SECOND HOME
From his Little Red Figures series to the more recent Community, Chinese artist Chen Wenling has brought a number of his famous works to Xiamen, East China’s Fujian Province, where his career began, for the new exhibition Limited & Unlimited. The 49-year-old Chen, who is wellknown for his sculptures such as the Little Red Figures, spent 18 years in Xiamen before moving to Beijing in 2004. “Xiamen is my second hometown. It’s where I started my art career,” the artist explained in the preface to the exhibition, which kicked off on Thursday. At the end of 2001, several statues from his Little Red Figures series were exhibited along the beaches of Xiamen, which helped propel the artist to stardom. Curated by art critic Gu Zhenqing, the Limited & Unlimited exhibition, being held as part of the larger Xiamen Aotou Ocean Art Festival, is the largest showcase and review of the artist’s art career. It is so large that it actually expands beyond the Chao Kuang Gallery and out onto the Aotou Quay. Chen’s 9-meter tall, 18-meter long giant sculpture Community stands on the quay, welcoming visitors alongside a number of his other works. Inspired by China’s ancient Zhaozhou Bridge, the artwork is a “bridge” made up of iconic Western structures including Statue of Liberty. “Community is an integrated collection of works committed to reconstructing the context of humanistic symbols and the paradigm of art history,” Gu wrote in the preface. The artist has also debuted his Little Green Figure at the exhibition. Based on the red versions, the new statue, a large figure holding a small shark, has been placed on top of a light house along the quay.
In addition to his statues, the exhibition also features more than 200 preliminary sketches of his statues selected from among the more than 5,000 sketches in his collection.
The exhibition is set to run until January 3, 2019.