清影

Inna Art Space will present Dongfan Chen’s solo project at the fair, with paintings of different subjects, forms and concepts in the form of simulated studio scenes.

In the recent two years, Dongfan Chen has not let the pause in the world slow down the pace of his art making. Despite the strict global travel restrictions caused by the pandemic, he tried his best to travel between New York and China. Nomadic ways of creation became his regular working state. During this period, he held multiple solo exhibitions both in New York and Beijing, a sizeable retrospective in Hangzhou, and presented a spectacular public painting project at the A4 Art Museum’s Serpentine gallery in Chengdu. As an ambitious artist in creation, he has experimented in various fields of painting, developing a diverse body of work. His visual system encompasses a variety of styles including narrative, expressionism, and abstraction, which are clearly symbiotically related to each other.

Two recent abstract works by Dongfan Chen will be featured in this project. Abstraction has always been an important field of exploration in his paintings. The trajectory began with his early works in neo-expressionism style. For him, abstraction is not the end goal of his stylistic evolution. He moves freely between expressionism and abstraction, and flexibly adopts forms that suit his feelings. In Chen’s view, the creation of abstract art is full of challenges, the barrier he encountered in front of the paintings was the constant failure of knowledge, ideology and experience. For him, working in abstract is a risk-taking process, and the person needs to be fearless. Chen’s abstract paintings are characterized by their bright, rich and passionate visual forms that reflect a keen intuition and vivid imagination. Mysterious shapes emerge from the abstract elements, as if to suggest certain connection between the act of painting and his spiritual rationality. The energy of color, brush strokes and other elements in the painting all reflect the passion from the creator.

Inna Art Space will present Dongfan Chen’s solo project at the fair, with paintings of different subjects, forms and concepts in the form of simulated studio scenes.

In the recent two years, Dongfan Chen has not let the pause in the world slow down the pace of his art making. Despite the strict global travel restrictions caused by the pandemic, he tried his best to travel between New York and China. Nomadic ways of creation became his regular working state. During this period, he held multiple solo exhibitions both in New York and Beijing, a sizeable retrospective in Hangzhou, and presented a spectacular public painting project at the A4 Art Museum’s Serpentine gallery in Chengdu. As an ambitious artist in creation, he has experimented in various fields of painting, developing a diverse body of work. His visual system encompasses a variety of styles including narrative, expressionism, and abstraction, which are clearly symbiotically related to each other.

Two recent abstract works by Dongfan Chen will be featured in this project. Abstraction has always been an important field of exploration in his paintings. The trajectory began with his early works in neo-expressionism style. For him, abstraction is not the end goal of his stylistic evolution. He moves freely between expressionism and abstraction, and flexibly adopts forms that suit his feelings. In Chen’s view, the creation of abstract art is full of challenges, the barrier he encountered in front of the paintings was the constant failure of knowledge, ideology and experience. For him, working in abstract is a risk-taking process, and the person needs to be fearless. Chen’s abstract paintings are characterized by their bright, rich and passionate visual forms that reflect a keen intuition and vivid imagination. Mysterious shapes emerge from the abstract elements, as if to suggest certain connection between the act of painting and his spiritual rationality. The energy of color, brush strokes and other elements in the painting all reflect the passion from the creator.

The project will also present Chen’s latest works—the Poster series and the Letter series. In the Poster series, he focuses on the connection between the individual, society and art, and uses the language of narrative painting to express personal emotions and social reality. His painting follows the text-graphic form of propaganda posters, in which the borderline of the painting becomes a visual element of the work. The subject matter exhibits a strong narrative and symbolic quality. The visual pleasure comes from the childish images and flat vibrant colors. The interrelationship between language and image brings dynamic energy to the paintings. The Letter series uses Chinese-style letter paper as canvas for the oil paint, which also serves as a metaphor for Chen’s identity, conveying his state of mind living in a foreign country. With the pandemic in remission, Chen recently returned from an in-depth trip to Europe. He was deeply inspired by what he saw and heard throughout the trip. He documented his perceptions of life by depicting what he saw and thought during the journey. In the new Letter series, the characters are humorous and witty. The depiction style tends to be flat, the light and shadows are simplified, and the overall paintings are filled with joyful emotions. In the creation of the Letter series, Chen considers the titles to be a significant part of the work, he often adopts titles from film, literature or music. The specific connotation carried by these titles adds another layer to the painting. Viewer can appreciate the more intrinsic and complex meanings embedded in the painting by reading the title and studying its origins.

Moreover, the project will feature Chen’s double-sided paintings and painting installations. These works unveil his 3D spatial experiment on painting, which will deliver a rich and immersive experience to the audience.