Wang Qiang: Shape and Category

Ginkgo Space is pleased to announce that Wang Qiang's first solo exhibition at Ginkgo Space “Shape and Category” will open on November 6th, 2024. This exhibition will exhibit 12 recent works by the artist and will last until January 20th, 2025. 

"Shape" refers to the shape and style of an object, and is also the way in which Wang Qiang summarizes and expresses existence. He extracts limited categories from the diverse shapes and presents them in a neutral and objective manner, giving the shapes a certain hyper-realistic texture and creating multiple layers of meaning and interpretation space. In this exhibition, the shapes are categorized as architecture and gears, and the artist extracts the shared sequence and order sense from the two, responding to the chaotic reality of today. 

Architecture has been the artist's theme of creation for many years, and it is the embodiment of the consolidated era consciousness. In the typical architectural styles he extracts, shape becomes an indiscernible molecule, and categories are summarized to one. This simplification of categories is very similar to gears, whose precise and orderly meshing and operation also imply rational order and obedience, and the individuals involved become local parts of the collective (non-)consciousness chain, performing predetermined operating modes. The irreversible repetition and order also remind us of the lyric from Pink Floyd: "You're just another brick in the wall." 

Wang Qiang, born in 1957 in Hangzhou, was admitted to the sculpture department of Zhejiang Academy of Arts (now China Academy of Art) in 1980, and graduated in 1985, he stayed in this school as a teacher. In 1985, he participated in the "85 New Space" exhibition; in 1986, he participated in the "Pool Society" activity as a main member; from 1988 to 1989, he studied as a visiting scholar in the Art Department of the University of Minnesota; in 1994 and 1996, he participated in the activities of "Taking 1994.11.26 as the Reason" and "Taking 45° as the Reason" hosted by Geng Jianyi. In 2018, he held a solo exhibition "Back Flowing River" in Shanghai "Chi She" space (Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation).

Text: Liang Qing Translate: Gabrielle