 ang Xingwei plays hide-and-seek with the viewer, concealing himself behind a large company of characters that he revives from various historical and cultural references: art history, classical novels, placards, or from his own mind, as in the case of the weird gang of penguins and pandas reappearing from time to time in the artist’s paintings (see, for instance, Death of Panda, 2004, a work inspired to Giotto’s fresco painting The Lamentation, 1305-06 A. D. ). Wang provokes, flabbergasts and intrigues viewers with his irresistible and colourful symbolic gimmicks, with the uniforms and other paraphernalia through which the same man and women suddenly change their identities, becoming surreal golfers, sailors, hostesses, disquieting nurses and who knows what else in the future.
Other times, as in a number of Wang’s latest works, starting with Large Rowboat, the two represented subjects are not only stripped of any professional attire, but also deprived of detailed facial features. Quickly sketched, cartoon-like geometric silhouettes outline the unsophisticated figures of a man and a woman, seemingly a couple. “In the past the observer needed to have a certain cultural background to understand my works, while what I am dealing with now has a more direct connection with anyone’s personal experience. In my latest paintings I built formal models to create shapes. I want to simplify the form, and I find sketching a very comfortable way of expression.”
When first seeing a monographic catalogue or a one-man show by Wang Xingwei, one could mistake the paintings for a collection of works by diverse artists. This is because,besides shifting from one style to the other, Wang keeps simultaneously developing different trends and variations around independent scenes which are disjointed from any time and cause/effect, a priori rational and narrative succession. Even if Wang's paintings could be grouped in generic series following certain styles or topics, whether belonging to the same period or dating back to dissimilar creative moments, the artists leaves the task of ordering and connecting the works to the viewer' s own discretion. Under Wang Xingwei's direction, the subject are caught in ridiculous and/or helpless circumstances, purposely staged in order to break the acknowledged rules of logical thinking. Beyond the initial laugh or astonishment, the viewer starts creating new associations through which the real nature of Wang Xingwei's works reveals itself.Like burlesque snapshots, Wang's paintings show and question conflicting aspects peculiar to the tragicomic experience of life, an unfathomable condition that has repeated itself from time immemorial.
by Nataline Colonnello
Beijing, 2007
Untitled ( Riding a Leather Suitcase) , 2006, oil on canvas, 135×163cm
Legend of the White Snake, 2006, oil on canvas, 180×250cm
Untitled ( Sailor and Zebra Crossing) , 2006, oil on canvas, 200×325cm
Untitled ( Nurse Hugging a Tree) , 2006, oil on canvas, 135×135cm
Untitled ( Man Hugging a Tree) , 2006, oil on canvas, 163×136cm
Untitled ( Moving a Sofa) , 2006, oil on canvas, 104×100cm
Untitled ( Nurse Playing Badminton) , 2006, oil on canvas, 135×135cm
Untitled ( Computer Nurse) , 2006, oil on canvas, 155×200cm
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