curated by Daniela Morera

21 September - 26 October 2007
hours: Mon – Fri 11-19, closed on Sundays and holidays,
Saturday by appointment only.

hours for the weekend of Start-Milano 21-22-23 Sept, 12-21.

Galleria Paolo Curti/Annamaria Gambuzzi & Co. is proud to present the solo show of the Chinese artist Zheng Zaidong, opening on 21 Sept, 18.00 at Via Pontaccio 19, Milan. The artist will attend the opening.

Zheng Zaidong feeds himself on Chinese classical literature. The titles of his paintings are phrases of poems from the Ming, Wei and Jin dynasties, phrases he occasionally transfers onto canvas.
He moved to Shanghai from Taiwan, where he was born in 1953. Traveling in China for about twenty years in search of the culture that reflects the elegance of the life of the sages scholars he also came into contact with mountains, rivers, porcelain, tea rooms, Zen gardens. But in New York, in the 1980s, he saw a film by Salvador Dalí and was overwhelmed. Surrealism changed him forever. He did not seek solitude, choosing instead to live in Shanghai, but he “pursues pleasure while catching spring”. He knows how to “play” with the pleasures of life and always does so with great sophistication. His work is deeply removed from any hint of vulgarity.
The seductive character of his paintings lies in the displacement of time that permeates his work: classical inspiration and a new sign. He is able to manage with harmony the cultural cross-pollination that increasingly pervades our lifestyle, crossing the Western and Eastern hemispheres, is managed and made harmonious, without ever getting overpowered in his work.
The exhibition includes 14 paintings of different sizes on the artist’s favorite themes: floating, immobile landscapes, domestic interiors, enhanced by always different subjects. Men, flowers, rivers, rocks, birds, sunsets, moons, are subjects charged with deep meanings that surface in the artist’s mind and urge the viewer toward inner dialogues and reflections.
The works of Zheng Zaidong have been shown in the collections of many museums around the world, including the MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) of Shanghai, the Prague Art Museum, the Korea Art Museum, the Futian Art Museum (Korea), Hong Kong Art Center, Taipei Fine Art Museum, National Museum of History of Taipei.

The artist will attend the opening

From a conversation in Shanghai, April 2007.

Daniela Morera – But I don’t think it is only to talk about one’s self, the essence is to utilize the self to express something deeper. You concentrate above all on the pursuit of pleasure. What kind of pleasure?

Zheng Zaidong – The true essence is desire, the desire of the human being. On a spiritual plane it is admiration for the classical world, antiquity, appreciation of nature, but at the same time there is the erotic, bodily desire of all our senses. True desire also includes solitude. My work is like a diary of my research. To pursue pleasure is to pursue myself. Or the meaning of life. The lifestyle of an artist is what fascinates me, if you are an artist you can pursue yourself. What interests me is not just art but also life, the meaning of life. What appears in my work is the pursuit of pleasure, the decay of our body, solitude. But pleasure has many aspects, from the most extravagant extremes to the simplicity of drinking tea in the moonlight.

Daniela Morera – A psychoanalytic research that also involves pain?

Zheng Zaidong – For me it is totally pacific self-therapy. I am an admirer of classical culture but I do not have the intention to represent it.

Daniela Morera – In practice, you come into contact with the Chinese “Renaissance” and use its symbols, the moon, the tree, the rock, the flower, the bird, the sage.

Zheng Zaidong – When I use certain images I absolutely do not want to know anything about their symbolism, for me they are signs that spontaneously surface in my mind.

Daniela Morera – And then there is always your face, your body.

Zheng Zaidong – I am someone who does not know much, so it is easier to paint myself, at least I am dealing with a familiar subject.