UCCA Beijing

Wang Xingwei

2013.5.19 - 2013.8.18

2013

oil on canvas

240×200 cm

Courtesy the artist and Galerie Urs Meile.

About

Location:  Great Hall

Regarded as one of China's most mature and wide-ranging contemporary painters, Wang Xingwei will mount a large-scale retrospective in UCCA's Great Hall. In keeping with the artist's famously quirky sensibility, the exhibition will be organized neither chronologically nor by subject matter, but by the relationship of the subject to the canvas, with four main sections devoted to works in frontal, rear, profile, and partial profile, including nearly a third of his total output since he began painting in 1991. This exhibition is curated by Philip Tinari and will be accompanied by an exhibition catalogue.

For more information, please read the "Wang Xingwei" press release.

News

“The show covers a group of paintings,which highlights Wang’s career in the past two decades.The works illustrate both the depth of his talent and his exploration about social changes.”
—China Daily

“Wang’s works are full of seemingly haphazard art historical references and self-references.”
—Sotheby's

“A local perspective on the global force that is the west’s modern art history.”
—FT.com

“The show covers a group of paintings,which highlights Wang’s career in the past two decades.The works illustrate both the depth of his talent and his exploration about social changes.”
—China Daily

“A local perspective on the global force that is the west’s modern art history.”
—Sotheby's

Works in the exhibition

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Blind

1996

Oil on Canvas
200 x 180 cm
Guy and Myriam Ullens Foundation

Untitled (Flowerpot Old Lady)

2011

Oil on canvas
117 x 91.5 cm
Private collection, Beijing

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

Brother-in-Law Is Busy Again But Didn't Forget You

2001

Oil on canvas
200 x 300 cm
Private collection, Beijing

Untitled (Flowerpot)

2009

Oil on canvas
240 x 200 cm
Collection of Ellen and Michael Ringier, Switzerland
Courtesy Galerie Urs Meile

Poor Old Hamilton

1996

Oil on canvas
220 x 180 cm
Private collection, Beijing

Red East

1995

Oil on canvas
180 x 180 cm
Private collection, Switzerland
Courtesy Galerie Urs Meile

Developmental Step (1 of 4)

1997

Oil on canvas
130 x 440 cm
Guan Yi Contemporary Art Archive

Developmental Step (2 of 4)

1997

Oil on canvas
130 x 440 cm
Guan Yi Contemporary Art Archive

Developmental Step (3 of 4)

1997

Oil on canvas
130 x 440 cm
Guan Yi Contemporary Art Archive

Developmental Step (4 of 4)

1997

Oil on canvas
130 x 440 cm
Guan Yi Contemporary Art Archive

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Installation Views

Installation Views

1 / 16

Publications

Wang Xingwei

I see the artist as a postman, delivering letters. He should not be overly curious about what is inside the envelopes.
–Wang Xingwei

In the two decades of his mature output, Wang Xingwei has created an artistic universe all his own, where references collide, characters recur, and styles proliferate, all articulated in a deliciously skillful range of styles. In this, the artist’s most comprehensive monograph to date, 109 color plates are non- chronologically featured in three major sections based on the relationship of the painter or viewer to the figure depicted: rear views, profiles, and frontal views. Accompanying texts by art scholars, curators, and critics Raphael Gygax, Zhang Li, and Nataline Colonnello, in addition to a foreword by UCCA director Philip Tinari, make this an essential document of one of China’s most intriguing painters.

Published in conjunction with the artist’s first large-scale retrospective exhibition, “Wang Xingwei,” held at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing.