Artist   

Chen Haiyan

News Release   

"A Real Dream -- Chen Haiyan's Solo Exhibition" will open at 3:00 PM on Wednesday, August 22, 2018, at the "West Lake, Landscape, Culture -- Art Corridor" in Huanglong Hotel, Hangzhou.

"The things of life appear unconsciously in dreams." Chen said. As one of China's most influential contemporary printmakers and ink painters, she has been recording her dreams for more than 30 years and has used her accumulated hundreds of records in her works. The theme of the works is "dream", the creation of woodblock prints as the main, and painting color ink, respect for the tradition but not copy the tradition, quite personal. Through dreams, her art constructs a surreal world of self with her powerful physical and mental strength, charming imagination, and long-standing love of nature.

This is the 59th exhibition held by Hanyang Art Center in the Art Gallery of Huanglong Hotel. The exhibition will feature 24 pieces of Chen haiyan's work from the 1990s to the present. The extension will last until October 27, 2018.

Foreword

The real dream

Chen Haiyan is a famous contemporary artist in China. Over the past 30 years, she has documented numerous dreams and created numerous works of art. The dream, as a medium, connected her real life with art. In the dream, many wishes are fulfilled and many emotions are released. The desires and impulses, challenges and struggles, anxiety and fear, repression and resentment that need to be faced in the life process are covered up and hidden in the dream... Fearing that the lucid plot of her dream would be fleeting when she first woke up, she had to write it down at once, to permanently write the people and events of her dream into her real life; Sometimes in an dazed state she scribbled haphazardly and hurriedly. Accumulated over time, the desk notes saved countless. The creative process based on dreams is not only the specific work of the artist, but also the process of "self-shaping" and "self-healing" of the artist.

After knowing Chen Haiyan's experience in detail, I felt this feeling in my heart even stronger. Due to her childhood experiences living with her grandparents in the northern countryside, Chen haiyan's dreams and creations involve themes related to nature, such as insects and roosters. These winged creatures appeared again and again in her dreams, and "flying" became one of the most important symbols of her creative vocabulary. Later, he returned to the city for primary school, and as a young man, he was admitted to the print-painting department of Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (now China Academy of Art), and began to study eagerly. "Before I entered the academy of Fine Arts, I actually started to like oil painting because it was so foreign," she said. Later, I liked Chinese painting the most, probably because I failed to pass the examination. At that time, the Department of Chinese painting in Zhejiang And The United States was too difficult to enter, so I entered the department of print painting, but I often went to see exhibitions of Chinese painting and oil painting. I'm a man of my trade, and I can do anything well." At this moment, you can see the light shining behind her glasses, which is a kind of happiness nourished by art.

In 1984, Chen haiyan graduated and stayed on to become a professional teacher. She loved her students and she loved teaching, but she knew that her ultimate goal was to become a true artist. Only during vacations, when the students are gone, can she dive into the studio and continue her work. This habit has been preserved to this day. Every year at the beginning of October, she would carry a large volume of painting to the school's framed painting room, this is the harvest of the holiday. As a result, she calls herself a "holiday artist". During this period, she painted ink paintings and woodcuts; Several groups of mature woodcuts mark that she has found her own unique creative language. It has been a year of fevered creation. With her extremely rich imagination and strong creative power, she produced a large number of works of art in dreams, diaries and practice. So much so that it doesn't even seem like it was created by the same person. When I visited her in her studio the other day, she said as she sorted through the piles of drawings on the big painting table, "I have been making ink painting since 85 years ago, and a lot of my ink painting works are in Korea. At that time, a Korean collector surnamed Li acquired nearly a hundred of my paintings at once. Later, he raised money to build an art gallery, because he had a large collection of my works. When he opened the gallery, he made a solo exhibition of my works and published a free album for me. My friend said I was "a blessing in disguise". She looked up and smiled contentedly. At that moment, I have a kind of indescribable touch, this is how the atmosphere and wisdom oh. "A blessing in disguise" is not always the right word, but the meaning is clear. She gave nearly a hundred works of art, but she only got a few thousand dollars, which, in many people's eyes, must be a very unprofitable folly. But this is precisely the characteristic of Chen Haiyan, her "silly", made her a good exhibition in South Korea.

Influenced by her grandfather since childhood, she has strong hands-on ability, preciseness and self-discipline. Many of her works are difficult to display and store because of their huge size. She found a way to scan all the pieces in A4 size, paste them on white cardboard, and mark the specific information and date of creation on the white edge in the lower right corner of each piece. Timely sorting, timely filing, neat, meticulous. The sheaves, the stacks, the colorful black and white drawings are actually archives of her work.

When she first arrived at school, she was in the "80s" trend, unwilling to conform to the traditional dogma of the system, nor interested in the fickle trendy flu. Mr. Chen showed me the works in the school's creation group: dragonflies flying on Yuhuangshan Mountain near the school in autumn; Chinese parasols knocked down by the roadside during a typhoon in 1988; Go to the station and see the trains and draw the wheels; Go to Shanghai Baosteel again, see the workers smelting steel, experience the hot revolutionary enthusiasm... Leafing through the manuscripts, she seemed to have gone back to that period. At the same time, this period of complex special emotional experience and various tests, more profound so that her self rapidly grow. "I could not sleep at night. When I opened the mosquito net, I was shocked. The big moon came into the house. I watched her pale face chill the room. I held her tight and wouldn't let go. She walked away, further and further away, and I sat on the bed thinking that I had not spoken to her. Dream 1986 5-24 ". In the two years that followed, the pain, anxiety and frustration of becoming a single mother also made Chen haiyan an independent contemporary artist. At the end of the 1990s, Chen Haiyan's creation by paper ink and woodcut prints, extended to direct painting on the five board, do not carve nor print, the work is large, she ingeniously will ink lyric, print toughness fusion together, the theme is still the dream of countless. "Dreams," she said, "are indirect reflections of my real life; My life is my art."

For decades, Chen Haiyan has recorded and praised her life in her own unique and tranquil way. Those ordinary, in her painting exudes divine light. She seems more confident and mature because she can give more to others through her art. As a teacher admired and loved by her students, she is a model. She encourages and guides young artists to stick to their own path and help them find their own voice. She smiles, she shares, and she shows her love of life by generously giving everything that comes her way. Artists are said to be "lonely", but she said, "I have a busy day, often one after another, and when there is some time to spare, I hurry to paint and continue to fall asleep. Am I alone, you say?"

This is the Chen Haiyan I know. Sincerely wish Mr. Chen in those real, magnificent, free, fantasy dream, still free to gallop freely, do her favorite dream, painting her favorite painting son. The exhibition is about to open. The few words are in order.

Artistic director Feng Limin

The exhibition works  

Exhibition site