Jiang Pengyi: Birds Bring Forth the Sun

中文

Jiang Pengyi: Birds Bring Forth the Sun
Solo Exhibition ShanghART, Shanghai

Date: 03.13, 2021 - 05.13, 2021

Artists: JIANG Pengyi 蒋鹏奕

Opening: 4 pm, 13 Mar. 2021
Duration: 13 Mar. 2021 - 25 Apr. 2021 (the exhibition will extend to 13 May)(11am-6pm, Mon. Closed)
Location: ShanghART Gallery, West Bund, Bldg.10, 2555 Longteng Avenue, Xuhui District, Shanghai, China

ShanghART Gallery is pleased to announce that Jiang Pengyi’s solo exhibition “Birds Bring Forth the Sun” opens on 13th March and will run through 25th April at the gallery’s Westbund space. The exhibition consists of two parts: the large-format color series “Sun! Sun! ” and the black and white series “Gravel Fathoms the Sea”.

“Birds Bring Forth the Sun” is one of the most fairytale phrases in the short story As Birds Bring Forth the Sun by Canadian novelist Alistair MacLeod. Similar to the plot development of this story, the implicit narrative of the exhibition is also full of invisible and irresistible forces, and a mournful but real historical context like an elegy. In “Sun! Sun! ”, Jiang continues his experimental exploration on impromptu photography practice, as well as his exploration of the image of damage/violence for many years. From a magnificent and historical perspective, “Gravel Fathoms the Sea” presents the Heigebi (which means the Gobi in black in Chinese) near Dunhuang with a secret past – no doubt it is more like a symbol of the state of current human beings.

Whether it is the silent icy Gobi in black and white or the sun in extreme gorgeous color, behind these pure natural objects, the image of “human” always exists. It is hard to distinguish the continuous whispers behind the reticent Gobi and the endless silence behind the burst of the sunlight, also unable to find the roots of the traumatic rebirth and the temporary forgiveness. However, beyond the birth and death of the individuals, from Jiang’s works, we can interrogate life's own circumstances and the weight that the human spirit and body can carry.

About the artist

JIANG Pengyi was born in Yuanjiang, Hunan Province in 1977, graduated from the China Academy of Art, and currently lives and works in Beijing. He creates a kind of surreal spectacle and delicate narration of the scene, mostly, by photo and video, to reveal the barriers and confusions of the individuals.

Recent exhibitions: True Fictions, Staged photography from the Seventies until today, Palazzo Magnani, Reggio Emilia, Italy (2020); With/Against the Flow, The G Museum, Nanjing (2020); About us, Young Photography from China, Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung, Munich, Germany (2020); Jiang Pengyi: Foresight, ShanghART Beijing, Beijing (2019); A Fairy Tale in Red Times, Works from the White Rabbit Collection, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (2019); 40 Years of Chinese Contemporary Photography, OCAT Shenzhen (2018), etc. He was awarded the BarTur Photo Award in 2020, Aletti ArtVerona Prize for Photography in 2011, the Jury Grand Prize from the Société Générale Chinese Art Awards in 2010 and the Tierney Fellowship Award from the First Annual Three Shadows Photography Award in 2009.