Zhang Huan: Chinese contemporary artist and practice

Art

Blessings

Zhang Huan's exhibit "Blessings" is at PaceWildenstein Gallery in Chelsea it just open. Huan is a Chinese artist who uses different materials to make everything from sculptures to silkscreen and paintings. His work is very modern, and some of it is very odd, like "Giant No. 3," made of cowskin, steel, wood and polystyrene foam. It is like a big, padded figure sitting on the ground, and it almost looks pregnant or something, even though it seems to be male.

Some of this artist's work is very traditional, like "Going to Work" (2007), except he uses different materials. Like this piece, it is made of ash on linen, he uses only the grains of ash from burned incense to make this, and it is very fascinating to think he could material like this to make art. It gives very fine texture in black, white, and grays and it can be very detail, too. It is strange medium to use, but it works, and he even did a live painting on the sidewalk in front of the 22nd Street gallery using the same material.

A especially like "Memory Door Series," where the artist uses silkscreen and mounts it on an antique wooden door. He then carves parts in the door, and lets the silkscreen go around them and through them. It is very beautiful, and the carving is very detailed and graceful. I like one where the man is standing with his back to the viewer, and there is a carved, delicate tree coming out of the silkscreen. It is very beautiful and moving somehow, almost like I was really there, in China, looking at this scene. I like the way the artist created shadows, too, that make the piece seem three-dimensional.