Since the early 1990s, Wang Xingwei (b. 1969, Shenyang; lives and works in Beijing) has pioneered a painterly vision that links Chinese contemporary art intelligently to its Western referents, socialist realist precedents, and immediate cultural context through a universe of recurring characters rendered in seemingly infinite subtle variations of style and composition. Wang is reflexive about the visual language he has inherited, but relentlessly inventive in its deployment. An artist known for his quirky sensibility and sharp wit, Wang freely appropriates style and content from different traditions, employing them in highly creative and dramatic scenarios.
Comprising 74 works, the exhibition features a maze-like, non-chronological layout in which the space is subdivided into three major sections based on the relationship of the painter or viewer to the figure depicted: rear views, profiles, and frontal views. This logic paradoxically also serves to group the works thematically and serially. Most of the works on view have been borrowed back from private collections in Europe and throughout China, and have never before been seen together.
“Wang Xingwei” represents the culmination of a long collaboration between UCCA and the artist. One of the original artists to enter the collection of the Fondation Guy & Myriam Ullens, Wang worked last year on the final episode in UCCA's “Curated By…” series, producing an exhibition of seven young painters whose work explored similar themes to his own. Wang also has a painting on view in the concurrent exhibition “DUCHAMP and/or/in CHINA,” which positions one of Wang's artistic heroes in relation to the Chinese scene.
In bringing together Wang's key achievements of the first two decades of his career, this exhibition will contribute significantly to the reassessment and elevation of a key figure in contemporary Chinese art, who through the complexity of his vision proves the depth and richness of the tradition to which he belongs.
Installation View, Photo: Luke Walker
Installation View, Photo: Luke Walker
Installation View, Photo: Luke Walker
Installation View, Photo: Luke Walker
Installation View, Photo: Luke Walker
Installation View, Photo: Luke Walker
Installation View, Photo: Luke Walker
Installation View, Photo: Luke Walker
Installation View, Photo: Luke Walker
Installation View, Photo: Luke Walker
Installation View, Photo: Luke Walker
Installation View, Photo: Luke Walker
Installation View, Photo: Luke Walker
Installation View, Photo: Luke Walker
Installation View, Photo: Luke Walker
Installation View, Photo: Luke Walker
No Matter How Busy He is, Brother-in-law won't Forget You, 2001, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 300 cm, Private collection, Beijing
Untitled (Hostess and nurse in a raft), 2005,Oil on canvas,195 x 222 cm, Private collection, Switzerland Courtesy galerie Urs Meile
Untitled (Large rowboat), 2006, Oil on canvas, 200 x 260 cm, M+ Sigg Collection
Untitled (Medium Rowboat), 2006,Oil on canvas,120 x 160 cm, Erlenmeyer Foundation, Switzerland Courtesy galerie Urs Meile
Untitled (Man Hugging a Tree), 2006, Oil on canvas,163 x 136 cm, Private collection, Switzerland Courtesy Galerie Urs Meile
Untitled (Nurse and Trees), 2005, Oil on canvas,184 x 140 cm, Collection of Ellen and Michael Ringier, Switzerland, Courtesy galerie Urs Meile
Untitled (Nurse Hugging a Tree), 2006, Oil on canvas, 135 x 135 cm, Colonnello Collection, Italy, Courtesy Galerie Urs Meile
Untitled (Bonsai Old Lady), 2012, Oil on canvas, 150 x 180 cm, Private collection, Taipei Courtesy Galerie Urs Meile
Untitled (Flowerpot Old Lady), 2011, Oil on canvas, 117 x 91.5 cm, Private collection, Beijing
Untitled (Old Lady No. 2), 2011, Oil on canvas,120 x 120 cm, Collection He Jing Yuan Art Museum
Untitled (Small Old Lady on the Balcony), 2011, Oil on canvas, 80 x 80 cm, Courtesy Galerie Urs Meile
Untitled (Penguin Trolleys), 2008, Oil on canvas, 200 x 200 cm, Erlenmeyer Foundation, Switzerland Courtesy Galerie Urs Meile
Untitled (Death of a Panda), 2004, Oil on canvas, 154 x 199 cm, Private collection, Switzerland Courtesy Galerie Urs Meile
Untitled (Golf Player and Watermelons No. 1), 2005, Oil on canvas, 137 x 210 cm, Private collection, Beijing
Untitled (Outing), 1999, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 280 cm, Guan Yi Contemporary Art Archive
Untitled, (Moondoor), 2007, Oil on canvas, 200 x 200 cm, Courtesy Galerie Urs Meile
Untitled (Breasts), 2007, Oil on canvas, 135 x 135 cm, Manuel Salvisberg, Lucerne Courtesy Galerie Urs Meile
Nude, 2003, Oil on corrugated board, 210 x 180 cm, Private collection, Switzerland Courtesy Galerie Urs Meile
Female Body and Geometric solid, 2011, Oil on canvas, 70 x 60 cm, Collection of Urs Meile, Switzerland Courtesy Galerie Urs Meile
Untitled (Three Nudes), 2002, Oil on canvas, 196 x 153 cm, Courtesy Galerie Urs Meile
Untitled (Selling Eggs), 2007, Oil on canvas, 240 x 200 cm, Collection of Qiao Zhibing, Courtesy Galerie Urs Meile
A Sunday Afternoon in the Youth Park, 2009, Oil on canvas, 165 x 300 cm, M+ Sigg Collection, Hong Kong
Untitled (Riding a Leather Suitcase), 2004, Oil on canvas, 135 x 163 cm, Private collection, Switzerland Courtesy Galerie Urs Meile
Dawn, 1994, Oil on canvas, 240 x 300 cm, Courtesy Hanart TZ gallery
My Beautiful Life, 1993–1995, Oil on canvas, 180 x 240 cm, Sigg Collection
Blind, 1996, Oil on canvas, 200 x 180 cm, Fondation Guy & Myriam Ullens
Untitled (Penguin and Hole), 2004, Oil on corrugated board, 94 x 211 cm, Erlenmeyer Foundation, Switzerland Courtesy Galerie Urs Meile
Ascending, 1999, acrylic on canvas, 84 x 198 cm, Modern Chinese Art Foundation, Belgium
Untitled (Inverted Image), 2003, acrylic on canvas and corrugated board, 240 x 190 cm, Private collection, Switzerland Courtesy Galerie Urs Meile
All Happy Families are similar (1), 1994, Oil on canvas, 240 x 170 cm
Mao Yan, 2010, Oil on canvas, 200 x 160 cm, Private collection, Switzerland Courtesy Galerie Urs Meile
Comrade Xiao He No. 4, 2008, Oil on canvas, 100 x 80 cm, Private collection, Switzerland Courtesy Galerie Urs Meile
Untitled (Painter), 2011, Oil on canvas, 150 x 120 cm, Erlenmeyer Foundation, Switzerland Courtesy Galerie Urs Meile
Untitled (Figure Seen From The Back), 2009, Oil on canvas, 200 x 200 cm, Private collection, Switzerland Courtesy Galerie Urs Meile
Little Navy, 2006, Oil on canvas, 115 x 163 cm, Private collection, Beijing
Pura Tanah Lot Temple, 2011, Oil on canvas, 150 x 150 cm, Sigg Collection, Courtesy Galerie Urs Meile
Untitled (Comedy), 2010, Oil on canvas 301 x 398 cm, Collection of Qiao Zhibing
The East is Red, 1995, Oil on canvas, 180 x 180 cm, Private collection, Switzerland Courtesy Galerie Urs Meile
Eight Women’s Suicide in a River, 2003, Oil on canvas, 195 x 300 cm, Private collection, Beijing
Developmental Step,1997, Oil on canvas, 130 x 440 cm, Guan Yi Contemporary Art Archive Developmental Step,1997, Oil on canvas, 130 x 440 cm, Guan Yi Contemporary Art Archive Developmental Step,1997, Oil on canvas, 130 x 440 cm, Guan Yi Contemporary Art Archive
Standard Expression oF after 1989, 1995, Oil on canvas, 150 x 200 cm, Private collection, Shanghai
Untitled (Watering Flowers), 2013, oil on canvas, 240 x 200 cm. Courtesy the artist and Galerie Urs Meile.
Major support for this exhibition comes from — Qiao Zhibing and Galerie Urs Meile, with additional support from the Fondation Guy & Myriam Ullens
