Lin Yan, Song Xin and Cui Fei: “In Perspective”

The latest exhibition at Chambers Fine Art’s New York location, “In Perspective,” confirms the gallery’s reputation as a leading institution in the presentation of up-and-coming Chinese artists in the United States. The group show brings together three artists trained in China, who now live and work in New York. They appropriate long-standing artistic methods found in their heritage, which are fused with contemporary techniques and concepts unique to each of their own practices to explore present-day society.

Song Xin’s connection to traditional practice is most prominent in the exhibition. The artist studied jianzhi, a traditional paper-cutting technique, at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Once she relocated to the United States, Song used this approach to create collage paintings influenced by a comparatively unrestrictive, politically charged Western mass-media culture. In the exhibited paintings from her “Life in Full Bloom” series (2016), carefully selected illustrations from magazines and newspapers are cut and arranged into seemingly joyful flowers and­ foliage. Though not evident at first glance, the magazine pictures that form the basis of the collage include powerful photographs of refugees and European nationalist leaders. Each painting thus becomes dramatically deceptive, concealing social and political commentary behind a sugarcoated, eye-pleasing surface. This hidden reality speaks to society’s desensitization towards tragedy due to constant bombardment and manipulation across various visual platforms we consume daily; Song's transformations inject new importance into these readily discarded materials by bringing them to the forefront in her work.

Read the full article on artasiapacific.com