F2 Gallery presents the solo exhibition entitled “Rumor” by multimedia contemporary Chinese artist Wu Junyong from September 3rd to November 7th, 2011. The exhibition will feature a dozen of the artist’s recent and new paintings, as well as works on paper. Opening Reception on Sat, September 3, from 3-6 pm.
Wu was greatly encouraged to practice art since his childhood years by his family members. When he grew up, he was greatly influenced by local folk arts, Cultural Revolution propaganda art and the Socialist Realism from the Soviet Union. The idea that art is to serve a political purpose is rooted in his way of thinking, and it is present in his works.
As a sequel of his solo exhibition “Cloud’s Nightmare” that was held at Fabien Fryns Fine Art, Los Angeles in 2010, the exhibition “Rumor” is the result of Wu’s continuous artistic investigation of his long term interest in Chinese folklores and idioms. Since 2008, Wu have been working on his “A Dictionary of Slang” project. Based on Chinese slang and idioms that he has gathered from daily life, he translates their literal meanings directly into imageries with a great sense of dark humor.
Wu’s works are stamped by his unique visual vocabulary, with wicked story-telling imageries and symbolism. His works largely explore the delicate human relations and the absurdity in the current social and political lives, and are rendered in media varying from drawing and painting to sculpture and animated video work. His fable-inspired narratives knit a social portrait wavering between reality and fantasy, and are derived from the border area of physiology and sociology. The metaphors that he borrowed from folklores and idioms that he grew up with become his creative materials and means for him to convey his sharp and sarcastic commentaries on the current social situation. His former teacher Zhang Peili comments: "Wu Junyong has an acute mind to capture the hot spot of Internet media. His works manifests social psyches of various sorts of people; they are penetrating and straightforward, highly critical and entertaining."
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Wu Junyong was born in Fujian Province in1978. In 2000, he graduated from China Academy of Art in Hangzhou with a BFA in Printmaking. In 2005, he also earned his MFA in New Media Arts from the same school. Besides being a professional artist, Wu also teaches at the Total Art department of China Academy of Art. Since 2002, Wu has been exhibiting extensively at home and abroad. His selected recent solo exhibitions include Rumor, F2 Gallery, Beijing (2011); Cloud’s Nightmare, Fabien Fryns Fine Art, Los Angeles (2010); DUET – Wu Junyong Solo Exhbition, ART ISSUE PROJECTS, Beijing (2011); The End of Rainbow, ifa Gallery, Shanghai (2010); Totalitarian Portrait, Art HK, F2 Gallery (2010); Club Primavera, Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong (2008). His selected recent group exhibitions include: The Tao of Now, The White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney, Australia (2011); France Tours Asian Film Festival, France (2011); MADE IN POP LAND, the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea (2010); Do You See What I Mean?, Fabien Fryns Fine Art, Los Angeles (2010); Generation Hangzhou 2.0, F2 Gallery, Beijing (2009); Farewell to Post-Colonialism, The Third Guangzhouo Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art (2008). Wu now lives and works in Beijing and Hangzhou.