Past meets present

In his exhibiton opening today, painter Zhang Xiaogang, 54, delves into the disconnect between past and present self. One painting from Beijing Voice, now at PACE Beijing, The Book of Amnesia shows a candle left over an open book in clear daylight, like an abandoned self still lingering in spite of the time that has passed.

Paintings like this might well refer to Zhang's own history as an alcoholic, now 27 years ago, but which has left him with still-present health problems. Zhang is continually examining his life, past and present combined, rather than just retelling it.

In an interview with Metro Beijing, Zhang said his inspiration still emanates from "looking inwardly at myself first, then at the rest of the world in order to create."

PACE spokesperson Sylvie Tiao said Zhang's new exhibition promises to show his art "exploring not only the new possibilities of contemporary culture, but also the process of gaining self-awareness through creativity."

Beijing Voice, now on display at the 798 Art Zone-based PACE, shows an altogether different side to Zhang's approach as a painter, though not as an artist.

Zhang wants viewers to make "the same connection with my paintings as I do with people and things I see," rather than a one-way projection of an artist on his audience.

Kunming-born artist Zhang is one of China's most celebrated contemporary art figures living in the 21st Century. For nearly 20 years, Zhang's work as a surrealist has won admiration from home as well as abroad, with exhibitions in New York and Brisbane, Australia.

Zhang's work first caught the attention of the art world in 1997 with his Bloodline series, which is a collection of individual and family portraits in post-Cultural Revolution China.

Zhang's family portraits often portray two parents in Red Guard uniforms standing on either side of their only child, representing a nation at a crossroads.

The faces of each subject are simultaneously haunted, weary and expectant. The parents' faces are in many cases given a cold, blue-gray pallor, offset by the child of each scene, who still holds a symbolic red hue in their cheeks.

Bloodline was celebrated for Zhang's ability to capture a post-reform China in a precarious state of transition from Mao's isolated nation-state to an economically open but uncertain future.

Common between both Bloodline and Beijing Voice is Zhang's focus on the individual's experience of history within his or her culture and how it differs from recorded history. Zhang said he believes all his art should connect with people "both as families and as individuals in the same way, all over the world."