In the beginning of his artistic career in the late 80's, Zeng Fanzhi painted apocalyptic, expressionist images, thus manipulating modernist compositional effects to intensify his sinister version of reality. His representational work reveals the place of the unconscious and aberrant in the construction of experience. The over-sized, clenched hands of his subjects are almost more remarkable than their stereotyped faces and wide-open eyes. Zeng Fanzhi's art simulates the fatigue of the contemporary experience: the rush to acquire and consume to the point of alienation and detachment. Working in idiosyncratic ways, he reminds us how effective art can be when it collapses these various experiences. He traces the eruption of the corporeal into the optical sedition of visual art.
Zeng Fanzhi's notorious mask series conducted in the mid 90's marks a turn in his aesthetics. All the figures in the series wear white masks fused closely with the facial features. The masks nevertheless possess a peculiar, haunting power. His figures look anxious or fearful, as if they are victims of their own roles. Through the mask motif, Zeng Fanzhi expresses suspended reality. The mood of his work is subtle unsettlement: it often suggests some past violence, recent or old, from which we can unravel clues - but never completely understand.
His paintings are much more than sardonically recycled imagery. Zeng Fanzhi delivers an art that feels new, not in its premises but in its refined vitality. His late paintings signify a shift in his focus from a formal concern with the representation of existential unsettlement to an interest in how we imagine ourselves interacting with nature. Still, in his newly developed landscape paintings, there is a notion of permanent escape - an attempt to inhabit the uninhabitable. These images are expressively abstract. Rendered in cool shades of pink, black and blue, they represent the tension of failed community and human loneliness. Within these large-scale images there is a notion of fragility and vulnerability; like an attempt to create a terrain of uncertainty that inhabits both characters and landscape depicted. The grand scale of the paintings lends them a certain suggestive and sublime appearance. When viewed, the paintings constantly seem to evolve and create new particular impressions. The images reflect a social reality that is made up of multiple signifying systems of which the landscape is just one.
Zeng Fanzhi was born in 1964 in Wuhan province and studied oil painting at the Wuhan Art Academy. Today he lives and works in Beijing. Zeng Fanzhi has exhibited widely at acclaimed institutions such as the Shanghai Art Museum, National Art Museum (Beijing), Kunst Museum Bonn, Kunstmuseum Bern, Santa Monica Art Centre, (Barcelona), and Art Centre (Hong Kong).
1964
Born in Wuhan, China
Lives and works in Beijing
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2010
Zeng Fanzhi:The Sublime, Union Temple
Zeng Fanzhi, Shanghai Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai
Zeng Fanzhi, The National Gallery of Foreign Art, Sofia, Bulgaria
2009
Zeng Fanzhi, Godia Fundation, Barcelona, Spain
Art Beijing 2009--Zeng Fanzhi, Art Fairs Agricultural Exhibition Centre of China, Beijing
Narcissus looks for Echo, Zeng Fanzhi Suzhou Exhibition, Suzhou Museum, Jiangsu Province
Zeng Fanzhi, Acquavella Gallery, New York
2008
Tai Ping You Xiang-Zeng Fanzhi solo exhibition, ShanghART Beijing
2007
Zeng Fanzhi, Musee d'art Moderne Saint-Etienne Metropole, France
Zeng Fanzhi Idealism, National Art Museum, Singapore
Zeng Fanzhi 1989-2007, Gallery Hyondai, Seoul, Korea
2006
Zeng Fanzhi - Paintings, ShanghART H-Space, Shanghai
Hero, Zeng Fanzhi solo exhibition, Art Basel Miami 06, Miami, USA
Zeng Fanzhi, Gallery Wedel, London, UK
2005
Sky, Fine Art Literature, Wuhan
Paintings by Zeng Fanzhi, Hanart T Z Gallery, Hong Kong
2004
Unmask the Mask - Zeng Fanzhi, Artside Gallery, Korea
Face, Soobin Gallery, Singapore
Scapes 1989-2004, the paintings of Zeng Fanzhi, He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen
2003
I/We, 1991-2003, The Painting of Zeng Fanzhi, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai
2001
Raw Beneath the Mask, ShanghART Gallery, Shanghai
1998
Zeng Fanzhi: The Mask Series, ShanghART Gallery, Shanghai
Zeng Fanzhi Works 1993-1998, CIFA (Central Academy of Fine Arts) Gallery, Beijing
1995
Behind the Mask, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kon
1990
Zeng Fanzhi, Hubei Institute of Fine Arts Gallery, Wuhan
Selected Group Exhibitions
2011
The World Belongs to You, Palalazzo Grassi, Italy
Fusion. Contemporary Art Exhibition, Yiyuan Space, Wuhan
2010
Made in popland, National Museum of Contemporary art
And-Writers 2010 - Nan Jing Biennale, Jiangsu Provingcial Art Museum, Nangjing
2010 The Constructed Dimension, 2010 Chinese Contemporary Art Invitational Exhibition, National Art Musume of China, Beijing
Reshaping History: Chinart from 2000-2009, Special Documenta, China National Convention Center, Beijing
Thirty Years of Chinese Contemporary Art, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai
Fairy Tales Selections from the MaGMA's collection, Opera Gallery, Singapore
Photo Exhibition of Contemporary Artists, Today Art Museum, Beijing
2009
Normality, 2009 Art Works Show, New Space of Fine Arts Literature Art Center
First Annual Conference of Collectors of Chinese Contemporary Art, Hejingyuan Art Museum, Beijing
Retrospect and Exploration, Hu Bei Province Art Museum
Another scene - artists' projects, concepts and ideas, ShanghART H-Space, Shanghai
Mahjong: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass, U.S.A.
China Gold, Museum Maillol, Paris, France
53rd Venice Biennial, Making World, La Biennale, Venice, Italy
Boao Asia Contemoprary Art Exhibition - Contemplation and Communication, Boao Asian Forum International Meeting Center, Hainan
Contemporary Art from Hunan & Hubei 1985 - 2009, Guangdong Art Museum, Guangdong
2008
Lovely Blossoms and Full moon, YUZ Collection of Chinese Contemporary Art, YUZ Museum, Darmawangsa Square unit 31-33, The City Walk, JI. Darmawangsa VI&IX, Jakarta
FIAC 2008, Booth B12, Art Fairs Grand Palais, Paris
The Love of Art: Collection of Contemporary Art in China, Today Art Museum, Beijing
The Revolution Continues, New Art From China, The Saatchi Gallery
Our Future, The Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation Collection, Ullens Foundation, Beijing
Case Studies of Artists in Art History and Art Criticism, SZ Art Center, Beijing
Crouching Paper, Hidden Dragon, Works on Paper, F2 Gallery, Beijing
Writing on the Wall, Chinese New Realism and Avant-Garde in the Eighties and nineties, The Groninger Museum, Groningen, The Netherlands
21st Century China. Art between Identity and Transformation, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Roma, Italy
Selected, ShanghART H-Space, Shanghai
Academic and Un-Academic II, Exhibition of Yibo Gallery, Shanghai
2007
China's Neo Painting-A Triumph Over Images, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai
Beyond Icons: Chinese Contemporary Art in Miami, Miami Design District, Miami, U.S.A.
Wuhan 2nd Documentary Exhibition of Fine Arts, Hubei Museum of Art, Wuhan
Thermocline of Art, New Asian Waves, ZKM (Center for Art and Media), Karlsruhe, Germany
Individual Positions 1, ShanghART Gallery, Shanghai
Time Difference, Initial Access, Wolverhampton, UK
2006
Art in Motion, MoCA, Shanghai
Mahjong: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
Jianghu, Jack Tilton Art Galleries, New York, USA
Contemporary China, PKM Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2005
Mahjong, Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection, Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, Switzerland
Zhou Chunya, Zeng Fanzhi & Ji Dachun, Beijing
China, Contemporary Painting, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio, Bologna, Italy
2004
New Boundaries, Taikang Top Space, Beijing
The 1st Wu Han Nominative Exhibition of Fine Arts Literature, Art Gallery of Hubei Institute of Fine Arts
Face to Face, Six Artists and One Era, Robert & Li Art Gallery, Taiwan
Exhibition of Nominates for Art Documentation, Art Gallery of Hubei Academy of Art, Wuhan
2003
Contemporary Arts, 798 Space, Beijing
Invitational Gallery Exhibition, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai
Left Hand, Right Hand -, A Sino-German Exhibition of Contemporary Art, Beijing 798 Space Art & Culture, Beijing
2002
The First Guangzhou Trienniale - Reinterpretation: A Decade of Experimental Chinese Art (1990 - 2000), Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou
Korean and Chinese painting - 2002 New Expression, Seoul Arts Center, Korea
Paris-Pekin, Chinese Contemporary Art Exhibition, Espace Pierre Cardin, Paris, France
2001
Towards a New Image, Twenty Years of Chinese Contemporary Painting,, The National Art Museum of China, Beijing; Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai; Guangdong Art Museum, Guangzhou; Sichuan Modern Art Museum, Chengdu
2000
Chinese Muren Chinese Walls, Groningen, Netherlands
Futuro Chinese Contemporary Art, Contemporary Art Centre, Macau
1999
Chinese Oil Painting for Fifty years, International Exhibition Center, Beijing
Open Channels, The First Collecting Exhibition of Dong Yu Museum of Fine Arts, Dong Yu Museum, Shenyang
1998
Chinese Contemporary Art, Nikolaus Sonne Fine Arts, Berlin
It Is Me, Forbidden City, Beijing
1997
Quotation Marks, Chinese Contemporary Paintings, National Art Museum, Singapore
1996
The First Academic Exhibition of Chinese Art, China Art Gallery, Beijing: Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong
Reality: Present& Future- '96 Chinese Contemporary Art, International Art Palace, Beijing
China!, Touring Exhibition, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany
Existence and Environment the Chinese Way:The first Academic Exhibition of Chinese Contenporary Art, The Art Museum of Capital Normal University, Beijing
1995
Beyond Ideology: New Art from China, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Hamburg, Germany
Out of the Middle Kingdom:, Chinese Avant-Garde Art, Santa Monica Arts Centre, Barcelona, Spain
1994
New Art from China, Marlborough Fine Arts, London, UK
Chinese Oil Painting Exhibition, Fung Ping Shan Museum, Hong Kong University, Hong Kong
Exhibition of Works Selected By Art Critics, China Art Gallery, Beijng
1993
New Art From China, Marlborough Fine Arts, London, UK
China's New Art, Post-1989, Hong Kong Arts Centre and City Hall, Hong Kong
1992
Guangzhou Biennial-Oil Painting of the Nineties, Convention Centre, Guangzhou