PaintingsbyEnzoCucchiandLiangQuanondisplayUntilOct10

From: Shenzhen Daily

Updated: 2020-08-06 14:08

Paintings by Italian artist Enzo Cucchi and Chinese artist Liang Quan are on display at Mangrove Gallery.

Cucchi is an Italian painter and a central figure in the Transavanguardia movement of the 1980s, Italy’s answer to Neo-expressionism. His large-scale oil paintings are characterized by their simple, almost primitively depicted images rendered in vivid, dramatic colors, and he was once described in the New York Times as an “artist who waves his paintbrush like a magician’s wand.” Cucchi’s textured surfaces and instinctual charcoal lines can resemble cave paintings, and indeed much of his imagery includes primitive tools, livestock, flames, and eyes. A writer as well as a self-taught artist, he often exhibits his work along with poetic verses he himself has composed.

A painting by Enzo Cucchi. Photos courtesy of Mangrove Gallery

Born in the province of Ancona in 1949, Cucchi went on to befriend other artists of the Transavanguardia movement he met in Rome, such as Francesco Clemente, Sandro Chia and Mimmo Paladino. Like his fellow Transavanguardians, Cucchi’s earth tone compositions are infused with violence. The confidence in gesture and colors lend his tableaux immediacy and drama. His work has been exhibited at prominent institutions worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate in London, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

No other contemporary Chinese artist pushes the limits of traditional Chinese painting media more than Liang. He employs the traditional materials associated with Chinese painting to create works that are anything but traditional. He takes the notion of “void” in historical Chinese literati painting and advances it to a new level of pure abstraction. In some of his works Liang creates elaborate overlapping collages from strips of rice paper and then adds color and ink onto the surface.

A painting by Liang collaged with rice papers.

Born in Shanghai in 1948, Liang graduated from the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, where he still retains a position as an associate professor. He has been a leading artist in China since his first national exhibition at the China Art Gallery in 1983. His works have been widely acquired by art museums and institutions at home and abroad including the National Art Museum of China, Shanghai Art Museum, Zhejiang Art Museum, Guangdong Art Museum, The British Museum, M+ Museum, LV Foundation and the Neue National Gallery.

Dates: Until Oct. 10

Hours: 11 a.m.-8 p.m., closed Sundays and Mondays

Booking: 8652-2860

Venue: Mangrove Gallery, One Shenzhen Bay, Nanshan District (南山区深圳湾一号红树林画廊)

Metro: Line 2 to Dengliang Station (登良站), Exit C