星空间｜赵刚个展『天下无事』将于9月24日在重庆龙美术馆开幕

富贵梦

Fat Dream

布面油画

Oil on canvas 

280 × 400 cm

2021

2021年夏天，赵刚在上海龙美术馆（西岸馆）举办了个展“煮夫的焦虑”。一年多后，他再度归来，将在龙美术馆举办第二个个展“天下无事”。不过，展览的地点从上海移到了重庆，展期从9月24日持续至12月4日。

此次展览由三组作品穿插而成：第一组是静物，第二组是艺术家的自画像，第三组是混合了不同题材新旧作品的“派对”。这些静物大多取材自工作室、厨房，赵刚的处理并无定法，有时很古典，有时候则很现代，但有一点是一致的，即大部分静物被他刻意放大至数倍乃至数十倍，其尺度远远超出我们的经验。放大并不是为了凸显物和画面的细节，而是为了赋予这些日常之物（包括果蔬、肉、排骨、猪头、酒具、花瓶、烛台等）以神圣的位置，或者说，是为了拉开其与我们之间的距离。显然，有了这样的尺度和距离，我们目光所及的不再是熟悉的身边之物，而仿佛是我们自己处境和命运的镜像。绘画也不再是一个欣赏的对象，而是现实本身。与之对应的是一组艺术家的自画像。画中人物的大小与他本人相当，图像底本有的是虚构的，有的来自旧照片，透过画中人物的服饰，可以看出这里含括了（资本家）绅士、流浪者等多个不同的身份。延续了以往他关于自我身份的追寻和探问，此处他虽然身着不同身份的服饰并摆出相应的姿势，但不变的是他已然老去的面孔和身型。和静物画一样，毋宁说赵刚在这里是将他所描绘的诸种身份（包括作为艺术家的自己）视为同样正在朽坏的客观之物——当然，也许他是想以绘画的方式留给他们最后一丝尊严。第三组“派对” 混合了历史、地景、征服以及爱欲等多个主题，更像是前面两组作品的背面或注脚。

这些画面充满了调侃和玩世不恭的意味，却又仿佛一片虚空和茫然；它们看似无关时世，却又透着某种无奈和沮丧。“天下无事”并没有让赵刚获得丝毫宁静，愤世嫉俗的他依然焦灼不安，他开始怀疑绘画，觉得绘画成了一种毫无意义的努力，他怀疑艺术这个行业，觉得这种持续的工作兴许是在加速艺术的衰亡，他也怀疑自己的身份，而这只会让他的内心变得更加分裂和绝望。

外交官

Diplomat

布面油画

Oil on canvas 

250 × 180 cm

2022

In the summer of 2021, Zhao Gang presented the solo exhibition "Domestic Anxiety" at Long Museum West Bund location in Shanghai. More than a year later, he returns for his second solo exhibition, "Nothing is Happening." However, the exhibition venue has changed from Shanghai to Chongqing, the duration lasts from September 24, 2022 to December 4, 2022.

The exhibition consists of three groups of works interspersed: the first on still life, the second on self-portraits of the artist, and the third a "party" mixing old and new works with different themes. Most of these still lifes are modeled after the artist's studio and kitchen. Zhao Gang's renderings are ambivalent, sometimes taking the classical approach, other times modern. However, he's consistently and deliberately enlarged most of these still lifes to several or even ten folds, to scales far beyond our everyday experience. The enlargement is not to highlight the details of the objects and images but to attribute these everyday objects (including the fruits and vegetables, meat, ribs, pigs' heads, wine sets, vases, candlesticks, etc.) to an exalted position in other words, make a distinction with us. Obviously, with such scales and distance, what we look at are no longer the familiar objects around us but mirror images of our situation and destiny. The works on canvas are no longer objects of appreciation but reality itself. Related to this is a series of the artist's self-portraits. The figures' dimension in the paintings is the artist's height, and the contextual pictures are either fictional or appropriated from old photographs. From the artist's attire in the images, Zhao Gang has portrayed himself with multiple identities, including a (capitalist) gentleman and a flaneur. Extending from his previous search and inquiry about his identity, here he is dressed and posed in different identities, but what remains unchanged is his aged face and body shape. Like the still life paintings, Zhao Gang instead perceives these identities he depicts (including himself as an artist) as decaying objects - of course, perhaps he wants to leave them with the last shred of dignity by painting. The third group, "Party," blends subjects of history, landscape, conquest, and lust, akin to backdrops or annotations, to the other two groups. 

Full of tease and cynicism, these works on canvas seem hollow and bewildering; they seem nonchalant about the world, somehow projecting a sense of helplessness and frustration. "Nothing is Happening" did not offer Zhao Gang the slightest serenity. As a cynic at heart, Zhao Gang remains anxious and restless. He began to doubt painting and felt that it had become a pointless endeavor. He questions the art industry and realizes that such continuous efforts may perhaps hasten the demise of art. He also doubts his identity, making him more conflicted and despairing.

作为中国先锋派最早和最稳定的支持者之一，赵刚从未停止重新发掘自己。作为“星星画会”七十年代末和八十年代初最年轻的成员，他先后以一个银行家，出版人，电影制片人和艺术家的身份在纽约学习、工作和生活。赵刚多方面的工作和大胆的人物角色奠定其成为了中国的“坏画”教父。

赵刚重要个展包括：“Domestic Anxiety”（龙美术馆西岸馆，上海，2021）；“中东铁路：赵刚”（长征空间，北京，2020）；“赵刚21st : 色表 / 支架作为历史人类志”（关渡美术馆，台北，2020）；“历史绘画”（佩雷斯艺术博物馆，迈阿密，2019）；“购买的身份”（长征空间，北京，2018）；“通往奴役之路 II”（圣地亚哥当代艺术博物馆，智利，2016）；“偶园：赵刚个人作品展”（苏州博物馆，苏州，2015）；“通往奴役之路”（尤伦斯当代艺术中心，北京，2015）。

As one of the earliest and most consistent proponents of the Chinese avant-garde, Zhao Gang has never stopped re-inventing himself. The youngest member of the Stars Group in the late seventies and early eighties, he subsequently went on to study, live, and work in New York as a banker, publisher, filmmaker and artist. Zhao Gang’s multifaceted work and audacious persona have helped deem him godfather of “bad painting” in China. 

His recent exhibitions include:  Domestic Anxiety, Long Museum (West Bund), Shanghai(2021); Chinese Eastern Railway: Zhao Gang, Long March Space, Beijing(2020); Zhao Gang 21st: Supports/Colorlumps as Anthropography of History, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei(2020); Zhao Gang: History Painting, Pérez Art Museum, Miami(2019); Zhao Gang: Acquiring Identity, Long March Space, Beijing(2018); The Road to Serfdom II, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Santiago, Chile(2016); Paramour’s Garden, Suzhou Museum, Suzhou(2015); Zhao Gang: The Road to Serfdom, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China(2015)

鲁明军，复旦大学哲学学院青年研究员，OCAT深圳馆学术总监。近年策划《疆域：地缘的拓扑》（2017-2018）、《在集结》（2019）、《没有航标的河流，1979》（2019）、《街角、广场与蒙太奇》（2019）、《缪斯、愚公与指南针》（2020）等展览。在《文艺研究》、《美术研究》、《二十一世紀》等刊物发表论文多篇。近著有《目光的诗学：感知—政治—时间》（上河卓远文化·河南大学出版社，2019）、《美术变革与现代中国：中国当代艺术的激进根源》（2020）等。2015年获得何鸿毅家族基金中华研究奖助金。2016年获得YiShu中国当代艺术写作奖。2017年获得美国亚洲文化协会奖助金（ACC）。同年，获得第6届中国当代艺术评论奖（CCAA）。2019年获得中国当代艺术奖（AAC）年度策展人奖。

Lu Mingjun, Assistant Research Fellow at the School of Philosophy, Fudan University; Academic director at Shenzhen OCAT; His curated exhibitions include, Frontier: Re-assessment of Post-Globalisational Politics(2017- 2018), River flowing without a Beacon, 1979(2019), Corner Square Montage(2019), and Muses, Yu Gong and Compasses(2020). His academic essays are published in Literature & Art Studies, Art Research and The Twenty-First Century and others. Recent publications include, Poetic Justice (Henan University Press, 2019); Revolution of Art and Modern China: Radical Origins of Chinese Contemporary Art (The Commercial Press, 2020) etc. Lu was also the grantee of the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Greater China Research Grant in 2015; and the recipient of the Yishu Award for Writing on Contemporary Chinese Art in 2016. He received a fellowship grant from Asia Cultural Council (ACC) and was the recipient of the 6th Chinese Contemporary Art Critic Award (CCAA) in 2017. In 2019, He was the Recipient of the Award of Art (AAC) Chinese Contemporary Art Curator Award.

龙美术馆是由中国知名收藏家刘益谦、王薇夫妇创办的私立美术馆，目前在上海和重庆同时拥有三个大规模场馆——龙美术馆（浦东馆）、龙美术馆（西岸馆）和龙美术馆（重庆馆）。“两城三馆”的独特架构使龙美术馆成为目前国内极具规模和收藏实力的私立美术馆。

The Long Museum is a private art museum founded by husband-and-wife art collectors, Mr. Liu Yiqian and Ms. Wang Wei. The museum is located in three iconic sites in the city of Shanghai and Chongqing – the Long Museum Pudong, the Long Museum West Bund and the Long Museum Chongqing. They form a unique ecosystem of "one museum, two cities, three locations." The Long Museum is one the finest private art museums in China and houses a large collection of artworks spanning across countries and generations.