HU Zi: Lover: Solo Exhibition
Past exhibition
Installation Views
Overview
HU Zi
Keith Richards 1977, 2015
Gouache on paper 纸上水粉
50 x 54.5 cm
Fab-Union Space in collaboration with Don Gallery co-host the solo show of HU Zi which is curated by Robin Peckham. 40 recent works of gouache on paper and oil on wood-board will be on display, all from the last one and half years. They are composed of a group of portraits that continue her ongoing historical and
social network-making, a set of smaller pieces that break down the components of the body, and the more conceptual series “Lover”. These groups of work are independent while interconnected and resoluble, stand up to closer reading.
“Lover” is a rich network of layered allusions that draws on both of these categories and builds narratives across them. In its own way, to this overarching project, a framework that becomes known to the artist only slowly and over time. Hu Zi’s concept of the “Lover” is simultaneously romantic, sexual, maternal, fraternal, platonic. In the group of works revolving around the body, all of this identity fades away, and we are left with something more primal, less sanitized, more felt and less remembered or fantasized. Alongside several pairs of portraits and body with source images and handling of the figures behind the pictures, in the most moving group of works in this project—and the most out of character— Hu Zi looks further back in art history, settling on the subject of the Pieta. She focuses in on details of the work and treats the sculpture in a meaty coloration
that suggests an interest in the flesh as much as the soul.
Hu Zi’s exhibition reads as a train of thought: we see transitions from classicism to bohemia to contemporary Shanghai, from gouache to oil, from portraits at life size to fragments of the body on diminutive slips of paper. This progression of images tells a story, drawing a core sample through the mind of an artist who seems to work alongside us and yet live somewhere else entirely.
Hu Zi wrote:”In Greek mythology, Eros fell for Psyche, the embodiment of soul. Pieta tormented Michelangelo in art and belief, faith in freedom led Elizabeth I to conquest, Oscar Wilde’s primal desire under the purple velvet, Camille’s talent enslaved by her love, Schiele painted true lust and innocence, overdosed Sid (Vicious) and self-destructive Ian (Curtis), Tracey Emin produces honesty and solitary, Keith Richards’s indomitable voice still lives on in guitar, Sexy Blue’s bassist and lead vocal’s Pain Dream. The most touching moment of art is when you tear open the hidden desire and cruelty of humanity, facing the self. Love and faith are almost the same being alone, on the road.
Hu Zi was born in 1981, and graduated with a master’s degree from The Department of Comprehensive
Painting of China Academy of Art in 2007. Now she lives and works in Shanghai. Hu Zi is the selected artist of
2014 Glenfiddich Artisit in Residency Programme, she has 4 solo exhibitions: Flesh, Don Gallery, Shanghai,
2014; Kids, Don Gallery, Shanghai, 2014; Pain, Eastlink Gallery, Shanghai, 2012; Role, Eastlink Gallery,
Shanghai, 2008. In 2007, Hu Zi participated an important group exhibition of Shanghai Art Museum,
Infantization (Travelling Exhibition), this exhibition travels to Museum of Contemporary Art in Lyon (France)
and Art Basel Dreispitzhalle (Switzerland) in 2010.
Fab-Union Space is the forefront of digital design and construction platform which is the art and culture
communication space of Fab-Union. Fab-Union Space builds by digital design and construction. Committed to
creating new digital architecture、art and culture communication window, to promote the interaction and
integration of digital culture and art life.
social network-making, a set of smaller pieces that break down the components of the body, and the more conceptual series “Lover”. These groups of work are independent while interconnected and resoluble, stand up to closer reading.
“Lover” is a rich network of layered allusions that draws on both of these categories and builds narratives across them. In its own way, to this overarching project, a framework that becomes known to the artist only slowly and over time. Hu Zi’s concept of the “Lover” is simultaneously romantic, sexual, maternal, fraternal, platonic. In the group of works revolving around the body, all of this identity fades away, and we are left with something more primal, less sanitized, more felt and less remembered or fantasized. Alongside several pairs of portraits and body with source images and handling of the figures behind the pictures, in the most moving group of works in this project—and the most out of character— Hu Zi looks further back in art history, settling on the subject of the Pieta. She focuses in on details of the work and treats the sculpture in a meaty coloration
that suggests an interest in the flesh as much as the soul.
Hu Zi’s exhibition reads as a train of thought: we see transitions from classicism to bohemia to contemporary Shanghai, from gouache to oil, from portraits at life size to fragments of the body on diminutive slips of paper. This progression of images tells a story, drawing a core sample through the mind of an artist who seems to work alongside us and yet live somewhere else entirely.
Hu Zi wrote:”In Greek mythology, Eros fell for Psyche, the embodiment of soul. Pieta tormented Michelangelo in art and belief, faith in freedom led Elizabeth I to conquest, Oscar Wilde’s primal desire under the purple velvet, Camille’s talent enslaved by her love, Schiele painted true lust and innocence, overdosed Sid (Vicious) and self-destructive Ian (Curtis), Tracey Emin produces honesty and solitary, Keith Richards’s indomitable voice still lives on in guitar, Sexy Blue’s bassist and lead vocal’s Pain Dream. The most touching moment of art is when you tear open the hidden desire and cruelty of humanity, facing the self. Love and faith are almost the same being alone, on the road.
Hu Zi was born in 1981, and graduated with a master’s degree from The Department of Comprehensive
Painting of China Academy of Art in 2007. Now she lives and works in Shanghai. Hu Zi is the selected artist of
2014 Glenfiddich Artisit in Residency Programme, she has 4 solo exhibitions: Flesh, Don Gallery, Shanghai,
2014; Kids, Don Gallery, Shanghai, 2014; Pain, Eastlink Gallery, Shanghai, 2012; Role, Eastlink Gallery,
Shanghai, 2008. In 2007, Hu Zi participated an important group exhibition of Shanghai Art Museum,
Infantization (Travelling Exhibition), this exhibition travels to Museum of Contemporary Art in Lyon (France)
and Art Basel Dreispitzhalle (Switzerland) in 2010.
Fab-Union Space is the forefront of digital design and construction platform which is the art and culture
communication space of Fab-Union. Fab-Union Space builds by digital design and construction. Committed to
creating new digital architecture、art and culture communication window, to promote the interaction and
integration of digital culture and art life.
Works
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HU ZiKeith Richards 1977, 2015Gouache on paper 纸上水粉50 x 54.5 cm -
HU ZiOscar Wilde, 2016Oil on board 木板油画60 x 55 cm
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HU ZiSpider, 2016Gouache on paper 纸上水粉23 x 32 cm
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HU ZiElizabeth II, 2014Gouache on paper 纸上水粉29.8 x 38.2 cm
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HU ZiElizabeth I, 2014Gouache on paper 纸上水粉29.7 x 38.6 cm
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HU ZiAdele Hugo, 2016Oil on board 木板油画65 x 60 cm
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HU ZiEgon Schilele 1914, 2015Gouache on paper 纸上水粉55.5 x 41.5 cm
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HU ZiX, 2015Gouache on paper 纸上水粉27 x 50 cm
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HU ZiCindy Sherman 1982, 2015Gouache on paper 纸上水粉53.5 x 35.5 cm
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HU ZiSid and Nancy, 2015Gouache on paper 纸上水粉39 x 32.5 cm
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HU ZiAss, 2015Gouache on paper 纸上水粉28 x 41.3 cm
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HU ZiBaci, 2016Gouache on paper 纸上水粉31 x 23 cm
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HU ZiAmour, 2016Oil on board 木板油画40 x 45 cm
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HU ZiJesus and Mary, 2015Gouache on paper 纸上水粉54 x 38 cm
