This upcoming exhibition “Folding: Wang Yanping 1992-2012” is hosted by the prestigious art critic and theorist Mr. Fan Di’an, curated by Mr. Wang Meng of National Art Museum of China, opening exhibition will take place at 2PM on 21st Nov 2012 Art Museum of Beijing Fine Art Academy. Wang Yanping, dedicated to Ink & Water Painting had held her last solo exhibition in 1992 became widely acclaimed ever since. 20 years later, as her 2nd solo exhibition in China, this upcoming exhibition will be presented as a collection of her segmented artistic development for the past 20 years from 1992 to 2012, showing the art community and the public of her artistic achievements and transformations.

        In her newest artworks, she had shifted her focus onto folding-screens, transforming this important item of furniture in Chinese culture into an independent cultural icon, expressing what the artist refer to as the mystic “folding-screen psychology”---the need to veil and hide, cultural identity of the Chinese. Upon the “folding” and “dramatizing” of these folding-screens, the artist orchestrates the phenomena of China’s “socializing culture”, by placing human figures in same settings onto the folding screens, the artist expresses her definition of “initiation” and “folding” both visually as well as conceptually. In the “departing whilst arriving” state of being between the individual and the crowd, and between the different sheets of the screens, Wang Yanping bring her works and cultural contemplations into what is referred to by Umberto Eco as “open artwork”, leaving the audience much room for imagination. From this angle, Wang Yanping had created a “folding” of the art-form of Ink & Water, it is also the academic theme of this exhibition.

         Before which focuses on the “imageries of human figures”, there is another series of artwork which focus on the “imageries of still objects”. By placing antique furniture in the folding of the screens, continuing on the path of “structural ink & water” set by Master Mr. Lu Chen, incorporating Malevich, Mondrian and Bauhaus concepts in visual structure, together with Chinese concepts of “positional arrangement” and “positive & negative form”, the artist creates her individual perception of “folded visions”. In these folding-screens, the “re-structuring” of antique furniture is her own way of paying homage to Chinese culture, further still, the artist had brought her studio, still objects and the indoors & outdoors onto these screens, presenting a “Folding Series” that is full of life and vigor. 

         As a documentation of the artist’s 20 year endeavor, this exhibition will also show series created by the artist at the end of 1990’s, as well as earlier works referred to by the critics as “expressionist ink & water” paintings. These full-sized works were created upon the artist’s personal perceptions of life, there are traces of forceful Fauvism, Cubist rendering of human figures, mirages of Surrealism and burstings of Expressionist emotion, it is these expressions of the artist that exhibit her contemporary perceptions of several artistic periods experienced by the artist herself, together they form the artist’s “personal contexts”.

         This exhibition consists of 2 parts, the earlier “mirage” and the newer “folding”, thus showing the changes in the style and explorations of her endeavor in Ink & Water Painting. In a pleasant atmosphere over wine and snacks, we invite you to be with us in presenting “Wang’s Folding”!