02/10/2023
Vanguard Gallery is pleased to announce “Xiao Jiang: Hills Beyond a Breeze”, opening on 16 September, 2023. The exhibition features ten brand new paintings by Xiao Jiang, and marks the artist’s fifth solo presentation with Vanguard Gallery. It is also the first exhibition held after the gallery moved into its new location.
The exhibition is anchored by a series of large paintings with the width from three to four meters. The stacked mountains dominate the picture planes, their sharp edges cutting through the glowing mist. The maroon earth and the moist atmosphere suggests the distinct laterite-covered landscape in the artist's hometown in Southeast China, while the swirling clouds with extra dry pigments recall those that adorn mythical murals. These new paintings carry Xiao Jiang's signature style of contrasting texture, and using palpable brushstrokes to structure color-saturated and substantial forms.
There is no doubt that the depiction of the majestic mountains renders the paintings monumental. The image might have been inspired by the scenery backdrop of historical paintings with heroic scenes, or the long empty shots in films that imply solemn mood. In Xiao Jiang's paintings, however, the landscape here is the protagonist, while the observers in the pictures, usually turning their backs against or journeying into the scene, join the audience in awe.
In other works of the series, the scale of figure and landscape becomes so dramatic that it defies common perspective. It ties the works to a Romantic ideal that transposes men and nature. Meanwhile, the small works with urbanscape are snapshots packed with stoicism and geometric order. They are distilled representation of the sense of distance that the artist keeps from reality.
Xiao Jiang was born in 1977 in Jiangxi Province, China. He lives and works in Shanghai. Xiao Jiang’s works depict landscape, figures, and interiors. His first institutional solo exhibition in Europe, “Ordinary Days”, will open in October at Lopez de la Serna CAC, Madrid. His recent solo exhibitions includes “Continuous Passage”, Karma, New York, 2022; “Mountains Aside”, Vanguard Gallery, Shanghai, 2021; “An Inward Odyssey”, Lianhua Apartment Space—Sifang Art Museum, Shanghai, 2021; “The Distant Mountains”, Platform China, Beijing, 2021; “In Common”, LEO Gallery, Hong Kong, 2020; and “Right in Sight”, Vanguard Gallery, 2018.
Vanguard Gallery was founded in 2004 in Shanghai. The gallery moves to its new location to the north bank of Suzhou River in 2023, and will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2024. Vanguard Gallery has been devoted to discovering and promoting emerging contemporary artists since its establishment. It has served as a platform and an amplifier for young artists, and has discovered many emerging talents who have since become active players in shaping the Asian contemporary art discourse. In recent years, artists across continents and generations have joined Vanguard Gallery, which provides a diverse selection of works both in forms and concepts. Through the persistence in supporting and promoting conceptual and experimental artistic creations, Vanguard Gallery has become a significant force in setting the trend and exploring the possibility of contemporary art’s future with a global vision.
09/16/2023 — 10/28/2023
#肖江
