Exhibitions and Events
From the Countryside to the City
Works by Shen Hua
Vernissage: 19 January 2006,
6:30pm
- 8:00pm
Exhibition Continues: 20 January 2006 - 15 February 2006
Main Gallery: 21-31 Old Bailey Street, Central, Hong Kong
Making a dramatic debut as one of our latest emerging talents, Shen Hua is a promising new artist whose style reaches for ideal - artistic, and personal, both. Shen Hua's story is a poignant reminder of class divisions and adversity that had to be overcome during his youth; his story is one of determination and artistic ambition. Mentored by renowned artist Luo Zhong Li at the prominent Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, Shen Hua at the age of 33 is pursuing an illustrious career as a full time artist. The tuition of his 3-year Masters degree will be sponsored entirely by Schoeni Art Gallery, in celebration of the promise and potential that we see in Shen Hua's work.
Articulating an aesthetic that is firmly grounded in an emotive representation of the Chinese proletariat, Shen Hua's manner of expression borrows from the Expressionism era, in terms of motif, technique and artistic ambition. By portraying his fellow peer in a manner that is truthful to their natural state of being, an honest sense of humility can be put forth with keen psychological insight and candour. Through the same technique, but used to different effect, a dramatic decadence of moral standards can by communicated by his emphatic style and technique - the visibility of the brushstrokes and paint application is deft and emotionally charged.
Shen Hua's treatment of his subject matter is characterised by a muted palette, dulled by the metaphorical and literal grime of our terrestrial world - but it also conveys an idea that this 'filth' is fostered by a maltreatment of the labouring workforce. Idealising a social strata that has traditionally been overlooked as 'working class', is an issue that is still very sensitive in contemporary China, politically, economically and socially. Shen Hua articulates with awareness and insight, facets of resentment and apathy that are accumulated on a wider-level as a result of misunderstood priorities and moral decadence. Toying with our cognitive understanding of space, Shen Hua manipulates our expectations of scale by visually making it appear as if his figures have been shrunken to fit an oversized frame. This technique plays with wit and metaphor to foster satirical nuances that are aimed at our intrinsic values as a society. Within each canvas that Shen Hua creates, a personality that is acutely self-conscious and aware of the things that have informed its scope of experience, is distilled into an image of the many selves that make up society.
Written by Alexandra Hamlyn
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