Opening Reception: May 16, 2009, 3-5pm

May 17th, 2009 - June 16th, 2009
ShanghART at 796 Huaihailu
796 Huaihai Rd. Middle, Shanghai
Opening Hours: 10am-7pm


ShanghART Gallery is pleased to present To Review is to Learn Something New, a solo exhibition with Xue Song.

 

The exhibition features compelling new works (2007-2009) created in Xue Songs signature style, the carefully assembled collages. His canvases with bright colorful and clean compositions, of everything from famous actresses’ portraits to well-known Chinese landscapes, appear to be based on mediated images. However, not always realist as such, Xue Song’s work is a response to reality and to the images that capture the artist. He freely adapts various visual languages, such as old photographs and fragments of manuscripts, and employs the most suitable for every picture.

 

Xue Song’s distinctive collages represent the many different aspects of Chinese culture; he incorporates traditional Chinese paintings, ancient calligraphy, folk art, religious icons, legendary figures and historical photographs, effectively erasing categorical imperatives. His methodology is one of appropriation, manipulation and subversion in order to create a subjective universe that manifests his personal memories.  Referring to the title of the exhibition, these images evoke many questions about the past, but like all significant art works they offer new discoveries upon repeat viewing.

 

Xue Song, belonging to the generation of artists who grew up in the crucial years of the Cultural Revolution, appropriates the imagery of pop without falling into the cliché of repeating foreign patterns. In his collages he adapts that imagery to a personal style populated with characters and objects that speak loudly of China. Xue Song manages in this series to tune renowned icons of history and mythology into the present drama of life.

 

 

To Review is to Learn Something New: 05.16, 2009