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The artist, Zhao Dewei was born in Shanghai, China, in 1960, and is now living in Songzhuang of Beijing. Early in the “85” Period, Zhao has shocked and surprised the city of Qingdao, where many people hardly know what “contemporary art ” is, by his daring and bright work schema as well as his radical and avant-garde performances. Meanwhile, he has not only influenced and inspired a group of hot-blooded younglings who have the attention to explore and practice the contemporary art, but also promoted the progress of the contemporary art of this city. |
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3+3 Space – Exhibition Director Man Kaihui
The artist, Zhao Dewei was born in Shanghai, China, in 1960, and is now living in Songzhuang of Beijing. Early in the “85” Period, Zhao has shocked and surprised the city of Qingdao, where many people hardly know what “contemporary art ” is, by his daring and bright work schema as well as his radical and avant-garde performances. Meanwhile, he has not only influenced and inspired a group of hot-blooded younglings who have the attention to explore and practice the contemporary art, but also promoted the progress of the contemporary art of this city.
The famous Chinese critic Yi Ying said that, “we can see from the latest oil paintings of Zhao that he focuses on the being of things, and in his opinion, it’s a psychic process to look through the flaunty appearance in order to explore the root of things. Although the root cannot be proved, the works by the artist under this concept should be the entity of the root. At least, this is the aim of the artist. Through a long period of experiment and searching, Zhao had purified his works and finally found the ultimate form of work. But this ultimate doesn’t mean that paintings are totally a form or an intermedium as what is said in minimalism. And to Zhao, it is the root of life, the moral of existence. In one series of his works, against the gray background, there is only one or twoblack or white lines, and they are finished in an action, therefore they are unstable, ambulatory, bouncing and it is created by the artist without any fixed idea of the form beforehand. Just like what Pollock said, a form has its life and it will show itself in the activity.”
As a matter of fact, wood engraving print is now an art form known by few people both at home and abroad. Yang Hongwei is a young artist who has deeply explored this field. Through natural and magnificent knife skills, he creates a visual experience in such a small space, and makes his state of mind which can’t be explained in words, flow naturally through the knife tip. At present, we are not able to distinguish whether it is the knife skill that has created the scene, or the scene that has created the knife skill. Knife skill has become a manifestation or actuation of an egregious and transcendental condition, or the inner driving force? The beauty resulting from his special charm of wood engraving absolutely inspires people. He is good at unruly and tensive artistry of wielding the knife. The interleaving lines form a three-dimensional effect with the complicated but regular trace of his knife. To appreciate such kinds of wood engraving is an experience to enjoy freedom or we can say it enables the vision to become intuition.
