Artist Pang Maokun (M), curator Sheng Wei (L) and art critic Yu Ke (R) at the opening ceremony in Today Art Museum on Thursday, Sept. 24. (Photo: ECNS/Qian Ruisha)
(ECNS) -- Renowned oil painter Pang Maokun tries to explore modern visual order with paintings featuring surface mirrors.
The ongoing exhibition at Today Art Museum, titled "Visual order and graphic production by artist Pang Maokun," includes over 60 paintings from 2014 and 2015, most of which feature interactions between people and surface mirrors such as a camera lens, mirrors and glass windows.
Pang has always been interested in using surface mirrors to depict people and their emotions. Mirrors are a medium to examine the relation of the person to his/her reflection, as well as his/her interaction with the environment.
In a large oil painting called "Express to Venice" measuring 1.8 meters in height and 2.8 meters in width, Pang places the audience in the isle of a train, looking at a glass window. What one sees is not only the passengers sitting in their seats, but also their reflections.
Another large painting called Narcissus takes its origin from the ancient Greek myth, but abandons the background drop and tries to look at the person within a modern visual order.
"Mirrors are used to build a visual maze. Their position could create an infinite space that has no end," said exhibition curator Sheng Wei at the opening ceremony on Thursday.
Images of people taking selfies put the works in a particularly up-to-date context.
"I'm very interested in looking for the self in each painting," Pang said. "Selfies, for example, are quite popular in modern society. It's a form of people looking for themselves. I think mirrors carry rich meaning, while different surface mirrors reflect the relation of people and society in different times."
The exhibition is named "maze" because the works are placed in a way that resemble a maze. Visitors try to find the way out, and a way to get close to the works.
"Pang's painting is like a mime, in the form of gestures and body language, in order to create a covert atmosphere," art critic Yin Shuangxi commented. "Through his painting, he expresses a deeply complex, compassionate and yet gloomy meditation on our modern life and destiny. He reveals a deep, private serenity and sentiment as an artist with a unique perspective."
The exhibition also displays distortion mirrors, cameras and glasses through which people can see themselves.
Born in 1963 in southwest China's Sichuan province, Pang is an oil painting professor at Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. You can check out his works at www.pangmaokun.net.
