Artist   

Zhou Lei

News Release   

"Appendix -- Zhou Lei's Works Exhibition" will open at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 3rd, 2018, in the small exhibition hall of "West Lake, Landscape, Culture -- Art Gallery", Huanglong Hotel, Hangzhou.

In Xin Qiji's words, "He is sought in many places. Suddenly look back, that person but in the dim lights. The exhibition takes the meaning of "obscure place" and respects the original intention of the artist. Zhou Lei seeks for "him" through his own creation, while the action of looking back constantly reminds us that we should respect the ancient meaning that has not been lit up under the scattered light in the current artistic creation.

This is the 60th exhibition held by Hanyang Art Center in the Art Gallery of Huanglong Hotel. The exhibition will feature sculptures and paintings by artists from different periods and will run until January 12, 2019.

Foreword

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Almost everyone who USES wood or ceramics faces the same dilemma: because of the physical properties of materials and the cultural symbols behind them, it is difficult to find a unified definition between artist and craftsman, contemporary and traditional, and art and technology. This series of works of Zhou Lei takes wood and pottery as the main creative medium, so it is difficult for us to determine the identity of artists and works. Fortunately, these so-called antagonistic relations seem not to be valued very much in Zhou Lei. Therefore, we can start with the interweaving relationship between artists and craftsmen. If we say that the artist is the concept created under the continuous induction, summary, arrangement and improvement of the aesthetic system. Then we can find a certain state of escape from Zhou Lei's creation. The artist seems more willing to go back to the era when there was no concept of artist to talk about the problem of works, which is the excitement of his creation of these works and also his personal aesthetic interest. The creation of ceramics and wood carvings in zhou lei's "Ancient" period seems to have been rarely signed by artists, and what was then called "creation" was more of a necessity for life and belief. Back to zhou Lei's works, this series of works of the artist is more like the necessities of his life, or the personal record of the sculpture form in his life history.

So what is the artistic nature of these necessities? I think there are two key words worth discussing. The first is the writing. Zhou Lei emphasizes the texture of lines in his creation, maintains a strong writing for each line, and applies this writing feeling in the non-painting modeling of his works. Therefore, in Zhou Lei's works, there are two kinds of lines that can be appreciated. One is the lines of painting itself, which comes from the transfer and description of ancient paintings, original traces and patterns of ancient artifacts. The other line is the outline of the work. This line needs an overall view of the shape of the work, and its turning and closing make the shape of the work full of a more vivid rhythm. The two lines, one solid and one empty, complement each other in an artist's work. The second is the randomness, which is the most attractive place in the ancient Chinese sculpture language and is reflected in Zhou Lei's creation. It can be imagined that when creating works, artists seem to be more willing to make sculptures according to their materials, and only on the premise of respecting the interest of objects, do they begin to put in the ideas of the creators, so as to create a work that should belong to both materials and individuals. How to intentionally keep the nature of the object, or unintentionally keep the person's hand feel in zhou Lei's works in good faith "contest".

In Xin Qiji's words, "He is sought in many places. Suddenly look back, that person but in the dim lights. The exhibition takes the meaning of "obscure place" and respects the original intention of the artist. Zhou Lei seeks for "him" through his own creation, while the action of looking back constantly reminds us that we should respect the ancient meaning that has not been lit up under the scattered light in the current artistic creation.

Lin Shuchuan

The exhibition works  

Exhibition site