Li Zhanyang

Bio
Li Zhanyang was born in 1969 Changchun, Jilin Province, China. He graduated from sculpture department of Lu Xun academy of Fine Arts in Shenyang and received an MA in sculpture from Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Artist currently lives and works in Beijing and Chongqing, where he also teaches at the Sichuan Art Academy. Li Zhanyang is represented by Galerie Urs Meile Beijing-Lucerne, Left-Right Art Gallery in Beijing and Shanghai Eastlink Gallery.

Influences
Traditional Painting, Social Realism, urban life.

Works
Li Zhanyangs sculptures are like 3D video grabs of life in Beijings teeming streets. Moving to the big city in his late twenties, Li Zhanyang would spend hours in louche bars, seeing whatever there was to see, then go home and sculpt the scenes from memory. He went on to recreate gambling dens, railway stations, brothels and bus stops. Once, Chinese sculptures had to be monumental, heavy with political messages. Li Zhanyangs work is happily trivia l and frequently vulgar. In works like Traffic Accident (2001), he packs a single incident with multiple smaller stories.

The Traffic Accident (2001)

"Rent" Rent Collection Yard (2007) is the title of the largest and most complex sculptural installation Li Zhanyang has ever created. It is a humorous and subjective look at the Chinese contemporary art scene. Firstly, it is not just another freeze-frame of Li Zhanyangs own domestic tableau but, to the contrary, is a group sculpture narrating a motif from a certain period in history. The 34 life-size coloured fiberglass figures of this installation are modeled after the likeness of various people familiar to the artist among them international celebrities as well as some only known in Chinese contemporary art circles. They include Chinese and Western artists, curators, collectors, gallery owners, gallery assistants, and art students. The gathered subjects were chosen according to their public or professional roles.

Li Zhanyang, 'Rent' - Rent Collection Yard, 2007, detail, "History Observed": Joseph Beuys, Mao Zedong, 195 x 217 x 160 cm.

Exhibitions
Li Zhanyang has exhibited widely, with shows in Beijing, Chengdu, Hangzhou and Paris. 2013 Voice of the Unseen: Chinese Independent Art Chinese Independent Art Since 1979, Collateral Event of the 55th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy PORTRAIT OF THE TIMES - 30 YEARS OF CHINESE CONTEMPORARY ART, Power Staion of Art, Shanghai, China 2012 The Nightmare, Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing, China

The 1st Project of the 4th Guangzhou Triennial Disenchantement of Chinese Imagination, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China 2010 Chinese Patients, White Box Museum of Art, Beijing, China 2009 Libido, Galerie Urs Meile, Lucerne, Switzerland Beg Borrow and Steal, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, USA 2008 Mahjong: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection, University of California, Berkeley Art Museum, Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, USA

Critics
Li Zhanyang is a storyteller and he has the ability to capture decisive moments in everyday occurrences. We find ourselves in the role of the voyeur: observing how a gathering of people try to grab seats in an overcrowded bus, or watching a group of Mah-jong players who seemingly know each other well. We take note of their clothing and their social status; make eye contact for a moment and eavesdrop on a hushed conversation. Perhaps we are not really voyeurs at all, but were, in fact, expressly invited to participate in the scenes created. Urs Meile In both the formally simpler works and the larger sculptural groups made of hundreds of figures squeezed against one another, the scenes staged by Li Zhanyang reflect the theatrical and sometimes surreal essence of existence. Nataline Colonnello

Auction Record
Li Zhanyangs works have been auctioned in auction houses worldwide starting 2005. Painted bronze sculptures were sold for around 10 000 USD.