Phosphorous Red
Solo Exhibition: Ye Nan
June 3 – June 26, 2010
Opening reception: June 3, 6-8 pm
A World of Yesterday and Tomorrow
Recent Works by Yuan Yuan
July 1 - August 7, 2010
Opening reception: July 1, 6-8 pm
Chambers Fine Art New York is pleased to announce Ye Nan’s Phosphorous Red and Yuan Yuan’s A World of
Yesterday and Tomorrow - two very different solo shows to be shown consecutively that demonstrate the range
and promise of new work being produced by younger artists in China today.
As the Chinese contemporary art movement comes of age this exhibition shows clearly not only how different
schools of thought are emerging but also the importance of transmission from teacher to pupil. Both artists were
fortunate to have studied under internationally acclaimed artists: Ye Nan under Qiu Zhijie, a prominent figure at
the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou and Yuan Yuan under painter Yu Hong, professor at Beijing’s Central
Academy of Fine Arts. While Yuan Yuan and Ye Nan’s works may be dissimilar they both ultimately offer, in a
way that may emerge as characteristic of their generation, honest and personal statements on the world around
them.
Ye Nan (born in 1984 in Hangzhou) engages us directly with great, sometimes imponderable questions. As a
student at the China Academy of Art, he participated in the activities associated with Qiu Zhijie’s radical
rethinking of the curriculum known as “art in general,” a practice rooted as much in social investigation and
archival research as in the production of conventional works of art. In the series of prints collectively titled
Phosphorous Red the artist has perfected a technique of applying phosphorous liquid, like that used in the
manufacture of matches, onto hand-made paper. These bold images contain a wide range of references including
space travel and colonization, the principles of chemistry and physics, nationalism, politics and rock music.
Philip Tinari has described his maroon as “red inflected with black, and thus removed from the register of
political signification. The substance it forms is one of low-budget productivity and constant danger, implicitly
evoking the conditions in which he has come of age.” In Beijing prints from the regular edition of three were
exhibited. For New York, the artist has created a new series of unique prints, using collage and mineral colors to
modify and comment on the original image.
Exhibited in the smaller gallery is Vulture, a large painting executed in phosphorous on canvas. Referring to the
installation in Chambers Fine Art Beijing, Ye Nan commented that “The wall is covered in match head material
which contains phosphorous, transforming the surface into a huge match-like plane. By continually drawing
matches across the surface of the wall an image emerges made up of traces of blackened flame. Exhausted
matches are abandoned on the ground like a memorial commemorating fleeting moments of past time”.
Accompanying the exhibition is a fully illustrated catalog with introductory essays by critic Philip Tinari as well
as extended interviews: Qiu Zhijie with Ye Nan and Yu Hong with Yuan Yuan.
For further information please contact the gallery at +1 212 414 1169 or cfa@chambersfineart.com
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