Zhang Enli. Faces
Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong
24 January – 9 March 2024
Art Museum Director, 2022
Oil on canvas
250 x 200 cm / 98 3/8 x 78 3/4 in
©️ Zhang Enli
Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Photo: JJYPHOTO
A Man Reading ‘The Castle’, 2023
Oil on canvas
200 x 180 cm / 78 3/4 x 70 7/8 in
©️ Zhang Enli
Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Photo: JJYPHOTO
‘Sometimes, the obscured object also creates a trace with the passing of time. This is the origin of my recent abstract paintings. When I look at a wall, or sky, it is full of traces, and then I name these traces after someone; it becomes very interesting, it is visible yet invisible.’—Zhang Enli
Using the outside world as a mirror, Zhang Enli often documents the more prosaic aspects of contemporary life. Titled ‘Faces’, the inaugural exhibition at Hauser & Wirth’s new location in Hong Kong features new paintings by the artist. These gestural canvases reflect Zhang Enli’s progression to looser, freer brushwork that has become prominent in the artist’s style in recent years and reveals the artist’s compelling and continued exploration into abstract form.
Zhang Enli first gained acclaim in the 1990s for symbolic, figurative paintings. Within these early works, the perspective was often skewed to heighten the drama of the object’s shape, or to enlarge its symbolic importance. Zhang Enli has frequently returned to a personal iconography centred on the everyday aspects of contemporary life, drawn to imagery of quotidian objects that are sensitively rendered and imbued with stories. In more recent years, the artist has turned to the outside world, urban dwellings and nature, blurring the boundaries between inside and out. In a series of installations, known as Space Paintings, Zhang Enli paints directly onto the walls of a room to create immersive environments. These range from the abstract, where colour and gesture recall the sights and sounds of a particular place, to more figurative reproductions.
The exhibition in Hong Kong focuses on Zhang Enli’s expressive new possibilities. While anchored in figuration with descriptive titles, Zhang Enli seeks to capture the ‘essence’ of his subjects rather than their physical representation through these works. New paintings for the exhibition such as ‘A Guest from Afar’ (2023), ‘Melon Farmers’ (2023) and ‘Art Museum Director’ (2022) are made with a diverse palette and application – dynamic brushstrokes are overlaid with colourful spheres, indicating a style in the artist’s painterly aesthetic. In these works, Zhang Enli projects his own concerns and recollections onto the canvas, fusing the real and the imagined, in highly personal impressions.
Literature has had a lasting influence on Zhang Enli’s creative practice, in particular ‘Winesburg, Ohio’ by Sherwood Anderson, which he first encountered in college in 1985. Anderson’s depictions of characters, detailed observations and the desire to see beneath the surface of life, has reminded the artist of his own experience and memories with his family, and drawn his attention to fate of ‘the ordinary people’. The ‘faces’ of the characters are no longer important, they became a symbol, leaving traces of their identity and life stories in the artwork titles. ‘A Man Reading “The Castle”’ (2023) refers to ‘The Castle’, the last novel by Franz Kafka, who died before he finished the book. This sense of mystery and uncertainty within the book, as well as for humanity at large, has remained a constant source of inspiration for the artist, who has revisited the work countless times.
A Guest from Afar, 2023
Oil on canvas
200 x 400 cm / 78 3/4 x 157 1/2 in
©️ Zhang Enli
Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Photo: JJYPHOTO
©️ Zhang Enli
Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Photo: JJYPHOTO
ZHANG ENLI - SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Zhang Enli was born in Jilin province in 1965. He graduated from Wuxi Technical University, Arts and Design Institute in 1989. Zhang currently lives and works in Shanghai. Zhang Enli’s solo exhibition held in numerous important institutions, including Long Museum (West Bund) (2023); Long Museum (Chongqing) (2021); Power Station of Art, Shanghai (2020); ; Galleria Borghese, Rome, Italy (2019); K11 Art Foundation, Shanghai (2019); Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK (2018); Hauser & Wirth, New York, USA (2018); Firstsite, Colchester, UK (2017); Moca, Taipei (2015); ShanghART, Shanghai (2015); ; K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong (2014); Villa Croze, Genoa, Italy (2013); Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK (2013); Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai (2011); Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai (2010); and Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK (2009), a presentation which travelled to Kunsthalle Bern, Berne, Switzerland (2009) etc.
His works also featured in group exhibitions, such as, Start Museum, Shanghai (2023); UCCA Edge, Shanghai (2021); Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy (2018), Museum of Modern Art Antwerp, AntwerpBelgium (2018); 1st Antarctic Biennale, Antarctica (2017); Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2016); PAC-Milan Museum of Contemporary Art, Italy (2015); Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, Germany (2015); Tate Modern, London, UK (2015); Yokohama Triennale, Japan (2014); Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada (2014); Contemporary Art Museum of the Rubell Family Collection, Miami, USA (2013); Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, UK (2013); KochiMuziris, Kochi, India (2012); The First Chinese Oil Painting Biennial, Instituto Paranaense de Arte, Curitiba, Brazil (2011); The 8th Gwangju Biennale, Korea (2010); The 7th Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai (2008); Villa Manin- Centre for Contemporary Art Passariano, Italy (2006) etc.
Zhang Enli‘s works are in numerous museum collections, including K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong; Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK; Galleria Borghese, Rome, Italy; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; M+Collection, Hong Kong; Long Museum, Shanghai; Rubell Family Collection, Miami, USA; Yuz Foundation, Jakarta, Indonesia; SIFANG Art Museum, Nanjing; La Maison LVMH Collection, Paris, France; Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, UK; Tate Modern, London, UK; The UBS Art Collection, Zürich, Switzerland; Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai; Start Museum, Shanghai.
HAUSER & WIRTH HONG KONG
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