James Cohan gallery is hosting “Rumors, Ridicules, and Retributions,” the fourth solo exhibition of new work by Chinese painter Yun-Fei Ji at the gallery’s Lower East Side location.
“In this body of work, Yun-Fei Ji turns his attention to the stories of people living in rural China. The realities of life outside the nation’s largest cities have largely been ignored by narratives of rapid urban growth. Rural lives are often governed by the whims of the powerful, robbing them of physical and spiritual rootedness. Ji is interested in the ways in which people enact their agency both individually and collectively in the face of these larger societal forces, often through subtle but willful acts of resistance,” the gallery says.
This series of work by Yun-Fi is inspired from the Chinese folk tales that often depict demons, ghosts and other imaginary characters and paint them as metaphors for the political power struggle and resentment of the country people. “Yun-Fei Ji has employed the stacked perspective and flattened space of classical Chinese painting throughout his career, reinvigorating this traditional style as a means of contemporary storytelling. The conscious two-dimensionality of Ji’s compositions imbues his narratives with an immediacy that compels the viewer’s attention. His paintings are acts of resistance in their own way, insisting that these stories of cultural degradation, struggle, and resistance are worth telling.” the gallery adds.
Yun-Fei Ji was born in 1963 in Beijing, China. He lives and works in New York and Ohio.
He was awarded BFA from the China Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, and his MFA from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in the United States. His work has been featured in the 2002 Whitney Biennial. In 2005, he won the artist-in-residence at Yale University, and was awarded the 2006 American Academy Prix de Rome Fellowship. His work has been showcased in numerous solo exhibitions including at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing; the Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis; Rose Museum at Brandeis University, Waltham; and Peeler Art Center at DePauw University, Greencastle. The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum at Hamilton College organized a solo exhibition “Yun-Fei Ji: The Intimate Universe” in 2016, which traveled to the Honolulu Museum of Art and the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. His work has also been showcased in group shows in renowned international museums, such as Prospect 3 New Orleans in 2014, the 2012 Biennale of Sydney, the 2011 Lyon Biennale. His work features in major public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the Brooklyn Museum.
“Rumors, Ridicules, and Retributions” runs through June 17, 2018 at James Cohan gallery, 291 Grand Street, New York.
For details, visit: http://www.jamescohan.com
