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CHINA NOW: Young Chinese Artists at the RCA

Two of China’s most exciting young contemporary artists are coming to London this summer in a joint exhibition at the Royal College of Art’s Gulbenkian Gallery, offering British audiences an enlightening overview of the new generation of Chinese artists.

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Zhang Kai and He Jie’s works strongly reference Western and Eastern art history, finding inspiration from European historical events and the paintings of the old masters, while still keeping a recognisable Chinese identity and subject matter, expressing their own feelings about modern life from a young Chinese person’s point of view.

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He Jie’s exquisite and dark portrayal of heroic characters perfectly illustrates the mass power of Hero Worship in socialist nations, while reflecting a certain kind of aesthetics and a shared sense of beauty also found in Western culture and classical art. For He Jie, history is like a vague and nostalgic collective memory of a now distant era, explaining the timeless feel of his work.

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Zhang Kai’s surreal fantasy world, filled with cute looking cats and rabbits set in traditional middle-class settings, intentionally highlights the absurdity of modern life. By skillfully combining the classical aesthetics of the Baroque period with twenty-first century imagery, Zhang Kai eliminates the border between reality and the virtual world he grew up with.

Triumph Art Space, Beijing, presents China Now: Young Artists Duet Zhang Kai &He Jie
17-27 July 2015 Royal College of Art, London More Info : www.facebook.com/pages/China-Now-

Zhang Kai and He Jie will take part in an artist talk Saturday 18th July at 2pm.

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