FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Zhang Xiaogang Mao Yan Qiu Xiaofei 12/F, H Queen’s 80 Queen’s Road Central November 22, 2019 – February 5, 2020 Opening Reception: Thursday, November 21, 6 – 8 PM Hong Kong – Pace is pleased to present “Zhang Xiaogang‧Mao Yan‧Qiu Xiaofei”, a group exhibition featuring three well-known Chinese contemporary artists. The show includes Zhang Xiaogang's newest paintings that have never been exhibited before, as well as Mao Yan’s and Qiu Xiaofei's signature works from recent years. These three painters, active in the international art scene, are representatives of those who are dedicated to exploring and exerting the power of painting as a medium. In the field of using brush to narrate, Zhang Xiaogang, Mao Yan and Qiu Xiaofei all possess personal style and unique thinking; each brushstroke executed by their wrist is not only a manifestation of exquisite skills, but also instills abundant thinking and emotions. The exhibition will be on view at Pace Gallery in the H Queen’s building from November 22, 2019 – February 5, 2020, with an opening reception in the presence of Zhang Xiaogang and Qiu Xiaofei on Thursday, November 21 from 6 – 8 pm. Zhang Xiaogang once said, "I am not a talented painter, but I am indeed a person who uses painting to express himself." Zhang is recognized for integrating the introverted and sensitive qualities of his personality into his creation of art and presenting it through extremely refined brushworks with a warmth of life. The exhibition focuses on the artist’s continued use of narrative scenes and portraits, through a lens of constructed memory and imagination, in exploration of the nature of painting, autobiography and emotional sensibility. Both the technical and figurative composition of the works reflect the artist’s broad interrogation of the nature of painting as a physical manifestation of the unconscious and as interpretive of individual and collective memory, reflecting on the cultural terrain of contemporary China and questioning notions of identity. The portraits by Mao Yan included in the exhibition display the artist’s signature aesthetic of gray ashen tones. In his work such as the well-known Thomas series, Mao Yan depicts everyday faces with fine and delicate brushstrokes, guiding his audience to enter an era of meditation and tranquility against the fast-paced world. In conjunction with this, his works hold an essence of revere for the historical and heritage value within the art of portraiture. Along with layers and infiltration of oil paint, the concrete and explicit subjects are gradually translated into an abstracted analogy. Within both the portraits and still-life pieces, Mao Yan conveys a profound connection HONG KONG FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE between his brushstrokes and emotions, creativity and an existential exploration. His poetic strokes transform portraits, objects and landscapes into a spiritual medium that surpasses the reality. As the youngest artist in the group exhibition, Qiu Xiaofei has already undergone enriching transformation in term of his vision for painting. Although his recent works barely appear to depict objective things, he is still telling stories via the context of autobiography and the history of painting. As he once said, “Painting starts with imagery and finally returns to imagery. In fact, my works are not purely abstract. There is concretization in my paintings, like spatial specifics...there is always a relationship between that and your consciousness and intentions…” Qiu’s recent works, such as The Trotsky Wilderness in the exhibition, reveal further reflection toward images and the language of painting, evoking not only the prolonged discussion of representation, but also a more conscious initiative: to awaken the potential of human perception hidden in the depths of the mind through shapes, colors, and the act of painting itself. Zhang Xiaogang (b. 1958, Kunming, Yunnan Province, China) came to prominence in the 1990s amid a new generation of artists known as the 85 New Wave. Zhang built his early practice upon his interests in Western innovations of modern and postmodern painting and theory, producing a unique aesthetic vocabulary through which he explores complex themes based on personal and collective experience. Since 1989, Zhang has been the subject of over twenty-five one-artist exhibitions. Recent museum exhibitions include The China Project: Zhang Xiaogang—Shadows in the Soul, which opened at the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia (2009), and traveled to Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, Chongqing (2010), 16:9, at the Today Art Museum, Beijing (2010); and Memory + ing, at the Daegu Art Museum, Korea (2014); Stage, Hubei Museum of Art, Wuhan, China (2018); and Multiple Narratives, United Art Museum. Wuhan, China (2018) Zhang’s work is held in public collections worldwide, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Dongyu Museum of Fine Arts, Shenyang, China; Fukuoka Art Museum, Japan; He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen, China; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; International Conference Center, Hong Kong; M+ Sigg Collection, Hong Kong; Musée de Picardie, Amiens, France; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul; Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum, Japan; Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, California; Peter Stuyvesant Art Foundation, Amsterdam; Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Shanghai Art Museum, China; and the Shenzhen Art Museum, China. Mao Yan (b. 1968, Xiangtan, Hunan Province, China) is recognized for his practice focusing on the essence of painting and portraiture rather than strict representation. His exploration of painting proposes stylistic and technical innovations while drawing on the tropes of European painting. Mao’s work was featured in recent exhibitions including China: Construction / Deconstruction, Museu de Arte de São Paulo (2008); The 23rd Asia International Fine Art Exhibition, Guangzhou (2008); Chinamania, Arken Museum of Modern Art, Ishøj, Denmark (2009); Collecting History: China New Art, Chengdu Museum of Contemporary Art (2011); In Time—2012 Chinese Oil Painting Biennale, National Art Museum of China, Beijing (2012); and Skin’s Literary Form: Dual Exhibition by He Duoling and Mao Yan, The Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts (2014). HONG KONG FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Mao’s work is held in numerous private and public collections, including the Dong Yu Art Museum, Shanghai; Feng Pingshan Museum, Hong Kong University; Shanghai Art Museum; Shenzhen Art Museum; Upriver Gallery, Chengdu; and the Yuz Foundation, Jakarta, Indonesia. Qiu Xiaofei (b. 1977, Harbin, China), a representative figure of China's New Generation artists, draws on the expressive possibilities of artmaking. His paintings—along with related drawings, sculptures, and installations— evoke a dreamlike state of memory and awaken the potentials of perception that are hidden in the depths of the mind. Engaging with relationships between personal experience and history, Qiu takes an improvisational approach to creating compositions that can be quiet and controlled or wild and painterly. In 2006, the Art Museum of Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, organized Qiu’s one-artist exhibition, Heilongjiang Box, which featured his paintings of old photographs and depictions of childhood objects. The catalogue for Heilongjiang Box was enclosed in a cardboard box together with the playful and symbolically evocative inclusion of a marker and glass marbles, along with nostalgic autobiographical texts recounting Qiu’s memories of his early years growing up in Heilongjiang Province. The show was followed in 2009 by his one-artist exhibition Invisible Journeys at Doosan Art Center, Seoul. Invisible Journeys included sculpture, mixed-media installations, and oil paintings based on family snapshots and didactic photographs. Qiu’s work is held in public collections including the Long Museum, Shanghai; M+ Sigg Collection, Hong Kong; and Yuz Museum, Shanghai. Pace is a leading contemporary art gallery representing many of the most significant international artists and estates of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Under the leadership of President and CEO Marc Glimcher, Pace is a vital force within the art world and plays a critical role in shaping the history, creation, and engagement with modern and contemporary art. Since its founding by Arne Glimcher in 1960, Pace has developed a distinguished legacy for vibrant and dedicated relationships with renowned artists. As the gallery approaches the start of its seventh decade, Pace’s mission continues to be inspired by our drive to support the world’s most influential and innovative artists and to share their visionary work with people around the world. Pace advances this mission through its dynamic global program, comprising ambitious exhibitions, artist projects, public installations, institutional collaborations, and curatorial research and writing. Today, Pace has eight locations worldwide: t two galleries in New York, including its newly opened global headquarters at 540 West 25th Street; one in London; one in Geneva; one in Palo Alto, California; one in Hong Kong; one in Seoul, and an office in Beijing. 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