Chinese artist Shen Liang is back to Tang Contemporary Art Bangkok with his solo exhibition, "Ever Young", which is running until Jan 30.
On display are 99 paintings and sculptures created by using a variety of tools and mediums to reflect two different personalities of the 43-year-old artist -- one is peaceful and steady and the other is often excitable and joyful as a young man.
His work has evolved across three distinct stages, from his early nostalgic paintings done in thick oils, which later developed into his Trivialities series in brush, acrylic, and charcoal powder on wrapping paper.
His most recent evolution is an extension of his This Is A Book series, and includes other small paintings on paper and his Birding Project series of superlight clay sculptures.
In this new phase, he boldly uses brushes, acrylic paints, gel pens, paint markers, ballpoint pens, highlighters, and a combination of many tools and mediums to create a complex and uncontrollable effect.
While his early thicker oil paintings imbue two-dimensional images with more materiality, transforming painting into an object not just an image, the acrylic and charcoal powder on paper gives an abstract feel, rescuing painting from a preoccupation with subject matter.
However, fun is shone through the lines and scrawls of his early classic images which feature traditional opera characters before he placed sarcasm into his paper-based series Night Shift, Streetwalker, Amour and Love Across The Mountains And Seas, which developed from This Is A Book, a series of humorous points that blow hot and cold occasionally veer into biting satire.
The Birding Project series comprises more than 800 of somewhat erotic sculptures while his recent small-scale paintings on paper closely adhere to his personal emotions and tastes. They are sometimes exciting, full of chance elements. Some are good and some are bad, but all abound in uncertainty and release the utmost joy.
Tang Contemporary Art is located at Room 201-206 at River City Bangkok, Charoen Krung 24 and opens Tuesday to Sunday from 11am to 7pm.
Visit tangcontemporary.com or call 02-000-1541.
