New Artists Introduction: Past Works of Feng Zhixuan, Zhong Wei

Feng Zhixuan, born in Wenzhou, Zhejiang in 1993, graduated from the China Academy of Art with a B.A. degree in Public Art in 2015 and from the Royal College of Art with an M.A. degree in Sculpture in 2018; a member of the Royal Society of Sculptors, he currently works and lives between Shanghai and Beijing. Feng Zhixuan specializes in exploring materials and using them creatively, behind the fabricated identity of a Wenzhou Islander, Feng Zhixuan works in a global nomadic way. Using accessible contemporary materials to create rich myths, the artist describes his practice as "the design of monuments based on exoticism in the era of global localization”.

Recent solo exhibitions include: “Conjure a Compo Site”, Gene Gallery, Shanghai, China, 2019; “Heavenly North”, Plate Space, Beijing, China, 2019; Group exhibitions include: “A truck is parked in the grass near a tree in doubt”, Kongfuzius-Institut Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Germany, 2020; “Pull Up the Stake”, Qi Mu Space, Beijing, China, 2019; “Global Living Room”, Depot, Shanghai, China, 2019; “Violence in Silence”, Spectrum Art Space, Shanghai, China, 2018; “Too Much Information”, Seventeen Gallery, London, United Kingdom, 2018; “The\Rehab\Lab”, Hackney Gallery, London, United Kingdom, 2018; “THE COMING COMMUNITY”, The Crypt Gallery, London, United Kingdom, 2017 and etc..

Feng Zhixuan pays attention to the craftsmanship of sculpture in the production process and the by-products produced due to craftsmanship requirements. These elements are often not presented in traditional sculpture works. The rape of Sabine woman incorporates the remaining negative form from the production process into the main body of the sculpture, and gives equal importance to the negative form. Feng Zhixuan uses the shape of the lion's claw in his visual language and uses contemporary materials to reinterpret the classic theme in classical paintings and sculptures, "The rape of Sabine woman". 

Feng Zhixuan's attention to sculpture craftsmanship also includes the internal structure of the sculpture. In the work Bathing in Happiness, the internal structure of the sculpture was represented outwardly. The green pipe is not only a functional water pipe and a supporting and connecting component, but also an indispensable part of the artist's visual language. During the residency program in 2018, Feng Zhixuan discovered that beer has become the currency of the local primitive tribes, which can be exchanged for equivalent labor. Beer, a foreign commodity, serves as a symbol of hedonism and also a metaphor for the bubbles of capitalism and globalization. In this sculpture which contains a fountain structure, beer replaces the sacred water in the wishing pool and is sprayed cyclically to become a new landscape.

In MadeIn Gallery's upcoming group exhibition "Illusive Particles", Feng Zhixuan will exhibit his new sculptures, presenting contemporary myths under the fabricated identity of a Wenzhou islanders.

Zhong Wei, born in Beijing, China in 1987, currently works and lives in Beijing. Zhong’s practice takes form in immersive installations and paintings that speak to China's vibrant but chaotic Internet-based visual language. Having compiled a massive database of memes and imagery found online, Zhong uses these ubiquitous images as raw materials for his works. After arranging these materials in countless arrays and variations using computer, the artist builds digital sketches before painting them on canvas. Zhong responds through appropriation to the Internet popular culture, collective psy-chology, and social phenomena. Data and composite images removed from their context are intertwined on the canvas, presenting the virtual world unique ecosystem and visual experience.

Zhong Wei held a solo exhibition "易变░耦态 :NeメT Levé し" at de Sarthe Gallery, Hong Kong in 2019, and participated to the group show "Contemporary Showing Off" at de Sarthe Gallery, Hong Kong in 2020. Zhong Wei will also present a new installation project at PLATE Space in Beijing in 2020. His works are included in permanent collections among which: JP Morgan Chase Art Collection.

Zhong Wei's paintings focus on the current human existence in the information era and the visual language in the Internet environment, using composite images and collected network memes to respond to popular culture, collective psychology and social phenomena.

The artist's early inspiration was deeply rooted in traditional Chinese religious art, and its influence can be seen in the folds which repeatedly appear in his works. In Zhong Wei's view, the complex shapes piled up by folds allude to the structure of human civilization, and from this context, he began to depict more of the texture and outline of man-made objects to express his feelings about the progress of civilization. Zhong Wei collects internet memes and images and builds a huge database. Then he organizes them into countless permutations and combinations. These uncontextualized data and composite images are intertwined on the canvas, presenting the unique ecosystem of the virtual world.

In the upcoming group exhibition "Illusive Particles" at MadeIn Gallery, Zhong Wei will present his latest paintings. Zhong Wei's new works are based on his observation and understanding of the information age and the Internet world, and continues to pay attention to the living conditions of human beings in this context.

 About MadeIn Gallery 

MadeIn Gallery was established in 2014 in Shanghai by the contemporary art creation and curating platform MadeIn Company, a corporation founded by international influential artist Xu Zhen.

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