The group exhibition Fragmentary Narratives explores the fragmentary nature of historical narratives in the works of Fang Lijun, Xie Xiaoze, Yang Jiechang, and Yang Shaobin. All four artists are profoundly marked by China's political, economic, and cultural transformations of the past four decades, and influenced by the concepts, themes, and expressive means of international contemporary art. Using images found in newspapers, magazines, television and the internet, the artists deal with the superficiality of popular culture and how we perceive reality in a media-saturated world, while transforming the transitory imagery into seemingly more permanent art objects such as painting and sculpture. Their works are distinct from both the "grand narratives" of the previous generation and the completely subjective "private narratives" and purist conceptual and formal pursuits of younger artists.
Fragmentary Narratives will be held at the Tan Guobin Contemporary Art Museum in Changsha, Hunan from October 17 through November 16, 2015, and at the Thomas Welton Stanford Art Gallery of Stanford University, Palo Alto, California from January 19 through March 11, 2016. The exhibition will be accompanied with a series of academic events in Changsha and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Select works from Fragmentary Narratives:
