Booth 3D33
2019 Hong Kong Art Basel will launch on March 29th . A Thousand Plateau Art Space is delighted to present a solo retrospective of the artist Yang Shu with his recent years works in “Insight” sector.
Yang Shu is the forerunner of Chinese contemporary abstract experiments. His works can be regarded as a personalized spiritual image which full of rebellious and passionate attitudes. They correspondently express Yang Shu’s different perceptions on life in different periods. These subtle details conceals his reflection and critique on the Chinese history, society, politics, and everyday lives.
Yang Shu treats art with some sort of "atheism" attitude, opposing both existing traditions and maintaining a vigilant distance with all popular thoughts. Meanwhile, he has a deep belief in art itself, this belief is the inner driven force of his works, in which presents a unique and clear vein in the development of many years: from daily to history, then return back to daily; from intense criticism to calm self-examination.
Yang Shu's solo presentation will focus on his most representative works in recent two years, and together with the four paper manuscripts that were created in 2013 with complex materials. The new work continues his accustomed personal language: fanatical yet orderly colors, handwriting-like brushstrokes, and composite materials that happen by chance like riddles. But at the same time, the new work presents an unseen, dramatic and canty vision. This kind of brightness implying the ambiguity and provocation makes a sharp contrast with China's reality, and it suggests the calmness and melancholy in his heart. With these features, it makes his work become a kind of visual thought-receiving negative film that transcends ideas and positions. This recent development of his creation emerged from these four manuscripts: the bright yellow and the pleasant yet neat strokes, without any specific figures, yet still full of sensual and seductive forms. This points to the latest theme of Yang Shu: in order to resist the reality that hangs over everyone, the original tension of life needs to be prompted and protected by painting.
