“InnerScapes” pays homage to and underlines the different methodologies that characterize a curated group of artists, not aligned with any particular trends but devoted to pursuing highly individualistic, intimistic and independent artistic paths. The work of Chen Dandizi, Kan Xuan, Qin Jin, Alice Wang and Yang Guangnan is presented in the form of micro-solo shows that allow the visitor to gain a deeper sense of the latest developments in these artists’ careers and their long lasting inspiration, rather than a quick overview, their works revolve around personal yet universal issues:

The construction and deconstruction of one’s identity, the intermingling and adherence of the micro (personal) and macro (societal/cosmological) dimensions, the frictions and tensions between the individual and the social structure he belongs to, the production of artistic language through gestures – often repeated in obsessive and maniacal ways, that unfold the different traces sedimented in the artists’ practices as a response to time and history, but also processes of personal growth.

In an epoch characterized by the spasmodic use of new technologies, and by the continuous need to look for the newest ways of expression, the practices of these artists are an invitation to re-evaluate the personal, physical and processual realms and not merely the mechanical involvement with one’s work, as well as with the feeling of transiency and indefiniteness it brings about, something which should be stoically embraced or at least consciously questioned.

The works of these artists act as a magnifying glass – on the one hand they reveal the uncanny dimension hidden in the everyday, on the other hand they translate the metaphysical essence of things into something tangible and that pertains to us all. The “scapes” of Chen Dandizi, Kan Xuan, Qin Jin, Alice Wang and Yang Guangnan, are confronted with but also contribute to shape are not the mere products of their retinas, but rather of their consciences, attitudes, and way of being.

Along “InnerScapes” Alejandro Campins shows new work at the gallery’s Beijing premises. Ambitiously drawing on history, architecture and the collective memory of his home country Cuba, Campins mixes media — oil, watercolor, pencil — to create hauntingly evocative, atmospheric paintings inhabiting a metaphysical space between reality and fiction. His enigmatic canvases allude to the anachronistic poetry and surrealist beauty of Cuba’s changing cultural landscape.

Campins states “I am interested in the idea of impermanence and how it manifests itself in nature and its relationship with architecture. The rural and urban landscape reflect the mental state of society, in these works I approach scenarios which for me have an “anonymous” aspect, sites that have lost their identity and express disinterest, transformation and the failures of ideologies.”

Alejandro Campins graduated from the Academia Profesional de Artes Plásticas “El Alba” Holguín, Cuba in 2000 and from the Instituto Superior de Arte, Havana, Cuba in 2009. Since then he has multiple solo exhibitions at galleries in Spain and Cuba and has been featured in numerous international group exhibitions, including Q & A the IDB Cultural Center Gallery in Washington, DC (2015); Cuba Contemporaine. Arte de la grande ile des Caraibes, Le Centre culturel du Manoir, Cologny, Geneva, Switzerland (2013); MEETING Havana Cultura: CHAPTER I // GULLIVER, at the Freies Museum, Berlin, Germany (2012); Inside confluences, the second edition of Contemporary Cuban Art at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, New Mexico (2009); and Far Far Away, Co-Lab, Copenhagen, Denmark (2008).

Campins work was featured at the 11th Havana Biennial, Havana, Cuba (2012), the 12th Cairo Biennale, Egypt (2010), and Portugal Arte 10 EDP biennial, Lisbon, Portugal (2010). Campins was a finalist for the Farber Foundation’s inaugural Young Cuban Artist of the Year award in 2015.

INNER SCAPES & ALEJANDRO CAMPINS
GALLERIA CONTINUA
BEIJING
Through 03 March 2019
galleriacontinua.com

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