For Immediate Release:
December 5, 2008
SEASONS
Recent Works by Hong Lei
January 8 – February 21, 2009
Artist reception: Thursday, January 8, 2009 6-8pm
Chambers Fine Art announces the opening on January 8th, 2009 of Seasons: Hong Lei’s Recent Works.
Born in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province in 1960, Hong Lei graduated from the Nanjing Academy of Art in
1987. Abandoning oil painting in the mid-1990s, he turned to photography as a medium for the exploration
of a wide range of cultural issues. Among the images that first attracted international attention were Autumn
in the Forbidden City (West Veranda), 1997 and Chinese Landscape (Zhuozheng Gardens), 1998, views of
the supreme symbol of imperial power and a traditional Chinese garden suffused with ominous washes of
red pigment.
As familiar with the great cultural achievements of the Song Dynasty as he was with the latest photographic
techniques, Hong Lei continued his investigations by recreating the former in terms of the latter. In works
such as After Song Dynasty Circle Series, 2000 and After Song Dynasty “Sakyamuni Coming out of the
Mountains” by Liang Kai, 1998, the camera lens is unsparing in its recording of the troubling aspects of the
subject matter, a dead bird in one of the images from the Circle Series and the disheveled, un-idealized
figure of Sakyamuni.
After the success of his two exhibitions at Chambers Fine Art New York – Hong Lei’s Narrative, 2003 and
Transmitting the Ancient, 2006 - Hong Lei makes his third appearance at Chambers Fine Art New York
with a new series of paintings based on his own photographs of landscapes and gardens. In three large
paintings executed in fabric pigment on silk, the dark tonality of the medium creates an aura of mystery as
unexpected elements disturb the tranquility of the scene. In fifteen vertical paintings named after the
traditional Chinese agricultural calendar which was followed by farmers for planting, harvesting and
storing crops, Hong Lei superimposes white silk panels embroidered with symbolic plants and animals
above dark toned images of gardens related to the larger paintings but lacking their air of menace.
Having largely abandoned painting for the greater part of his professional career, Hong Lei increasingly felt
the desire to extend the range of his activities and work on a lager scale. Whilst the subject matter has not
changed, his new works are striking evidence of his ability to find creative solutions to formal and technical
problems. Always noted for their technical finesse, Hong Lei’s new works succeed in fusing separate
aspects of his previous practices – painting, photography and embroidery – into a series of hauntingly
hybrid works.
For further information, please contact the gallery at 212.414.1169 or cfa@chambersfineart.com
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