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Almine Rech

Li Qing BLOW-UP

Feb 5 — Mar 7, 2020 | London
Inquire about the exhibition: inquiries@alminerech.com

Almine Rech is pleased to announce Li Qing’s first solo exhibition with the gallery in London, organized with Jérôme Sans. This exhibition will be on view from February 5 to March 7, 2020.

Overrun with mysteries, fake news, innuendos and double meanings, Blow-Up is a visual wandering in which Li Qing, a leading figure of the new generation of Chinese artists born in the ’80s, confronts us with different ways of understanding, reading, decoding and interpreting the appearances of reality. From painting to installation, sound pieces to video and photography, his work is a verse of contemporary urban poetry engaging in a new logic of visuality. After his Hitchcockian exhibition Rear Windows at Fondazione Prada Rong Zhai, Shanghai (2019), Blow-Up is a new drift inspired by Michelangelo Antonioni’s eponymous film. Blow-Up deals with notions of observation, storytelling and enigmas that permeate both the filmmaker’s and the artist’s work. 

Li Qing’s work reflects on the contemporary aesthetics of the megacities that are changing at a considerable rate and the evolution of society through architectural alterations that are often closely related to human existence as an extension of our past experiences. In his emblematic Neighbor’s Window (2016–2019) — using the back of old window frames from buildings of the French concession in Shanghai that had been demolished — he elaborates on Leon Battista Alberti’s metaphorical definition of the painting as an “open window through which we can look at history”, through nested windows and multiple images that coexist and overlap. 

His position is always that of the observer, that expresses his critiques through games or irony. Interaction has always been a key aspect of his work, which is utilized to unblock our mechanisms of vision, especially a vision steeped in the thrall of today’s post-digital era. Whether it is his Finding the Differences (2010–2019) or his Tetris Windows (2018–2019) series, he forces us to seek in the opposite direction of today’s frantic rhythms by wandering into the works, in order to relearn how to see and to construct our thinking. Blow-Up “is a way for me to deal with image information and real experience, to pay attention to sliced micro reality, starting from a subtle difference, a building’s window, a person’s residence, an image in the media or even a subtle expression. This kind of partial and segmented view of the world constitutes a part of the truth, and of how to be aware of the changes in reality”, he explains. [1] 

[1] Extract from an ongoing interview with Jérôme Sans

 

- Jérôme Sans

Press release

  • read or download in English

Selected artworks

  • Li Qing,                                      Blow-Up, 2020

    Li Qing Blow-Up, 2020

    Neon
    180 x 102 cm
    70 7/8 x 40 1/8 in
    Edition 1/3 + 2 AP

  • Li Qing,                                      Landscapes with Spheres, 2019-2020

    Li Qing Landscapes with Spheres, 2019-2020

    Wood, metal, plexiglass, oil color, acrylic, cloth, printed matters, aluminium-plastic sheets
    99 x 106 x 10.5 cm
    39 x 41 3/4 x 4 1/8 in

  • Li Qing,                                      Tetris Window · Amber Building, 2019

    Li Qing Tetris Window · Amber Building, 2019

    Wood, metal, plexiglass, oil color, acrylic, clothes, printed matter, aluminium-plastic panel
    212 x 106 x 9.5 cm
    83 1/2 x 41 3/4 x 3 3/4 in

  • Li Qing,                                      Tetris Window · K11, 2019

    Li Qing Tetris Window · K11, 2019

    Wood, metal, plexiglass, oil color, acrylic, clothes, printed matter, aluminium-plastic panel
    212 x 106 x 9.5 cm
    83 1/2 x 41 3/4 x 3 3/4 in

  • Li Qing,                                      Tetris Window · Rongs' Residence, 2018-2019

    Li Qing Tetris Window · Rongs' Residence, 2018-2019

    Wood, metal, plexiglass, oil color, markers, clothes, printed matters, aluminium-plastic panel
    212,5 x 106,5 x 10 cm
    83 5/8 x 41 7/8 x 4 in

  • Li Qing,                                      Tetris Window · Ampire Foreign Firm, 2019

    Li Qing Tetris Window · Ampire Foreign Firm, 2019

    Wood, metal, plexiglass, oil color, markers, clothes, printed matter, aluminium-plastic panel
    212 x 106 x 8.5 cm
    83 1/2 x 41 3/4 x 3 3/8 in

  • Li Qing,                                      Spot the Difference · Sales Lady (6 differences), 2019

    Li Qing Spot the Difference · Sales Lady (6 differences), 2019

    Oil on canvas (diptych)
    200 x 150 cm (each)
    78 3/4 x 59 1/8 in (each)

  • Li Qing,                                      Blow-Up · Hong Kong Morning, 2016

    Li Qing Blow-Up · Hong Kong Morning, 2016

    Oil color, plexiglass, wood, metal, fabric, magazine pages, photos, aluminium composite panel
    150.5 x 205 x 10 cm
    59 1/4 x 80 3/4 x 4 in

  • Li Qing,                                      Images of Mutual Undoing and Unity · Love 201601, 2016

    Li Qing Images of Mutual Undoing and Unity · Love 201601, 2016

    Photographs and oil on canvas
    Photography: 90 x 90 cm/ 35 3/8 x 35 3/8 in (each)
    Oil on canvas: 90 x 90 cm/ 35 3/8 x 35 3/8 in (each)

  • Li Qing,                                      Images of Mutual Undoing and Unity · Love 201604, 2016

    Li Qing Images of Mutual Undoing and Unity · Love 201604, 2016

    Photography and oil on canvas
    Photography: 90 x 90 cm/ 35 3/8 x 35 3/8 in (each)
    Oil on canvas: 90 x 90 cm/ 35 3/8 x 35 3/8 in (each)

  • Li Qing,                                      Images of Mutual Undoing and Unity · Love 201901, 2019

    Li Qing Images of Mutual Undoing and Unity · Love 201901, 2019

    Photographs and oil on canvas
    Photography: 90 x 90 cm/ 35 3/8 x 35 3/8 in (each)
    Oil on canvas: 90 x 90 cm/ 35 3/8 x 35 3/8 in (each)

  • Li Qing,                                      Images of Mutual Undoing and Unity · Love 201902, 2019

    Li Qing Images of Mutual Undoing and Unity · Love 201902, 2019

    Photographs and oil on canvas
    Photography: 90 x 90 x 2cm/ 35 3/8 x 35 3/8 in (each)
    Oil on canvas: 90 x 90 x 2cm/ 35 3/8 x 35 3/8 in (each)

  • Li Qing,                                      Green Faces - AF0116, 2020

    Li Qing Green Faces - AF0116, 2020

    Collage on wooden board covered in fabric: printed matters, oil-absorbing sheets, grease from human faces
    200 x 150 x 4.8 cm
    78 3/4 x 59 1/8 x 1 5/8 in

  • Li Qing,                                      Surface Science No.4, 2019

    Li Qing Surface Science No.4, 2019

    Mixed media on blackboard
    60 x 80 x 10 cm
    23 5/8 x 31 1/2 x 4 3/8 in

  • Li Qing,                                      Notes on the Window · On Exotisme, 2019

    Li Qing Notes on the Window · On Exotisme, 2019

    Wood, oil on plexiglass, aluminium-plastic panel
    150 x 104 x 10.5 cm
    59 1/8 x 41 x 4 1/8 in

  • Li Qing,                                      Hangzhou House No.06, 2017

    Li Qing Hangzhou House No.06, 2017

    C-print
    180 x 120 cm
    70 7/8 x 47 1/4 in
    Edition 1/3 + 1 AP

  • Li Qing,                                      Hangzhou House No.17, 2018

    Li Qing Hangzhou House No.17, 2018

    C-print
    180 x 120 cm
    70 7/8 x 47 1/4 in
    Edition 1/3 + 1 AP

  • Li Qing,                                      Hangzhou House No.40, 2019

    Li Qing Hangzhou House No.40, 2019

    C-print
    180 x 120 cm
    70 7/8 x 7 7/8 in
    Edition 1/3 + 1 AP

  • Li Qing,                                      Hangzhou House No.44, 2019

    Li Qing Hangzhou House No.44, 2019

    C-print
    180 x 120 cm
    70 7/8 x 47 1/4 in
    Edition 1/3 + 1 AP

  • Li Qing,                                      Neon News, 2019

    Li Qing Neon News, 2019

    Video Installation
    (6 CRT 21' monitors)
    Dimensions variable
    Edition 1/3 + 2 AP

  • Li Qing,                                      Dark Magazine · Art in America, 2019

    Li Qing Dark Magazine · Art in America, 2019

    Magazine wrapped with brocade
    28 x 23,4 x 1 cm
    11 1/8 x 9 1/4 x 3/8 in

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