# Bukchon-ro 5-gil, Jongno-gu
Seoul, 110-200 South Korea
Friday, June 13, 2014–Sunday, July 13, 2014
Period | 2014. 6. 13(Fri) - 7. 13(Sun)
Opening Reception | June 13th 2014, 6pm
Venue | ARARIO GALLERY SEOUL
Hours | 10 AM – 7 PM (Closed on Mondays)
ARARIO GALLERY Seoul introduces Yan Heng (b.1982)’s first solo exhibition in Korea, entitled Highway Inn from June 13 to July 13. Yan Heng, who is one of the most promising young artists in China introduces his figurative and narrative oil paintings in this exhibition. Coupling with his imagination, he visualizes inner desires, ironies and ceaseless conflicts of the contemporaries that have to survive in the fast-changing times.
Unlike other contemporary Chinese artists using various mediums such as sculpture, video or installation, Yan Heng focuses on traditional Chinese painting, and sharply analyzes phenomenon that past and present of Chinese society left, using his own symbolic images and mechanical devices. His such analysis contains satire and agony on the current age, but suggests deep understanding of object and phenomenon as well as insight and intuition about truth with metaphorical symbols and detailed settings.
About the Exhibition Title, Highway Inn
In China, there are inns along the highway or places like camping sites where long distance drivers can stop by and rest. These are called 汽车旅館, which means “Highway Inn”. Various factors you see in the works displayed in this solo exhibition don’t directly relate to the highway inn. The Inn the artist describes is a highway inn comprising particular linguistic environments, and a public place located in some suburb. The metaphor of a highway inn coincides with each stage of progression in the artist’s creative life. An exhibition is like a short stay or reprieve after a long distance trip to the artist. The excitement and solitude he feels in the creative process, being hassled by something, conflicting elements, and a certain degree of self-abuse all come together and constitute this long journey.
About Artist
Yan Heng, representing the young and promising artists in China, graduated from the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts, one of the top painting universities in China, majored in oil painting. He focuses on the figurative and expressive quality of the traditional painting.