Guided by the Chinese Painting Art Committee of the Shanghai Artists Association and the Shanghai Juequn Painting and Calligraphy Institute, the "Passing the Light" - Xu Xufeng Works Exhibition" hosted by the Powerlong Art Museum will be held at the Powerlong Art Museum from December 10, 2023 to January 10, 2024.
The exhibition is divided into four chapters: Enlightenment, Fish Lantern, Cave and Journey to the West, using classic literature, maritime slang and traditional folk customs as creative materials, opening a journey of exploration of different worlds on land, sea and air.
Exhibition viewAt the exhibition site, fish lanterns made by the villagers of Wangmantian Village in Anhui Province swam around, and the audience danced the fish lanterns while watching the exhibition, praying for good luck in the coming year.
The members of the Venus Dance Troupe improvised a modern dance around the theme of "passing the lanterns", and staged a dance flash mob in the museum.
Exhibition viewMr. Wu Qing, a master of incense, used the incense of Qi Nan and agarwood to faintly blend in the exhibition hall, giving the audience a wonderful feeling in addition to visual enjoyment.
In the exhibition design, some forms of expression of the theatrical stage are used, such as the design of exhibition walls and arches, to create a sense of spatial interspersion and a sense of story flow. Combined with Xu Xufeng's fantastical, romantic and imaginative works, the whole exhibition brings the audience an art carnival-like experience.
Exhibition viewThe iconic symbols of Xu Xufeng's works are "little people" and "snail shells".
"Snail shell" is a kind of life experience that old Shanghainese people can especially understand. In Xu Xufeng's paintings, the "snail shell" becomes a dwelling, a world, hidden in trees, hidden in caves, or standing on top of clouds, it can be very small, it can be very large, the weather is myriad and unpredictable.
Xu Xufeng, Passing Lantern, 142, 150cm, ink and color on paper, 2021
Xu Xufeng, Steamed Steamed Buns of Festival Impression, 40, 30cm, ink and color on paper, 2022
Xu Xufeng, Festive Impression: Walking Lamp, 40, 30cm, ink and color on paper, 2022The "little people" living in the "snail shell" are either in the peach blossom paradise or in the strange world of "Nine Songs", they pick flower petals, steam steamed buns, and wear umbrella covers, harvesting in the red wheat field. Together with the "snail shell", they constitute a "peach blossom source" in the artist's mind.
The four chapters of the exhibition, Fish Lantern, Cave Heaven, and Journey to the West present Xu Xufeng's research on "Chinese Stories" in the past four years. The artist has been engaged in museum education and picture book creation for a long time, and he combines the unique observation perspective of children to integrate a large number of dramatic storylines into his works, which are unexpected but reasonable, giving the viewer a familiar but unfamiliar visual sense, which is the result of Xu Xufeng's repeated pondering on paper silk.
Xu Xufeng, Spring News, 160, 160cm, ink and color on silk, 2023
Xu Xufeng, Wu Lingchun, no1 53 34cm ink and color on silk, 2021
Xu Xufeng, Donghuang Taiyi, 173, 1415cm ink and color on paper, 2021In the exhibition, there is also a special exhibit - "Ten Miles of Red Makeup Scroll". On the opening night of the exhibition, Xu Xufeng held a wedding to marry the bride, and "Ten Miles of Red Makeup" is a special gift prepared by the artist and groom for the bride - the wedding book.
He specially invited the Awakening Great Monk, Zheng Zheng and his wife, Zhang Yuan and his wife, Wang Weiping and his wife, Le Zhenwen and his wife, Li Jun and his wife, and Ding Yiming and his wife to bless and encourage him and the bride to open a new chapter in their lives.
At the same time as the exhibition of "Ten Miles of Red Makeup", Xu Xufeng also exhibited the wedding photos and growth photos of his parents and himself as historical documents.
Xu Xufeng's "Ten Miles of Red Makeup".Mr. Le Zhenwen, a famous artist and teacher of Xu Xufeng, said that since Xu Xufeng entered the Academy of Fine Arts of Shanghai University, I felt that this young man was different from others. He was very studious, and after class, I saw him drawing in the classroom, and he was still studying how to "make it out" what he had learned, and he still does so today.
Mr. Le Zhenwen said that if you repeat simple things a few times, you will become an expert, but if you do the repeated things carefully, you will become a winner. Xu Xufeng is willing to toss and love tossing in his works, and his "stubbornness" in "folklore" themes such as "fish lanterns, rabbit lanterns", "dojos in snail shells", and "nine songs" is a challenge to his own creative ability. Dedication to career is the greatest financial management for young people.
Artist Bio:
Xu Xufeng
Born in Shanghai in 1987, his ancestral home is Ningbo, and his name is Jiufeng. Research interests: mineral easel painting, research and combing of modern Chinese art history documents. He is currently a member of the Shanghai Artists Association, the curator of the chronology database of Shanghai calligraphy and painting figures, a distinguished lecturer of the Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts, the deputy secretary-general of the Chinese Opera Figure Painting Research Association, a painter of the Shanghai Juequn Painting and Calligraphy Academy, a painter of the Dachu Painting and Calligraphy Academy, and a course planner and teacher of the Shanghai Museum College. His works are collected by the Shanghai History Museum (Shanghai Museum of Revolutionary History), Shanghai World Expo Museum, Wu Culture Museum, Liu Haisu Art Museum, and Songhu Battle Memorial Hall. His published books include Chronology of Maritime Calligraphy and Painting Figures (1) (2), Jade, The Beauty of Kyoto, Qiaohu Series Readers, etc.