Wu Chen

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Wu Chen (b.1983, Henan) currently lives and works in Beijing and Chengdu. His paintings evoke a miscellaneous array of ‘artist portraits’ and layered references culled from sources as varied as picture handbooks to exquisite illustrations from art history. Layer by layer they undergo a child-like process of distortion and reassembly, causing one to wonder at the morbidity of such a whimsical sense of imagination.

Major solo exhibition include: Therefore, the Lonely God Can Only be the Orphan of God, Magician Space, Beijing (2020); Bad Man Can Also End Up in Heaven, Magician Space, Beijing2017; Matisse’s Skirt, Magician Space, Beijing (2014). Important group exhibitions include: TRAVERSE · COURSE – 2016 HUAYU YOUTH AWARD, Art Sanya, Sanya (2016); The First Dao Jiao New Art Festival, XI Contemporary Art Center, Guang Dong (2016); The 6th Chengdu Biennale, Chengdu International Conference and Exhibition Centre, Chengdu (2013); The 3rd Terna Contemporary Art Award, Rome (2010); “Youth China” Contemporary Art Exhibition, Art Museum of University Heidelberg, Heidelberg (2008) Museum and Public Collections: White Rabbit Contemporary Chinese Art Collection, AUSMuseum of Contemporary Art Chengdu, CN.

‘Sorry’, Mr. Pinocchio says, 2020, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 150 cm

Therefore, the Lonely God Can Only be the Orphan of God, installation view

Therefore, the Lonely God Can Only be the Orphan of God, installation view

Bad Man Can Also End Up In Heaven, exhibition view

Bad Man Can Also End Up In Heaven, exhibition view

Bad Man Can Also End Up In Heaven, exhibition view

Untitled (All Thing will Grow Old, Even A Cartoon Figure), 2020, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 150 cm

Butt Lovers Are Not Bad, 2020, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 150

Stop Sketching Autumn When Summer Comes, 2020, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 150 cm

Shangdi’s Orphan

In the past, the circus would choreograph dangerous and exciting acrobatic stunts to attract an audience, with programs performed by trapeze artists. Once the performers took a desperate risk, they would inevitably make mistakes. If they missed, they would fall from a height of more than ten meters. With a screaming audience, they would land in the middle of the ring and become motionless. The theatre would then fall silent, and all the adults could do is covering their children’s eyes. This is when the theatre director would yell backstage, ‘Clowns up!’ Clowns run onto the stage, twisting and turning, gagging and laughing, just so someone would carry the injured performer off, so the show can go on as if nothing had happened. The classic jazz song Send in the Clowns echoes the inner monologue of the fallen performer, ‘Isn’t it rich, are we a pair, me here at last on the ground, and you in mid-air. Send in the clowns.’ On the tableaus, Wu Chen seems to be the clowns.

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