Opening Reception: November 6, 6:00-8:00pm

Fang Lijun—one of China’s best-known artists and the recognized leader of the Cynical Realism movement—will exhibit his new body of work at Arario Gallery New York from November 6, 2008 through January 17, 2009. While Fang Lijun is celebrated for his paintings depicting bald men and infants, this exhibition will emphasize his recent sculptures. A reception for the artist will be held at the Gallery on November 6 from 6pm to 8pm.

Highlights include the exhibition’s signature piece (detail image above), titled 2007.9.11, in which a group of portly, bald, and caged figures appear to revolt; 2007.9.1, a series of acrylic tubes that upon close view reveal an unsettling chain of rubber babies literally crammed inside; 2008.5.1, a copper and goldfoil sculpture resembling a Buddhist shrine; and 2008.10.1, a seven-panel painting, measuring approximately 28 feet wide x 9 feet high, that sets the iconic Vietnam war image of General Nguyan Ngoc Loan executing a Vietcong prisoner against a romantic backdrop. Most works in the exhibition have never before been shown in the United States.

Born in Hebei, China in 1963, Fang Lijun grew up during the Cultural Revolution (c.1966-c.1976), witnessed its failures and endured its hardships. Stigmatized as a “rich peasant” during this turbulent period, his father kept him at home to protect him from persecution, encouraging him to paint and providing the necessary tools. In 1989, one year before graduating from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, Fang Lijun participated in the seminal exhibition China/Avant-Garde, which was closed by the authorities. The student demonstrations and massacre at Tiananmen Square occurred the same year. Fang Lijun was one of the first artists to translate the social temperament thereafter into a new visual language.

Fang Lijun lives and works in Beijing. In 2007, he had three major solo exhibitions in China at the Shanghai Art Museum; Hunan Provincial Museum; and dARTex/The Danish Art Exchange. In 2006, he was the subject of the inaugural exhibition at Today Art Museum, China’s first non-governmental, not-for- profit art museum. Other solo exhibition venues include the Indonesian National Gallery in Jakarta (2006); Ludwig Forum fur Internationale Kunst in Aachen, Germany (2002); and the Stedejlik Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands (1998). Fang Lijun has participated in prestigious group exhibitions, such as The Revolution Continues: New Art from China at Saatchi Gallery, London (2008); Half-Life of a Dream: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Logan Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California (2008); Red Hot at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas (2007); China Coup at the Red Mansion Foundation, London (2006); China, The Body Everywhere? at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Marseilles, France (2004); the Guangzhou Triennial, China (2002); Towards a New Image: Twenty Years of Contemporary Chinese Painting, a traveling show organized by the National Art Museum, Beijing (2001); and Inside Out: New Chinese Art at Asia Society, New York (1998).

Fang Lijun’s work is held in numerous museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Seattle Art Museum; Philadelphia Art Museum; Queensland Art Museum, South Brisbane, Australia; Centre Pompidou, France; and the Modern Art Museum, Tokyo. Individuals such as Uli Sigg, Oliver Stone, Rupert Murdoch, and Valentino have also collected the artist’s work.

A new catalog, featuring an essay by critic Karen Smith, will be published by the Gallery. Other titles are available for purchase. Call 212-206-2760 for more information.