The canvas surprise. There’s something more behind this artist than meets the eye. Who is she, where does she come from, what does she want to express and why?
There’s a Chinese New Wave, an exciting emerging and ever-evolving cultural divergence of young Chinese artists and creatives that have come to study, exhibit and experience the life and culture in the UK. In turn, they bring new ideas and add fresh perspectives, renewed energy and original insights that influence and inform their new environment. So it’s here, where the roads meet, at the beginning of an intriguing cultural synergy, that Xuan Zhang now finds herself.
布呈現驚喜，畫布上的表達紛繁複雜，畫布背後的藝術家若隱若現：她是誰，她來自哪裏，她想表達什麼，為什麼？
中國新浪潮的漩渦裏出現了一個令人興奮、不斷發展的文化分支——年輕的中國藝術家和創意從業者來到英國學習、辦展覽、體驗英倫文化生活。 反過來，他們帶來新的想法、視角、見解與蓬勃的能量，影響、滲透著他們生活的新環境。因此，在這裏，在道路的交匯處，在耐人尋味的文化協同作用下，張璇重新發現了自己。
Throughout her life, she has enjoyed the experience of living in different cities, each city bringing new challenges that have in turn inspired creativity. Her artistic journey began at the Jeon-North National University of South Korea in 2012. Here, she met Professor Kim, whose guidance was instrumental in awakening her as an artist.
“Draw more human bodies, and you have a special sensitivity to human body dynamics, which is a gift.”
She took his advice, and this later became the foundation behind both of her major exhibitions.
在她的一生中，張璇享受著在不同城市生活的經歷，每個城市都帶來了新的挑戰，也反過來激發了她的創造力。她於2012年入學韓國全北國立大學，她的藝術之旅也就此開始：她在這裏遇到了金教授，而金教授的指導幫助她喚醒了作為一個藝術家的意識。
「多畫人體，你對人體的動態有特殊的敏感性，而這是一種天賦。」
她接受了他的建議，這後來也成為她兩個主要展覽的基礎。
The Mirror, Red Book and Light. At the Himalaya Art Museum 2020
《鏡子，紅色書籍與光》2020於喜馬拉雅美術館
This was a statement show, as brave and impressive, as it was “light and exquisite.”
It was two years in the making, not limited to painting, but using a variety of media, to take the viewer on a journey through her spiritual world. One that was designed to reflect like a mirror, the quiet loneliness and solitude she observed around her. One shared by many others of her generation, in today’s automated society. The show’s timing couldn’t have been more prophetic, coming when it did, at the beginning of a worldwide pandemic.
Her blue paintings are reminiscent of early Picasso. In one, a woman lies naked in a sea of blue, curled up like a pod, or egg, either because of what occurred in the story previously, or waiting like a seed for rain. There’s a Yellow Angel. She inspires hope, existing to remind others perhaps, to look up and see beyond the present moment. That above, lighter and kinder forces still exist in the world too.
這場展覽飽含著藝術家的自我表達，「輕盈和精緻」躍然紙上，既勇敢又令人印象深刻。
這場展覽的籌劃歷時兩年，不僅限於繪畫，還使用了各種媒體，帶領觀眾在她的精神世界中旅行。這幅作品旨在像一面鏡子一樣，反映出她所觀察到的周圍某種安靜的孤獨和寂寞——在今天的自動化社會中，她這一代人中的許多人都有這種感覺。這個展覽展出在covid-19大流行開始的前期，彷彿一個關於靜寂的預言。
她的藍色畫作讓人想起早期的畢加索，在其中一幅畫中，一個女人赤身裸體地躺在藍色的海洋中，像一個豆莢或雞蛋一樣蜷縮在那裏——要麼是因為之前發生的故事，要麼像種子一樣等待著下雨。張璇畫的黃天使激發了人們的希望，她的存在也許是為了提醒其他人，要抬頭看，要看到超越當下的時刻，因為在這個世界上，還有更光明、更善良的力量存在。
The Van Gogh House Exhibition Spinning Swirling 2022
Many artists like Xuan have been inspired by the artists of the past. For some Picasso, others Bacon or Freud, but for her, it was Vincent Van Gogh. It was the love of his work that inspired her, to travel to Europe and continue her art education here.
So it was poignant that her second exhibition and first in London took place in the house he once lived in.
許多像璇一樣的藝術家都受到了過去藝術家的啓發：對一些人來說是畢加索，其他人是培根或弗洛伊德，但對她來說，是文森特·梵高——事實上，正是對他作品的熱愛激發了璇，推著她來到歐洲旅行，並在這裏繼續她的藝術教育。
因此，她的第二次展覽（也是在倫敦的第一次展覽）定在了梵高曾經居住過的房子裏，這對她來說意義重大。
《旋轉與漩渦》於2022年展覽於梵高之家特展
“I chose a more abstract form while highlighting the sense of motion and a lighter sense of space. It also takes into account the readability of the picture and retains the clue of the figure between the brush strokes.”
The attraction is the physical strength a dancer requires, to be able to create beauty subtly with there’re body form and movement. Her canvas is the mirror of dance, the white ground like the stage, the expression evoked from gestural mark-making and broad strokes. Then the focus tightens. So Imagine if you will, a stage, the lights dim, an audience transfixed in the darkness, a single spotlight highlights a single dancer, a flow of movement becomes hypnotic, and the dancer becomes indivisible from the expression she creates.
It was an exhibition of extremes, and East meets West, free expression, and mark-making combined with figurative painting, to control the theatre.
It’s inside her, a pull, a power that’s hidden from view, invisible to the naked eye. It’s here, when alone in the studio, face to face with a white canvas after the muddy earth has been mined and mixed with the ephemeral flight that’s light, that you’ll find her.
「我選擇了一種更抽象的形式，同時突出了運動感和更輕盈的空間感；我也考慮到了畫面的可讀性，在筆觸之間保留了人物的線索」。
引力和體力支撐運動，舞蹈家才能夠用他們的身體形態創造出微妙的美。 在這裏，她的畫布是舞蹈的鏡子，白色的地面就像舞台，粗重的筆畫喚起藝術的表達，筆觸的焦點隨著目光向下移動而收緊。所以，如果你願意的話，想象一下，一個舞台，燈光變暗，觀眾在黑暗中目不轉睛；單個的聚光燈照亮獨舞的舞者，流動的舞步讓人逐漸意識模糊，舞者變得與她創造的表達不可分割。
這是一個展現兩極的展覽，是東方與西方的結合，是自由表達、抽象與具象繪畫的結合，用以表達、控制這種戲劇張力。
它在她體內，是一種拉力，一種隱藏的力量，肉眼看不見。就在這裏，當你獨自在工作室里，面對著白色的畫布，在泥土被開採並與短暫掠過的光影混合後，你會發現她。
Translated 翻譯 x by Mione 墨澪
Edit 編輯 by Yuwen Wang 王昱雯
