Portraits face a face-off

• Source: Global Times
• [10:09 August 10 2010]
• Comments

Impeccable Nun by Li Wei. Photos: Courtesy of Leo Gallery

"Cai's Motherland series has so enraptured audiences that galleries around the world have held solo exhibits of the works for five consecutive years," Kuo said.

FACES spills over into Leo Gallery's new second location, also on Ferguson Lane, where visitors can see a number of works by influential Chinese artists. Yue Minjun offers one of his (slightly tired) signature pieces, this time consisting of a "Noah's ark" filled with repetitive self-portraits.

Nicely constructed, as with all of Yue's work, it feels like yet another formulaic iteration of his individualism vs. collectivism theme.

Zhang Xiaogang's moody lithograph and Zhang Ning's fiberglass sculpture Drift are the two highlights of this second space. The latter is a wonderfully balanced statue of a man in shabby brown clothes, head lowered to the floor and a delicate finger outstretched.

The figure looks utterly broken, blindly searching for something outside of its reach. The work is crafted so that to see the haunting facial expression of the man, visitors must crouch underneath and look up at him, adding an interesting interactive element.

There are a number of other strong pieces in the exhibition, including Xie Qi's spectral White Queen, Liu Jun's fun but slightly disgusting Lady sculptures and Issa Salliander's emphatic Little Barack.

Leo Gallery is one of a number of Shanghai art galleries who have recently expanded their premises. "It is difficult to say whether they indicate the growth of the local market overall or are a result of independent successes," said Kuo.

"Some galleries may have opened a second space to gain exposure during the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, but I am not convinced that visitors to the Expo have increased gallery business."

While the exhibition's theme is neither particularly innovative nor conceptually tight, the gallery has managed to produce something that feels fresh.

"FACES reveals how a defined category like portraiture can be so unconfined. The desired result was to showcase enough works of portraiture to demonstrate that such a traditional genre could still be inspired and varied," said Kuo.

Date: Until September 19, 11 am to 7 pm, (closed on Monday)

Venue: Leo Gallery

Address: Ferguson Lane, 376 Wukang Road 武康路376号

Admission: Free

Call 5465-8785 for details