告中被剥离，艺术家以此探索庸常之物被赋予价值的过程，虚构与真实在王雪冰的绘画中互相暗示交合。
艺术家近期个展包括：A Robin Red Breast In a Cage，Puts All Heaven In a Rage，2021，PM/AM Gallery，伦敦；绿光与蝎，2020，LINSEED Projects，上海；近期主要群展包括：隔岸观火，2021，LINSEED Projects，上海；Reality Check，2021，Guts Gallery，伦敦；John Moores Painting Prize 2020，2021，National Museum Liverpool，Walker Art Gallery，利物浦；Still @Live，2021，MAPA Gallery，伦敦；Barbican Arts Group Trust open，2019，伦敦；Sympathetic Magic，2019，Zona Mista，伦敦。王雪冰于 2020年获英国约翰·莫尔绘画奖（John Moores Painting Prize 2020）首届新兴艺术家奖（Emerging Artist Prize）；作为约翰·莫尔绘画奖首位华人获得者，她于同年再次获得约翰·莫尔观众臻选奖（Visitors’ Choice）。
观看王雪冰的画，是一个对所见之物不断重访的过程，也是观者记忆深处情感层次逐渐被打开的过程。她画作中的形象不是亦步亦趋围绕造型逻辑展开的固化再现，而是附着于理性观察之上无数出神时刻的感性集合，使我们不断跟随她的视线，重回视觉预判的现场。
从最初对日常物品的关注，到尝试走向更大自由度的想象式重构。正如美国艺术家艾米·西尔曼（Amy Sillman）曾经带给王雪冰对色彩语言个性方面的思考那样，绘画作为她把握客观世界，反观自我的认知中介，渐渐展现出越来越多自由生长的可能性。当所绘对象的复杂程度加深，画面尺幅进一步扩展，她将虚构与非虚构的边界向遥远的未知处又推远了一步。在她近期的新作中，想象力的所在是主体形象在非常规的光影流动中消解又重组的过程，装饰性线条和色粉的加入，使画面效果具有插画般的视觉多元性。无论是对可辨身体轮廓的描绘，还是将层叠的衣物褶皱推向如建筑般的形式美感，都暗示出她正向更为成熟的绘画语言迈进。
Vivienne Westwood 1995 collection
文/张莹 Ellie
《4 SOLOS》
Q&A
Q1. 你的作品常笼罩着一种梦幻的氛围，可以介绍下你的具体画法么？
A. 我作画时其实不会预先去设定某种效果，或者某个主题，让自己为了完成而完成，我会先从感受入手，每一幅画都是围绕构图、颜色和笔触展开的探索。不同于传统绘画通过单一光源的塑造，突出画面主体的视觉可信度，我希望画出一种散射式的透光感，光源从画面背后透出来的感觉，我会用薄而透的油彩一遍一遍的画，叠加出透光的效果，光线就像在流动，主体物的形象在我画的过程中也逐渐脱离了写实的形态。
我很喜欢六七十年代的意大利恐怖片，创作中也会不自觉受到电影中那种略带诡异气质的美术风格的影响，比如会用类似的色彩烘托出一种情绪，质疑那些我所画的日常物品的真实性。
Q2. 有哪些难忘的艺术家或者书，对你绘画风格的形成有过影响？
A. 塞尚的风景画，对我影响很大。尤其是他作品所体现出的格式塔“完形”结构，比如真实的苹果并没有边缘线，那如何处理物体边缘的形体关系？我通过塞尚的作品理解到用光影和形状塑造事物的方法。另外还有立体主义解构对象的方式，在大家看来一件很普通的衣服，我会把它当作风景来画，用绘画的语言去讲述它的个性和结构，就像衣服是另一种形式的建筑一样，一件衣服在画家的眼中，值得深究的视觉元素是非常多的。然后，对“色彩”的理解方面，艺术家艾米·西尔曼的作品给了我很多启发，她每一笔用色都赋予了颜料极大的表现力，我会尝试调配不同质感的油彩，找到像她那样熟练掌握色彩的自由感觉。
近几年有本德国艺评人伊莎贝尔‧葛劳 (Isabelle Graw)写的书“The Love of Painting：Genealogy of a Success Medium”令人印象深刻，从这本书里可以看到Édouard Manet, Jutta Koether, Martin Kippenberger, Jana Euler和Marcel Broodthaers等艺术家对绘画的不同认识，而且伊莎贝尔也提炼出绘画从传统作画方式至今，不受物质载体所局限的魅力所在。
Q3. 这次在西岸艺博会期间展出的新作有哪些亮点？未来在绘画创作上会做哪些新的尝试？
这次的四幅新作中，我对所绘对象加入了更多想象的成分，而且尝试运用不同的线条、笔触和用色增加视觉效果的丰富度。比如“Cherry”这幅作品里，可以清晰看到从短笔触到中笔触的混用；“Running days”和“Fly me to the moon”中让具有装饰性意味的线条激活层叠的色域；“Beyond the sea”里的色粉也进一步拉开了视觉层次。目前四幅新作最大为160 x 130cm，未来我会挑战更大的画作尺寸，更大的画面空间意味着不得不增加画面主体的数量和复杂程度，是对自己绘画能力的持续激发和探索。
Wang is currently living and working in London. Her recent solo exhibitions include: A Robin Red Breast In a Cage, Puts All Heaven In a Rage, 2021, PM/AM Gallery, London; The Green Ray and The Scorpions, 2020, Linseed Project, Shanghai; and her selected group exhibitions include: Watch the Fire from the Shore, Linseed Project, 2021, Shanghai; Reality Check, Guts Gallery, 2021, London; John Moores Painting Prize, National Museum Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, 2021, Liverpool; Still @Live, MAPA Gallery, 2021, London; Barbican Arts Group Trust open, 2019, London; Sympathetic Magic, Zona Mista, 2019, London. And her works have been awarded by Visitor Choice Prize, John Moores Painting Prize, 2020 and Emerging Artist Prize, John Moores Painting Prize, 2020.
王雪冰 Kiki Xuebing Wang
威尼斯咖啡馆 二 Cafe Venice II, 2021
棉布面油画 Oil on calico
81.4 x 66 cm
Paintings of Wang Xuebing lead the viewers to a process of constantly revisiting what they have seen, as well as a process of opening up emotionally from the recesses of their memories. The images in her paintings aren’t rigid reproductions relying on logics of modelling, but a sensual collection based on rational observation, a collection of innumerable trance states, which prompts us to follow her back to the scene of visual anticipation.
From a focus on everyday objects initially, Wang Xuebing has come to an attempt at imaginative reconstructions toward greater freedom. As the American artist Amy Sillman once enlightened Xuebing on the semantic characteristics of colours, more and more possibilities have been opened up to her painting practice, which serves as a medium for her to take a hold on the external world and also to reflect on herself. With the complexity of her subjects increasing and the dimension of her works enlarging, the artist pushes the boundaries of fiction and nonfiction further into the unknown. What lies creatively within her recent work is the process where the main image is dissolved then reconstituted in an unconventional flow of light and shade, while the decorative lines and soft pastel produce diverse visual effects much like an illustration. The depiction of recognizable body shapes and the architectural form of beauty originated from wrinkles of clothing, indicating that she is moving toward another level with a more developed vocabulary of painting.
Q1. Your work is often enveloped in a dreamlike atmosphere. Could you please introduce us to your specific painting method?
A. I usually don’t preset an atmosphere or a theme when I work in order to avoid the urge to finish. I start with a feeling and, in each of my paintings, I explore the composition, colours and strokes. Traditional techniques would suggest using a single light source to highlight the liveliness of a subject, but I wanted to create a sense of light that is scattered as if the light comes from the back of the painting; to produce this particular effect, I would paint over and over again with thin and clear oil, till the light seems to flow, and the subject gradually breaks loose from its realistic form.
Katsuhiro Yamaguchi, Voice, 1962
Q2. Are there any memorable artists or books that may have influenced your style of painting?
Balenciago 2004 RTW
A. In the four new paintings, I added more imagination to the objects I’d chosen and tried to use different lines, strokes and colours to enrich visual effects. As in Cherry, a mixture of short and medium-length strokes can be clearly seen; Running Days and Fly Me to the Moon have decorative lines that activate the layered colour fields; the use of toner in Beyond the Sea further expands the visual hierarchy. For now, the dimensions of those four new paintings are up to 160 x 130cm. In the future, I will challenge myself with a larger size. Larger space on canvas means that I have to increase the quantity and complexity of my subjects, which would be a constant inspiration and exploration for me and my practice.
《4 SOLOS》