Zhu Jinshi

This catalogue was published on the occasion of the exhibitions The Ship of Time and Rejecting River Currents, on view March - April 2018 at Tang Contemporary Art.

Based on the unique architecture of both of Tang Contemporary’s Beijing spaces, these parallel exhibitions presented important examples of the artist's works of installation and painting.

In space 1, the installation The Ship of Time uses exactly 14,000 sheets of rice paper, 1,800 pieces of fine bamboo, and 2,000 cotton threads seven meters long. Several months were spent shaping the rice paper, baking the bamboo straight, making holes, and cutting three-meter sections. The works, which are suspended from two massive beams in the ceiling, were designed specifically for the space.

In space 2, Rejecting River Currents showcases Zhu Jinshi’s abstract paintings from the early 1980s to the present, with a particular emphasis on his unique “thick paintings” from the last decade. Compared to his concise installations, Zhu Jinshi pursued the opposite path in his painting; his works are rich and dazzling, chaotic and fierce, wild and aggressive. His painting tools are particular, but very different from those of other artists; his studio contains over one hundred 15-centimeter-wide paintbrushes and plaster trowels coated in thick paint, and several hundred painting palettes that he uses instead of brushes.

Physical description:
Hardcover
Beijing, China: Tang Contemporary Art, 2018
11.25 x 10 inches
Weight: 3 lbs.