Zhuang Hong Yi, Summer Flower, 2014, Rice paper and acrylic on canvas, 150 x 120 cm

Dutch Chinese contemporary artist Zhuang Hong Yi presents his first solo exhibition here in Singapore. Opening on 23rd September at REDSEA Gallery, the show will feature Zhuang Hong Yi’s latest collection of mixed media works in ink, acrylic and rice paper.

Contemporary artist Zhuang Hong Yi is based in the Netherlands, but was brought up in China and still retains a strong link to the country with a studio based in Beijing. It is this combination of Chinese background and European influence that marks Zhuang Hong Yi’s work. Embracing his present without losing his past, he attempts to define a sense of self that exists between the two. Zhuang enacts this personal struggle visually, vacillating between phases of controlled planning, emotional gesture and careful editing. He creates works that represent beauty, sophisitication and a high level of perfection.

The flower motif dominates Zhuang Hong Yi’s work – a significant image in Chinese culture, which carries countless meanings and emotions – yet with equally strong associations with the Netherlands – and he works patiently and religiously on this subject year-­after-­year, intricately crafting his works with care and forethought.

Zhuang’s ‘flower beds’ are crafted from delicate pieces of painted rice paper, which he has bent and folded into hundreds of tiny buds creating seductive, tactile works. Utilizing this traditional Chinese material, the works represent traditional Chinese aesthetics, meditations on colour, nature and form, whilst the emphasis on technique and uniformity and the focus on his handling of material are all lessons adopted from the Sichuan College of Fine Arts, where he first studied.

Zhuang Hong Yi in his studio

Zhuang’s painted canvases meanwhile bear the influence of Impressionism and other Western artistic practices. Working with a freedom of style, as if liberated from his native country’s well-established artistic traditions and boundaries, his impasto strokes of daring, bright colours are expressive and unconfined. Colours melt together and paint drips down the canvas, seeping over a collage of delicated unfolded rice paper flowers. The almost sculptural three-­dimensionality makes these works both painting and object. Messiness, variety and chance are all embraced. Like his flower bed works, Zhuang’s paintings draw the viewer in, encouraging contemplation as they immerse us in a tapestry of colour and form.

Zhuang Hong Yi has exhibited throughout Europe and China and his work is held in numerous esteemed public and private collections worldwide. He has been the subject of multiple museum exhibitions at Groninger Museum in the Netherlands.

Zhuang Hong Yi, Flower Field, Rice paper and acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60 cm

Exhibition: Zhuang Hong Yi
Dates: 23 September – 16 October 2015
Venue: REDSEA Gallery, Block 9 Dempsey Road, Singapore 247697
Hours: 9.30am – 9pm, Sundays & PH from 10.30am – 9pm
Website: www.redseagallery.com