KWM artcenter is pleased to present the first Summer Action! project entitled Four Types of Summer. The project presents nearly 100 works by four artists; glass artist Du Meng, watercolour illustrator Liao Chen, statue painter Lu Yecheng and ceramic artist Xu Liang.

Du Meng’s glass works are both mysterious and poetic in medium and craftsmanship. Combining the natural elements of plants and light, Du Meng has made this ancient material alive and memorable. Using simple contours and transparent colourless materials, she evokes emotions and imagination with subtlety. The flickering light and shadow through the glass overflows the space rendering “the illusion of existence” more realistic and profound.

Liao Chen’s watercolour paintings tell a girl’s story through the life and growth found in a watermelon field of a village, through helping wingless birds fly innocently and by riding dragons up into the sky to demonstrate courageousness. These good and cool girls depict the artist’s emotions and inspirations as they get entangled and grow crazily. Fantasy and dreams unexpectedly meet her alter ego.

Lu Yecheng’s paper Buddha illustrations remove the original sense of awe and reverence from the traditional statue art style. He reintegrates and extracts in order to create new abstract images, trying to establish an equal relationship between the human and the object. Different shades made of fine short lines are sometimes squeezed tightly together and sometimes stretched into the surrounding empty areas. The flexibility and rigidity of the images vary with the different rhythms of line, and like the porous nature of the memory, they reveal the existence of different metaphors.

Xu Liang’s irregular ceramics explore the possibilities of contemporary pottery emphasising space and form. He explores new shapes when the different forms are stacked on top of each other, and then searches for coherent points after combining the multiple forms. These vessels draw from an architectural language. The artist views mistakes as new possibilities in the formation of the works and he seeks resolution in their unfinished and imperfect state.

The works of these four artists are all related to the summer imagination: the semi-darkness and glint of silence in the glass, the unpredictable stretching of the pottery’s form, the pure and intangible appearance in the Buddha statue illustrations and the mysterious and spontaneous outlines in the watercolour paintings. All these illusions and images emerge in the artist’s hand work, as described in the Spanish Baroque lyric poet Luis de Góngora’s poem: “Verde calle, luz tierna, cristal frío”.

The Summer Action! project is a continuation of the multi art education function of the KWM artcenter. During the exhibition a series of workshops will be conducted by the 4 young artists in a planned and purposeful manner, with special emphasis on the artist’s “craftsmanship” and “materials”. The key aspect of the art education summer project is highlighted by the physicality and corporality of the works on display, which call on people to re-observe, touch and create from the most primitive and innocent ways.

About the Artist

Du Meng was born and raised in Beijing, China. In 2008, she finished her BFA in Graphic Design at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing. In 2013, Du received her MFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Glass Program. She has been an Artist in Residence as well as the Adjunct Faculty at RIT in the following years until she returned to China in 2016. Du has been teaching as the Adjunct Faculty at CAFA since the 2016 academic year. She also has participated in Artist in Residence program at Aichi University of Education in 2017 and her work has continued to exhibit at venues both nationally and internationally such as, Shanghai Museum of Glass, the International Exhibition of Glass Kanazawa, S12 Gallery, and FOU Gallery.

Liao Chen was born in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province in 1988. She graduated from the Art Department of Jiangnan University in 2009 and the Fine Arts Department of Zhejiang Normal University in 2013, now lives and works in Beijing. Her exhibitions includes: solo exhibition “Nothing but Moe: Liao Chen Solo Show”, Star Gallery, Beijing (2015); “Supernova Exhibition”, Freeman Art Apartment, Taiwan (2015); “Definitely not right, but that’s it”, UCCA Art Store , Beijing (2015); “almost art project art festival”, Yangmeizhu Xiejie, Beijing (2015); “Highlights – Chinese Young Artist Painting Exhibition”, Bund 18, Shanghai (2012); “Take it forever: Contemporary Women’s Art Exhibition” J Gallery, Shanghai (2011); “Self-talking”, Y ard Gallery, Shanghai (2011).

Lu Yecheng was born in Shandong in 1987. He graduated from Shandong Art College in 2010 and from the Fine Arts College of Capital Normal University in 2015, and now lives and works in Beijing. His works have been published in “Oriental Art”, “China Art Weekly”, “Art π”, “Art Monthly”, “Art +” and other important publications in China. His main exhibitions include: “REFINEMENT & EXHIBITION: Contemporary Chinese Masters’ Delicate Gongbi Work”, Guanshanyue Art Museum, Shenzhen (2019); 4K Youth Art Project, Damei Art Center, Beijing (2018); Artist Promotion Project Launch Exhibition, Shanshui Art Museum, Beijing (2018); Art Fair TOKYO 2017, Tokyo International Convention Center, Tokyo (2017); REGNE ANIMAL, 1618 Gallery, Paris, France (2017); The 3rd World Chinese Overseas Chinese Art and Calligraphy Exhibition, Overseas Chinese History Museum of China, Beijing (2016); The Power of Concerns – Youth Ink Painting Exhibition (3rd), Today Art Museum, Beijing (2016) and so on.

Xu Liang was born in Yueyang, Hunan Province in 1990. He now lives and works in Beijing. In 2017, he founded his ceramic art studio, and held a solo exhibition “The Square of the Palm – Xu Liang Ceramic Art Exhibition”.

KWM artcenter

The KWM artcenter opened on 20th October 2016. It is located on the second floor of the WFC centre CBD in Beijing. The Art center is supported by the law firm King & Wood Mallesons. The KWM artcenter presents and promotes artists both domestically and overseas as well as building up its own collection. In particular, it acts as a rare art institution at the heart of the economic central area in Beijing. It provides high-quality art educational activities and courses aimed to cultivate art lovers and collectors. It serves to improve the international influence of Chinese Art and become a powerful communicator of Chinese Contemporary Art.