Essay

Boring Man：Zhang Wei Solo Exhibition
Liu Hongxiao

Large, clean color patches and placid scenes of daily life constitute my first impression of Zhang Wei’s artworks. Benefitting from his background in printmaking, Zhang Wei is accustomed to constructing his painting with flat strokes. Community, lakeside, pitch, and museum…… He seems persistent in depicting every bit of his everyday life without sparing any details. It is hard to perceive obvious joy and sorrow in his works, but the looming thoughts always cover it lightly like gauze. Zhang Wei set his quiet eyes on the fishing men by the lake, the harried courier in the community, and the silent audience in the museum. These pieces define the living environment, which is not only for Zhang Wei but also for the new generation of young artists. Unlike the older generation of artists who have already been through those profound historical periods, Zhang Wei, a young artist born in 1989, draws his creativity from a source distinctively different from old generations. However, people in each generation have their precious memories and feelings, and they may not understand each other easily. Still, the emotions contained therein are sincere and effective are the same.

Without deep and painful life experiences and psychological struggles, no unspeakable sensitive topics, and endless conflicts and disputes, Zhang Wei’s works may seem a little boring at first glance, just like life itself. However, daily life has its powers, and the bits and pieces happening each day will become the proof of our lives. There are almost unlimited interpretations of an artwork or an artist. In the conversation with Zhang Wei, he said that when his work is presented, he hopes the viewer feels simple, calm, and even dull because this is the real himself. No need to be acme; the truth is enough. Indeed, there is no lack of sophisticated theories and grand ideas in this era. A chance to take a little breath or a moment of peace might be the real precious treasure. Ultimately, if letting people have a moment of little peace is the purpose Zhang Wei wishes to achieve, I think he made it. His works are just like a small lake far from the noisy urban area but still reflect the lights of thousands of homes calmly and gently.

Zhang Wei's simple figure
Bao Dong

With large-scale single color, clear tone, generalized modeling, simplified outline, and the accompanying sense of model, Zhang Wei's painting transforms the world in his eyes into a straightforward one, which seems to be the scenery and props on the stage. Those landscapes, characters, and things are specially designed by him and placed there so that the daily life is seen every day can obtain a kind of still life tranquility.

His idea of transforming the anytime anywhere sights into painting probably comes from the sketching training in the Chinese fine arts educational systems. But for today's viewers living in urban, the object they see is no longer the custom painting scene of production, life, and labor sketched by the traditional "in-depth life" painting, but the strange people, strange things, and strange space they may encounter. The painter doesn't have to tell a story to connect these things with people. He needs to show the encounter he sees. Defamiliarization is occurring in today's life and forms at any time. Therefore, Zhang Wei's paintings have a sense of alienation in this time, as if he is a person who stays out of the world.

There are many traces of printmaking language in these extemporaneous works. For example, the simple and direct color should come from the chromatic style, and the flatness and silhouette modeling is also joint in printmaking, especially woodcut. Printmaking used to be a painting with a familiar flavor, both in content and transmission methods. But in this image flooding era, printmaking's original popular and civilian significance has disappeared. However, the unique thinking of printmaking continues in many artists' creations. For Zhang Wei, the critical factor of printmaking is the modular working mode. He separates and splits people, things, and scenes, combining and generating them continuously. On the other hand, Zhang Wei removed printmaking's original public education color and turned it into a convenient visual diary, telling the most common and plain leisure in today's urban life.

Zhang Wei's creation can be divided into two themes. One is a wandering viewing state, including roads, lakes, lawns, communities, roadside people, animals, and vehicles. The other is a kind of static gaze. Starting from his familiar studio and exhibition space, he refined the space experience conventional to the art world. Therefore, he strengthened the density of paint, such as subtle distinctions in color, more details in modeling, and strict structure of the picture. In his new works about exhibition space, the audiences in the painting seem to be focusing on their own viewing, who are immersing in an absolute theater, and they are also the watching objects of the painter at the same time. In this gaze, Zhang Wei seems to be establishing a metaphysical order and the ability to observe, organize and edit the world, which is the inherent part of the painting, but currently seems to be forgotten.

About the artist

Zhang Wei, b.1989, Graduated from printmaking department of the Hubei Institute of Fine Art (HIFA) with a master’s degree in 2017. He currently lives and works in Wuhan.

Solo Exhibitions: 2022, Boring Man: Zhang Wei Solo Exhibition, Fine Arts Literature Art Center, Wuhan; 2020, Busy Bunny, The Space Gallery, Shanghai; 2019, A Clearing: Zhang Wei Solo Exhibition, Fine Arts Literature Art Center, Wuhan.

Group Exhibitions: 2022, Picker, Painting Art Villain Shop, Beijing; 2021, Spirit of Youth-Triennial of Chinese Industrial Art prints, Hubei Museum of Art, Wuhan; 2019, Rolling Green In China, social Welfare art project, Artron Art center, Shenzhen; 2019, Bamboo Shoots with Pork & Ham, Star Space, Beijing; 2019, linking All Together-Exchange Exhibition of Young Printmaker's Creations, Hubei Museum of Art, Wuhan; 2017, Refocusing | Opening Exhibition of Fine Arts literature Art Center's New Space, Fine Arts literature Art Center, Wuhan; 2017, The Apple Incident, Dream Co., Beijing; 2016, The 7th Hubei Printmaking Exhibition, Hubei Artists Association, Hubei; 2016, You won't be young forever, Road Guangfu No.235, Shanghai; 2014, Clean-Limited Free Time: the 3rd project young artists.