Zhang Fan: The Momentum and The Matter

Ginkgo Space will host the second solo exhibition of artist Zhang Fan on August 8th, 2020.

Zhang Fan’s practice can be described as a search for the innate spirit through the stream of traditional Chinese art. Zhang Fan’s primary approach includes “depicting” and “writing”. From the very beginning, he has gotten rid of the easy pleasure of decorative forms and returns to the core value within traditional Chinese art. His imageries are further reduced to “calligraphic expression”, a concept put forward by Su Shi from the Northern Song Dynasty. When the visual signifiers all start to recede, there will be a space for the painting to engender its own “breath”. 

The title of this exhibition comes from a sentence in Guo Xi’s treatise “Lofty Ambitions in Forests and Streams" (Linquan Gaozhi)”——“Perceive the momentum from far, comprehend the matter when near” 

Ginkgo Space will host the second solo exhibition of artist Zhang Fan on August 8th, 2020.

Zhang Fan’s practice can be described as a search for the innate spirit through the stream of traditional Chinese art. Zhang Fan’s primary approach includes “depicting” and “writing”. From the very beginning, he has gotten rid of the easy pleasure of decorative forms and returns to the core value within traditional Chinese art. His imageries are further reduced to “calligraphic expression”, a concept put forward by Su Shi from the Northern Song Dynasty. When the visual signifiers all start to recede, there will be a space for the painting to engender its own “breath”. 

The title of this exhibition comes from a sentence in Guo Xi’s treatise “Lofty Ambitions in Forests and Streams" (Linquan Gaozhi)——“Perceive the momentum from far, comprehend the matter when near” 

Zhang Fan was born in 1975 in Qingdao, Shandong. He received his Bachelor’s Degree (1998) and Master’s Degree (2002) from the Department of Printmaking in Central Academy of Fine Arts, China. He now lives and works in Beijing.