Art Weekly: The Language of Mediums

Of artists, Freud once said, “for these people, meaning does not matter. They are only interested in the harmony between lines, shapes, and borders.” In this week's Art Weekly, we look at language of the arts and how specific mediums, whether it be paint, installation, or photography, allow the artist to speak in different ways.

If you are looking for more art around Beijing, there are plenty more choices here.

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Until Nov 3: Bu Di 2016
Born in 1970, 46-year-old artist Bu Di published his very first book of paintings when he was nine, and opened his first solo show in Hong Kong when he was 16. From his recent paintings, you can see that he attempts to avoid formation and refinement in his work; using layers of accumulation to make abstract landscapes that lead us into our inner world. Chinese classical painting traditions and western painting methods are both used in his artwork, combining to define Bu Di's language of painting. Hive Center for Contemporary Art

Until Nov 3: Clue
There are still two days to catch the end of Gu Liang's solo show at Hive Center for Contemporary Art. Graduating from Academy of Fine Arts in Xi’an, he has since been involved in several shows around the world. This exhibition features a number of his more recent works, including pieces that exhibit his signature use of multi-dimensional space of lines, light, and shadow. A lot of materials are used to create his artworks on canvas, believing that lines create the first dimension, light creates the second, and shadow constructs the third. Interaction of lines and shadow develops the fourth dimension, and the whole planar layout produces the fifth. Hive Center for Contemporary Art

Until Nov 5: On Reading and Writing
Cheng Lianggang currently has a solo exhibition at Red Gate Gallery. Cheng's artworks are composed of tiny boxes, which in his opinion give varying objects a overarching symbiosis: “they are different, it can be a person, a building, or a city. It can be a second, a day, a year ... or a slip of paper, a page from the book, or a paragraph of history. They can be different individuals; also can be considered as a whole thing.” The rhythm of his artwork is constantly changing. Red Gate Gallery

Until Nov 5: Facing the Wild Future
Zheng Pingping's solo exhibition Facing the Wild Future at Hunsand Space includes 10 landscapes and 40 portrait works. Zheng’s portraits and landscapes work as a transmitting media to minimize the conceptual nature of his work, which present themselves as passive context for the audience's viewing. Hunsand Space

Until Nov 6: Before the Beginning and after the End II
Borrowing the title from T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, this group of young artists' first group show was in 2014. Now, Long March Space launches the second group show with installations, videos, and paintings from 13 artists. Some of the works mark a turning point or a new direction for many of these artists. Long March Space

More stories by this author here.

Email: tracywang@thebeijinger.com
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Photos courtesy of organizers