清影艺术空间很高兴呈现「肖像：陈栋帆 × 沃特·罗宾逊」双人展。展览于2019年5月3日-7日率先在画廊位于纽约的空间举行预展，随后于5月25日-7月25日在清影杭州空间举办，并随展呈现图册。

去年夏天，陈栋帆在纽约中国城宰也街 (Doyers Street) 实现了公共艺术项目“龙与花之歌”，之后艺术家回归工作室继续他数个肖像系列的创作。此次展览呈现其中的一个系列：“无主之作(Portrait for No One)”。相较于陈栋帆的壁画创作（他此前在杭州、雅典和都灵等城市创作的壁画，皆为永久保存的绘画装置），这些架上作品保留了艺术家色彩丰富和动态抽象的风格，并且平添了精巧而直接的旁征博引，能看到现代主义艺术大师的标志性风格，像是毕加索立体主义的人物和培根粗犷的笔触。如标题所示，整个系列没有邀请任何模特，这使得陈栋帆能通过想象的人物来探索绘画性的表达，趋近他理想的肖像绘画。这也使得陈栋帆同时成为了肖像的模特和作者，最终的作品则更多地表达出一种精神性的反观，而非传统意义上对模特所行的凝视。

沃特·罗宾逊身兼画家和艺评家的身份，他对消费主义和波普文化的细致观察形成了直接独特的视觉语言。罗宾逊的创作主题包含许多庸常却又含义丰富的象征，像是低俗小说的封面、品牌塑造的广告、包括快餐、烈酒和香烟包装在内的各类日常消费品等。对于艺术家来说，在绘画中使用转瞬即逝且格调低俗的图像符号是他“作为消费者的复仇” 1。此外，杂志和广告中的人物是被物化了的形象，而对静物的刻画又具有强烈的拟人感。因此，“肖像”成为一个双重概念和一个充满了可能性的创作门类，使艺术家得以在其中拓展他的绘画探索。「肖像」将展出艺术家不同尺幅和材质的作品。罗宾逊大尺幅标志性的床单丙烯画，将与小尺幅的纸本绘画并置在一起，藉此强调出其创作的复杂意味，让人既感新鲜又觉复古，既熟悉又疏远，既赏心悦目又充满讽刺。

陈栋帆与沃特·罗宾逊的工作室彼此紧邻，两人以画会友，在各自进行独立创作的同时，也享受互相之间的异同，互为增益。

陈栋帆1982年生于中国山东，2008年获得中国美术学院综合艺术系学士学位。作为清影艺术空间最早代理的艺术家之一，他此前已在画廊进行了四次个展。他的作品广泛展出于纽约、中国和欧洲等地。陈栋帆以其体量庞大的公共艺术项目著名，包括“忐忑”（杭州，2010）、“幸福在哪里？”（杭州，2011）、“梦想”（都灵，2011）、“活着在死之前”（雅典，2016）等，上述四个项目皆为永久保存的绘画装置。2018年夏天，陈栋帆在纽约市交通局和华埠共同发展机构的遴选中脱颖而出，实现了一个大型公共艺术项目。艺术家在纽约华埠宰也街（Doyers Street）长达61米的沥青路面上创作了完整的街面壁画“龙与花之歌”，作品如《纽约时报》所说，是“一幅展现了宰也街的过去与现在的肖像” 2。陈栋帆2014年移居纽约，此后一直工作生活于此。

沃特·罗宾逊1950年生于美国德拉华州威灵顿，因求学于哥伦比亚大学的心理学和艺术史专业而移居纽约。罗宾逊早年以艺术写作及批评为主要实践，他曾担任《Art-Rite》的创始主编、《美国艺术》(Art in America)的新闻主编、《东村之眼》(East Village Eye)的艺术主编、周播电视节目《Art TV Gallery Beat》的主持人等等。1996至2012年间，罗宾逊一直担纲《artnet》杂志的创始主编。此外，他还是《Artspace》知名的专栏作家，2014年，他在写作中提出的“僵尸形式主义”(Zombie Formalism)很快成为当代艺术中极具影响力的概念。罗宾逊自1970年代晚期开始进行绘画创作。1982年，Metro Pictures画廊为他举办了首次个展。艺术家的创作自成一格，他杂糅了低俗浪漫电影的图像、对消费主义符号的刻画以及对时尚品牌视觉的嫁接，《纽约时报》称其为“‘图像一代’（Pictures Generation）中的领军人物” 3。2016年，Jeffrey Deitch画廊回归后的首展即呈现了罗宾逊的专题个展。2017年，同名展览「沃特·罗宾逊」在清影艺术空间的杭州画廊举行，这是艺术家的首次中国个展。罗宾逊现工作生活于纽约。

1 沃特·罗宾逊，与顾虔凡的访谈，收录于《清影艺术空间：第一个十年》（杭州：清影艺术空间出版，2018年），第267页。

2 文/ Remy Tumin，《充满活力与个性，就像壁画所在的小巷一样》，发表于《纽约时报》，2018年7月28日，第A16页。

3 文/ Ted Loos，《A Tangle of Relationships, and Art》，发表于《纽约时报》，2017年7月14日，第C14页。

Portrait: Chen Dongfan × Walter Robinson

New York Preview | 371 Madison Street #303 |  May 3-7, 2019

Hangzhou | Liuhe Road No.139, Building 12   | May 25 - July 25, 2019

Inna Art Space is delighted to present Portrait: Chen Dongfan × Walter Robinson, a joint exhibition of paintings by both artists. On view at the gallery’s Hangzhou location from May 25 to July 25, 2019, the exhibition is also accompanied by a brochure and a preview of selected works highlighting two artists' practice at the gallery’s New York location from May 3 to May 7, 2019.

After last summer’s “The Song of Dragon and Flowers,” a public art project on Doyers Street in New York’s Chinatown, Dongfan returned to his studio to work on several ongoing projects of portrait painting, notably one series on view here: “Portrait for No One (无主之作).” Compared with the artist’s previous mural artworks (some of which are permanently on-view in cities including Hangzhou, Athens, and Turin), these easel paintings remain his habitual use of rich colors and gestural abstraction, and are added on with more recognizable references to modern art masters’ iconic styles, for instance, Picasso’s cubism characters and Bacon’s robust brushstrokes. As the title suggests, the series involves no sitters. The lack of specific subjects enables Dongfan to investigate painterly expression through imaginary characters and to approach his construct of an ideal portrait. It also makes Dongfan the model and the author at the same time; and the resulting portraits are a certain spiritual reflection, rather than figures for gaze in a traditional sense.

A painter and an art critic, Robinson applies insightful observations of consumerism and pop culture to form a unique visual language. His subject matter engages many mundane yet meaningful signifiers, ranging from pulp-fiction covers, branding advertisements, to daily consumptions like fast food, liquor, and cigarette packs. For the artist, using the transitory and lowbrow commercial imagery in fine art is “a kind of consumer revenge.”2 Additionally, while characters which have appeared in magazines and ads are instrumentalized objects, still-life depictions of daily objects possess a strong sense of anthropopathy. Therefore, the notion of "portrait" becomes a dual conception and a genre full of possibilities for Robinson to extend his exploration of painting. Portrait introduces works of various scales and media by the artist. The juxtaposition of Robinson’s signature large-format acrylic on bedsheet and smaller drawings on paper intensifies the impact that is at once fresh and vintage, familiar and distant, appealing and ironic.

Dongfan and Robinson, with their studios sitting next door to each other, are “brush-pals.” The two artists produce independent works while also enjoy and profit from both the differences and similarities between them.

Chen Dongfan, born in Shandong province, China, in 1982, earned his B.F.A. in 2008 from the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou. Dongfan was one of the first artists to be represented by Inna Art Space, where he previously had four solo exhibitions. His works have been widely exhibited in New York, China, and Europe. The artist is known for his large-scale public art projects including Uncertain (Hangzhou, 2010); Where Is The Happiness? (Hangzhou, 2011); Dream (Turin, 2011); and Live Before You Die (Athens, 2016); all of which are permanent installations. In Summer 2018, Dongfan was selected to realize a site-specific public art project, co-presented by NYCDOT and Chinatown Partnership, on Doyers Street in New York. The artist created a mural covering the asphalt pavement of the entire 200-foot-long street, entitled The Song of Dragon and Flowers. It is “the portrait of the past and present of Doyers Street,”2 as noted by The New York Times. Dongfan moved to New York in 2014, where he continues to live and work.

Walter Robinson, born in 1950 in Willington, DE, moved to New York for studies in psychology and art history at Columbia University. He practiced art writing and criticism in early years serving as a founding editor for Art-Rite, the News Editor for Art in America, the Art Editor for East Village Eye, a correspondent for the weekly television show Art TV Gallery Beat. He was the founding editor-in-chief for artnet magazine from 1996 to 2012. He is also an influential columnist for Artspace, where his introduction of the notion of “Zombie Formalism” in 2014 becomes significantly phenomenal. Robinson started painting in the late 1970s. He had his first solo show at Metro Pictures in 1982. The artist's pulp romance imageries, depiction of consumerism symbols, and adaption of fashion-branding visuals gain him acclaims as “a crucial figure among the image appropriators of the Pictures Generation,”3 described by The New York Times. In 2016, the Jeffrey Deitch Gallery reopened with the inaugural exhibition of a survey featuring Robinson’s works. In 2017, Walter Robinson, presented at Inna Art Space’s Hangzhou gallery, marked the artist's China debut. Robinson currently lives and works in New York.

1 Walter Robinson in an interview with Qianfan Gu, in Inna Art Space: The First Decade. (Hangzhou: Inna Art Space, 2018), p. 267.

2 Remy Tumin, “Vibrant and Full of Character, Just Like the Alley It Occupies.” The New York Times (July 28, 2018), p. A16.

3 Ted Loos, “A Tangle of Relationships, and Art.” The New York Times (July 14, 2017), p. C14.