The Curator's Preface in Shanghai

By Huang Mei

The first stop of this series dialogue show was held in the National Art Museum of China in Beijing in May 2015, which drew great attention immediately. The second stop in Shanghai is not the repetition of the one in Beijing, but a deeper dialogue of two artists through their works.

The two artists' works from different expressive ways open a contrast appreciation window the audience: figuration VS abstraction, painting VS calligraphy, stereo VS plane, watching VS reading, extroversion VS introversion, construction VS deconstruction…

The exhibiting works in Shanghai are divided into three parts, the first one is the redisplay of some wonderful dialogue works in Beijing; The second one is the dialogue of the two artists' newly-selected works; The third one is, for the first time, to present the works co-created by the two artists. In the process of the exhibition planning, they discussed and made efforts to understand each other's different opinions, eventually reached an agreement. In accordance with the curator's planning and idea on the exhibition, the two artists in Beijing worked together to co-create the art works for the first time. They spread out paper, ground the ink, whispered to each other, walked around the table with paper on, in the end they made decision that Mr. Castelli painted the first round, and Mr. Tan Ping worked on the next round, and so on. Like playing snooker, each player needs to make a careful study of the competitor’s strategies, and to think how to cope with the situation. Perhaps both players attempt to highlight themselves, but also need to assure the harmonious composition of the interwoven pictures. The scenarios of collaborating on art creation is a living picture of the globalized world, even if the cultural systems, economic structures of the countries in the world are different, but they have been interpenetrated by the transportation and Internet, they have to work together, understand each other. The two artists opened their mind, and their pleasant cooperation in creation provides us a paradigm of life co-existence not only for art, but the human being in the global world.

The third station of the exhibition will be in Zurich, Switzerland. The opening ceremony has been scheduled on December 8, 2016.

About the Artists

Luciano Castelli applies a variety of mediums including painting, photography, video, and sculpture to his creations. In Castelli’s works in video, photography and painting, they focus onself-portraits in various forms and showcases his different characteristics and various roles. He participated in the Dokumenta 5, Kassel when he was 21 years old. From 1978 to 1990, he moved to live and work in Berlin and become the representative of the “New Wild”, which was reknowned in the late 1970s and early 1980s as the Expressionist paintings. Then Castelli moved to live and work in Paris for 20 years, addicted to developing his “rotating” painting. Today, Castelli has moved back to live and work in Zurich, Switzerland, but still keeps the studio in Paris.

Tan Ping is the Vice President of China National Academy of Arts; he graduated from the Printmaking Department, Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), Beijing in 1984; studied overseas in the Free Art Department of Kunst der Hochschule, Berlin, from 1989 to 1994 and received a master’s degree and the degree of Meisterschule. After he returned to China, Tan was engaged in the construction and management of the teaching of CAFA for twenty years, and served as Vice-President of CAFA from 2003 to 2014. As an artist, Tan Ping is active in Chinese contemporary art world, and his work connects the Oriental and Western culture, integrating the thinking of philosophy, history and reality, naturally integrating and diverging in the mind.

About the Exhibition

Curator: Huang Mei

Artists: Tan Ping, Luciano Castelli

Date: April 2 – April 12, 2016

Venue: Art Museum of Shanghai Oil Painting and Sculpture Institute

Courtesy of the artists and the Art Museum of Shanghai Oil Painting and Sculpture Institute.