UPCOMING: "Control" by Li Erpeng
Tang Contemporary Art Bangkok | Curated by Fiona Lu
Magazine 43 once again proudly brings you, another exhilarating exhibition opening at Tang Contemporary Art, Bangkok this September!
Tang Contemporary Art is proud to announce the opening of “Control,” the latest solo exhibition for young Chinese artist Li Erpeng in its Bangkok space, from 18 September - 31 October 2021. After “Variance”, this is Li’s second solo show at Tang Contemporary Art, presenting more than twenty brilliant works spanning the last two years.
Imagining forms of life is a source of creative inspiration for Li Erpeng. He transfers living things invented in his mind onto the canvas, representing them as soft, energetic forms in primary colors. Relationships between objects that do not offer any clear references serve as metaphors, and perceptions that are distant from everyday objects, are depicted through these heterogeneous relationships to build a deeper synesthesia in the works. Li believes, “For viewers, my work is like an AR mirror—people are able to see meaning wrapped around their bodies”.
As a Gen Z artist, Li Erpeng is happy to absorb the products of the contemporary information age; the virtual world and cyborgs are a part of everyday life. For him, the virtual and the real, the realist and the abstract blend into one another, without boundaries between them. He uses realist brushwork to depict an abstract spiritual world. Highly saturated colors and dramatic forms accelerate and magnify existing thought processes. The tangled forms and bold use of pure color embody Li’s instinctive reactions, while also bringing the viewer into a happier state of mind.
Composition and politics are equally important in Li Erpeng’s work. Invented organisms, new chemically composed material elements, and pure, meaningless backgrounds highlight the boundaries of the material, creating a state of control that embodies both resistance and cooperation. Li’s organically constructed images invariably reflect a strong sense of power in both their origins and rationale. At the same time, the images require orderly governance and open competition; the inherent tension between governance’s need for discipline and liberation’s pursuit of freedom is unleashed. In the present era of social transformation, discontent, and upheaval, filled with portents of technological revolution, this tension is unusually enlightening. He masters these coexisting dangers and makes them ambiguous through a dramatic treatment of those relationships. This effort to eliminate a crisis achieves a kind of communal joy, and the beauty of the smooth textures add further interest to Li’s body of work.
About the Artist
Born in 1995, Dalian, Liaoning Province, China, Li Erpeng graduated from the Oil Painting Department at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in 2018, and he currently lives and works in Beijing.
He has received First Prize for the Fine Arts at CAFA, the Inter Youth Artwork Award (2015), the Inter Youth Innovation Award (2016), the Originality at the Academy New Talent Award and the Outstanding Artwork Award from the Oil Painting Department at CAFA (2016). His graduation work Objects from an Ideal World was added to the permanent LYC Collection (CAFA Art Museum). In 2020, his work was collected by White Rabbit Gallery in Australia and recommended by TARGET magazine.
Tang Contemporary Art
Tang Contemporary Art was established in 1997 in Bangkok, later establishing galleries in Beijing and Hong Kong. Tang Contemporary Art is fully committed to producing critical projects and exhibitions to promote Contemporary Chinese art regionally and worldwide, and encourage a dynamic exchange between Chinese artists and those abroad.
Acting as one of the most progressive and critically driven exhibition spaces in China, the gallery strives to initiate dialogue between artists, curators, collectors and institutions working both locally and internationally. A roster of groundbreaking exhibitions has earned Tang Contemporary Art internationally renowned recognition, establishing its status as a pioneer of the contemporary art scene in Asia.
Tang Contemporary Art represents leading figures in Chinese art including Ai Weiwei, Huang Yongping, Shen Yuan, Wang Du, Liu Xiaodong, Yang Jiechang, Xia Xiaowan, Sun Yuan & Peng Yu, Yan Lei, Wang Yin, Wang Yuping, Yangjiang Group, Guo Wei, Zheng Guogu, Lin Yilin, He An, Zhao Zhao, Wang Yuyang, Weng Fen, Yang Yong, Xu Qu, Xu Xiaoguo, Ji Zhou, Cai Lei, Ling Jian, Liu Yujia, Zhu Jinshi, Qin Qi, Chen Yujun, Chen Yufan and Chen Wenbo, additionally collaborating with international artists such as H.H.Lim, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Sakarin Krue-On, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Adel Abdessemed, Dinh Q.Le, Michael Zelehoski, Jennifer Wen Ma, Rodel Tapaya, Natee Utarit and Heri Dono.
To know more about the artist and the gallery, please view or contact:
Li Erpeng
Instagram: @li_erpeng
Tang Contemporary Art, Bangkok
Location: Room 201 - 206, River City Bangkok, 23 Soi Charoenkrung 24, Talad Noi, Sampantawong, Bangkok, 10100
Hours: 11AM - 7PM, Tuesday - Sunday
Email: bkk@tanggallery.vip
Tel: +662 000 1541
Website: www.tangcontemporary.com
Facebook: @tangcontemporaryartbangkok
Instagram: @tangcontemporaryart
LINE: @tangbkk