KeYi Gallery is pleased to announce that the solo exhibition of Zhang Wenqiang, "Ridiculous Nostalgia " will open at KeYi Gallery in Beijing on June 14th, marking the artist's second solo exhibition at the gallery. The exhibition will feature over a dozen new works created between 2023 and 2024, and will run until July 28th.

Tarkovsky once said, "One of the most depressing things about our time is that we are tearing apart the very idea of something beautiful." The endemic emptiness of the human soul caused by a lack of inner values leads to a condition known as "hollowness," in which one's inner self is like a small boat adrift on an endless sea, not knowing where one is or where one is going, and occasionally feeling fear about the future. In a society characterized by ennui, people passively become involved in a life-devoid-of-individuality process, and the most vital part of human nature is trapped in an invisible and vast net. "Spiritual incapacity" is increasingly becoming a hallmark of modern people.

The works in this exhibition are a prose about the memory of one's hometown and people. The expression of psychological states and emotions shaped by the relationships between people and objects in one's memories, and the recalling of experiences in a way that involves a genuine emotional engagement with something false. The scenes in memory are imbued with a poetic sense of ambiguity due to the distance created by the displacement of time and space, much like "mirror flowers" and "water moon." In this series of works, the use of narcissus, fireworks, and starry skies is the concrete representation of certain emotions from memory. The works use black and white tones and a blurred form to subtly convey various allusions, giving a sense of ambiguous distance and image implication, intertwining pain and dreams. Everything is concrete, but everything is also uncertain. Uncertainty is the true depiction of the current situation where people face the contradiction between ideals and reality.

The creator has always played the role of a sorcerer. He does not solve problems, but rather raises questions, thereby summoning a powerful force to purify and heal. Artistic creation is like conducting an ancient religious ceremony, where the force to be summoned is the forgotten emotions, providing a place for the heart to find solace in a desert.