Between Perfection and Destruction:
Fang Lijun Porcelain Sculpture

ARTIST ：Fang Lijun

DURATION：2023.06.01 - 06.30

VENUE：ESKENAZI 
10 Clifford Street, London, W1S 2LJ

Artist Fang Lijun (b.1963) will present a solo exhibition, Between Perfection and Destruction: Fang Lijun Porcelain Sculpture, in Eskenazi (London, UK) from June 1st to 30th. This will be the artist's first solo exhibition in the UK.

As one of the leading artists of the 1990s Cynical Realism movement in China, Fang Lijun has gained international recognition for his large-scale paintings of figures with shaven heads and exaggerated facial features. However, Fang’s versatility as an artist is seen in his ability to switch between different media including oils, woodblock prints and ceramics depending on his expressive needs. The current exhibition highlights nine porcelain sculptures – diaphanous, stacked modular constructions - which explore Fang’s interest in the state of flux between perfection and destruction. These are accompanied by preparatory ink sketches which provide an insight into his working methods and by two striking ink portraits.

EXHIBITED WORKS

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Fang Lijun was born in Handan, Hebei Province, China in 1963. He graduated from the Printmaking Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1989, and later became a professional painter, and now lives in Beijing. As the most important representative of China’s post 89 new art trends, Fang Lijun created the discourse mode of "Cynical Realism" together with other artists of this trend, and created the image of "Shaved Head" created in a series of works since 1988, as a classic symbol of contemporary art, presenting the boring mood and the vicious living state of China in the first half of the 1980s and the 1990s, or more broadly speaking, it symbolizes the humanistic and psychological feelings of contemporary people.

Fang Lijun has held exhibitions in major art institutions and galleries, including Ludwig Museum Koblenz, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Japan Foundation, Ariana Museum in Geneva, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Turin, Macaw Museum of Art, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Shanghai Art Museum, Hunan Museum, Beijing Minsheng Art Museum and the etc. His participation includes the Venice Biennale, Sǎo Paulo Biennial, Kwangju Art Biennial, and Shanghai Biennial. His works are collected by The Museum of Modern Art (USA), Seattle Art Museum(USA), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (USA), Centre de G. Pompidou (France), Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst (Germany), Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam(Holland), The National Gallery of Australia (Australia), Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (Japan), Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo(Japan), Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art(Japan), National Art Museum of China(China), Shanghai Art Museum (China), Guangdong Art Museum (China), He Xiangning Art Museum (China), Hunan Museum（China）, CAFA Art Museum(China). He is one of the Chinese contemporary artists with the most extensive collection by major art institutions worldwide.

He has published 56 personal albums and related publications, including Fang Lijun: Chronicles, Fang Lijun: Criticism, Fang Lijun: Works of Art,FANG LIJUN, Fang Lijun：The Precipice Over the Clouds, Fang Lijun: Espaces Interdits Forbidden Areas, Fang Lijun：Woodcuts, Live Like A Wild Dog, Etc. Fang Lijun has been invited as a visiting professor and graduate supervisor in 23 universities, including Central Academy of Fine Arts, Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, Jingdezhen Ceramic University, Xi 'an Academy of Fine Arts, etc. In 1993, his painting "Series 2, No. 2" appeared on the cover of the New York Times Magazine.