Summer Show – Painting 2016

10 Chancery Lane Gallery presents Summer Show – Painting 2016, a group exhibition of the artists Hung Liu, Maya Hewitt, Huang Rui, Pan Jian and Xiao Zheluo.

Hung Liu (b. 1948, Changchun, China. Lives and works in California, USA) is considered to be one of the most famous Chinese female painters living in North America. Using historical photographs as inspiration for her artworks, her subjects over the years have included prostitutes, refugees, street performers, soldiers, laborers and prisoners, amongst others. Through her work, she explores and uncovers the personal narratives that have been shaped and influenced by socio-political and historical events in China.

Maya Hewitt (b. 1981, London, United Kingdom. Lives and works in London, UK) is an English painter whose work has a subtle Asian influence, inspired by Japanese culture as well as by her half-Filipino heritage. A talented figurative painter, Hewitt’s exotic narrative landscapes form an artificial space, constructed and staged in a state of suspension. They travel between the real and the fictional, between human and supernatural energies, and between artifice and nature. Her paintings are presented as environments of connecting plots or pieces within a larger narrative, and use symbols to explore the notion of reality and fiction. Personal symbolic objects draw references from across time, cultures and myths.

Huang Rui (b. 1952, Beijing, China. Lives and works in Beijing, China) is one of China’s most highly regarded artists and was one of the main protagonists of the first non-conformist art groups in 1979 China. A leader of the Stars Group (Xing Xing) art exhibition, he was pivotal in the art movement that initiated some of the first free art expressions in the Post-Mao era bringing together like-minded artists such as Wang Keping and Ma Desheng. As a seminal figure of the Dashanzi Factory 798 Art District, Huang Rui has sought to express art’s function as a reflection of society and its strength in addressing contemporary concerns.

Pan Jian (b. 1975, Shandong, China. Lives and works in Beijing and Xi’an, China) is a thoughtful and committed painter. In his exploration of shadow, the artist distills the relationship between light and dark to its purest form, resulting in an arresting body of work that challenges the viewer’s eyes to adjust to the dim silhouettes and wander through the monochromatic nighttime scenes. Pan Jian’s artistic process first draws inspiration from actual landscapes, gradually transforming what he has seen into the imagined scenes that he presents on each canvas. The landscapes are therefore both real and imagined, a dichotomy that is reflected in the concept that although a shadow has no tangible content, the image presented is still able to move the viewer, provoking an emotional response. Pan Jian graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Xi’an Academy of Fine Art where he is now a teacher.

Xiao Zheluo (b.1983 in Chengdu, Sichuan Province). In 2006 she graduated from the Chengdu Academy of Fine Art. She represents a new generation of artists in China whose works are deeply introspective. Her exhibitions includes: 2011 “Freehanded Strokes”, Everywhere Space, Beijing; 2010 “We Are Not the Masters of Everything”, 2010 No. 10 Gallery, Chengdu; 2010 “Intuitional Description of Cultural Subsistence”, Qinghe Current Art Center, Nanjing; 2010 “Inlook–Group Exhibition of Works by Contemporary Female Artists”, Xi’an Contemporary Museum of Art, Xi’an; 2008 “From Chengdu to Beijing”, solo exhibition, 9 Art Space, Beijing; 2007 “Sino-Korea International Exhibition of Modern Art”, Seongnam Arts Centre, Suwon.