ArtCN即将荣幸为您呈现艺术家牛安的个人展览——“本物应览”，此次展览将展出其最新系列的布面及纸本作品。这是艺术家作品首次亮相于画廊新空间，也是其在画廊的第四场重要展览。
牛安擅长于用变幻莫测的线条和形状来表达她的精神世界。直线、曲线、椭圆和圆圈在无形中创造了有形；再同汉字、符号、数字等我们日常接触的元素一起构成了新的含义。她的绘画叙事是私人的、隐秘的，但也可以变幻为任何一个人的故事。因为她的绘画从来不是单层面的，而是多元的。如果你能解码她的画面，画布上隐藏的故事将逐渐向你展开。这一次，牛安尝试通过闪粉和色彩艳丽的颜料，创造相机不可捕捉的“闪光”，从而向观众传达人类自身的脆弱与自我愈合能力。她的绘画充满张力，甚至越过自身界限创造出了不断前进的无休止的宇宙。
无论是关于过去或是未来，这些闪光都在与时间游戏。对于牛安来说，她试图在作品中传达，她与时间之间的斗争。闭上眼睛，只有闪光的存在。笔触的痕迹，强烈的色彩和难以捉摸的形状，就像记忆或想法，时常如惊喜般毫无预兆地出现，并久久萦绕于我们的脑海之中。
通过这位艺术家在厚防水帆布绘制的作品，我们不难发现它与其他领域之间的跨界联系。“亮瞎眼”系列作品融合了艺术史、中国文学和书法，它的美学理念横跨街头艺术和流行文化。黑色的墨线、彩色的颜料和混合着闪粉的线条交织在一起，形成抽象形态，以整体或部分的方式呈现。牛安擅长在同一作品中呈现互相融合的多个层次，这使得每一件作品都有其独特的欣赏方式，不同的距离和角度会带来完全不同的结果。她在作品中使用了大量的符号和数字，或真实或虚构。其中最重要的，是她的标志性符号——一个大写的“X”。这是她对完美主义的一声抗议，将“高高在上”的艺术品变得“平易近人”。对她而言，犯错并不代表失败，相反，它指引了成功的方向。
一般来说，艺术家的创作跟人类和当下所有的物质密切相关。材料在她的创作中占据了主要地位，而这一次她关注的材料是闪粉。闪粉折射的光泽不能被相机、智能手机或其他屏幕或滤镜所捕捉。它需要被现场展示和欣赏。飘忽不定的光泽，正如它所唤起的那些难以捉摸的情绪：喜悦、童年、天真……又怀旧。每一片闪粉在同光线共舞的过程中呈现出千变万化的效果。这种材料本身也具有双重性：吸引注意力和隐藏某些东西……如同一个精巧的伪装。
艺术家通过使用闪粉，试图再次打破和重新定义其原有创作领域。观众化身考古学家，仔细寻找被她隐藏在画布中的线索。作品如同身体，线索如同纹身，观众在尝试解读的过程中不知不觉与其所包含的秘密和回忆建立起了联系。
一个充满情感、庆典、诗歌和回忆的身体。
在“亮瞎眼”系列中，文字存在的意义重大，并与数字和线条相呼应。她的作品中有一种令人狂喜的黑色幽默……牛安隐藏了自己的语言和情感，更像是表达了某种对达达主义的敬意，用她的话说，这是“文字、影像和现实之间的对话”。就像汉语里同一个字通常会有多种解释和联想含义。这种联想的游戏，如同一具精致的躯体，在艺术家的作品中逐渐展开，呈现在观众面前。这是思想的解放，是一场白日梦游的邀请，也是对我们自身的启示。
ArtCN is thrilled to present Ann Niu's solo exhibition “Flash - Flash” featuring her new series on canvas and rice paper. This is the artist's fourth exhibition held in our gallery and the first one since we have relocated in our new space.
Ann Niu uses a variety of lines and shapes, straight lines and curves, ovals and circles, which in turn, form human figures as well as a diverse array of symbols, including numerals, Chinese characters, implements of our daily life and a number of abstract signs. Her paintings o?er a narrative that might be her own, or those of others. These are not one-dimensional but rather multi-faceted. If one could decipher the artist's code, one might be able to understand the stories embodied on her canvas. Ann Niu uses sparkling and fashionable colours to create a striking visual e?ect enhanced by graceful calligraphic lines, which in her artistic language speak about the fragility but resilience of human nature. Her paintings are full of tension, extending beyond their own edges and into infinity, creating a feeling of forward movement and restlessness.
Whether through reminiscence or prediction, the flash plays with time. For Ann Niu, time is a material to fight against, which she tries to reveal in the present. With your eyes closed, only the glitter remains. There are traces of the works, powerful colours, elusive shapes, like memories, like ideas that arise without warning and that float around our minds. And very often, we are surprised. It came to me in a flash…
Through the artist's paintings, all of which are made on thick fabrics - tarpaulins - we can guess borders and winks shared with other territories. The "Flash-Flash" series is a world of encounters, between art history, Chinese literature and calligraphy, whose aesthetic is at the frontier between street art and pop culture. Drawings, lines of paint, shiny and glittery lines intersect to generate abstract forms, conceal figures, show others, in whole or in part. Ann Niu's work is in this multi- layered territory – where no work can be viewed in the same way, depending on the distance and angle at which the eye sits – a work in which she has used codes, numbers, which refer to real or imaginary combinations, and above all, a work where she has planted her cross, as a sign of recognition. A cross that humanises the work, bringing it back to earth, because to her it shows the error, which, far from representing failure, on the contrary, ensures victory.
The artist is attached to the human being and physical presence in general. The material is therefore essential in her work, and justifies her keen interest in glitter. Glitter cannot be taken in photos, smartphones or in other screens or filters. It needs a presence to be seen. To exist. It is elusive, in the same way that what it evokes is elusive: joy, childhood, naivety... But it is also nostalgic. Each piece of glitter plays with light and has a multitude of facets. This material also carries within itself a duality: both attracting attention and concealing something... It is make-up.
The artist's use of sequins also reinforces the idea of a territory to scratch and decipher. The viewer becomes an archaeologist. Ann Niu hides messages in her work. Tattoos on an incarnate canvas. The work becomes a body, with its relationship to the intimate and the memory, which the viewer tries to understand. A body full of emotion, celebrations, poetry and memories.
In the "Flash-Flash" series, words have an undeniable presence, and respond to numbers and lines. There is an exultant humour and black humour in her work... Ann Niu hides quotations, expressions, with a tribute to certain type of Dadaism, it is, according to her, "a dialogue between words, images and reality". As is the case in Chinese language, when a character has several meanings: imaginary links are created between them. The game of associations unfolds, in the artist's works, like an exquisite corpse, before our eyes. It is a liberation of thought, an invitation to daydream. A revelation to ourselves.
