Wang Keping

EVENT DESCRIPTION

10 Chancery Lane Gallery is proud to present a solo exhibition of Franco-Chinese master sculptor Wang Keping during Art Basel Hong Kong. The exhibition runs from March 21- May 11, 2024 to also coincide with The French May and the 60 year celebration of France and China’s cultural collaboration. The exhibition will feature a selection of his most significant works and celebrate his more than 45 years of making sculpture.

Sculptor Wang Keping finds the essence or vitality of his creations residing within the very wood he works with. After prolonged observation of its knots and branches, he is inspired to uncover what lies within. His journey as a wood sculptor began four decades ago, when he was a spirited young individual in China, fighting alongside his comrades for the freedom to express contemporary art. Today, he stands as a master, a wise sage, and a philosopher, finding everything he needs within the confines of his garden. While his primary themes revolve around Woman, Man, Couple, Mother and Child, Birds and what he terms Ex-Voto to describe his abstract works, each passing year sees Wang Keping grow more adept in capturing the material’s essence and exploring its offerings. As a result, we witness his forms evolve and renew, showcasing his mastery. In this exhibition will be a large “Couple” in embrace made from rare and precious mahogany wood. He has honed a distinctive style that at times feels intimate and flowing and others can elucidate a crude and primitive nature. He skilfully displays forms within forms and devises subtle slashes to evoke a certain emotion, a humorous gesture or a provocative intention. “La Femme Qui Regarde Derrière (Woman who is Looking Back)” 2017, sculpted from Cedar, demonstrates Wang’s clever use of the wood’s various branches to shape the woman. Notably, a natural knot suggests an eye, and her gaze directed backward reveals the artist’s ironic sense of humour, which permeates his body of work and career.

Wang Keping has lived and worked in France since 1984. In the last 2 years he has participated in exhibitions at the Musée Rodin, The Musée Guimet, The Chateau de Chambord, The Centre Pompidou and is being recognised and revered for his long accomplishments to sculpture.

Wang Keping was born in China in 1949, the year of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Self-taught, he started making wooden sculptures in 1978 and became one of the founders of China’s first contemporary art movements, The Stars (Xing Xing 星星) Group. His works were a voice of revolt within a China that was on the verge of transformation in the years following the end of the Cultural Revolution and the death of Chairman Mao Zedong. The first Stars Exhibition was an unauthorized exhibition of artists who hung their works on the gates of the National Art Museum of China. After two days the police confiscated the works, and the Stars artists organized a march to demand artistic freedom. A year later, the same group of artists was invited to show inside the National Art Museum of China. Wang Keping’s works were some of the most boldly political among the group. His sculpture Silence showed a deafened and blinded man, an analogy of the times. His work Idol was perhaps the first artwork that made a parody of Chairman Mao by turning him into a Buddha figure. Artists Wang Keping along with Huang Rui and Ma Desheng were the key leaders of the Stars Group movement.

Wang Keping is recognised internationally and has been collected and exhibited at the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the M+ Uli Sigg Collection, Hong Kong; the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, among others.