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Li Gang
Li Gang: in the grey scale
Curated by Tony Trembath
Li Gang is a notable contemporary Chinese artist. Li Gang trained as a sculptor, graduating from Victorian College of the Arts in 1996. Since then he has staked an important place in the fi eld of contemporary Chinese painting. As well as teaching at the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing, Li Gang is the founding director of the Pickled Art Centre, which operates an artist-in-residence program for Chinese and international artists.
While best known as a sculptor and painter, Li Gang has in recent years turned to photography. Curiously, as digital photography has become dominant everywhere, Li Gang’s photographs employ the materials and technologies of analogue photography: he shoots on fi lm, often using basic 35mm cameras or hand-built medium-format cameras, such as those on display in this exhibition.
The use of these hand-built cameras re-introduces risk and the accident to photography. The artist gives over control of the picture: its framing, focus and lighting are as much a result of chance as the artist’s command of technology or process. Indeed, instead of control and mastery, there is magic and mystery. The photographic darkroom was always a place of magic and mystery, where alchemy and science turned silver halides into pictures.
Tony Trembath, Curator
Li Gang lives and works in Beijing. He is a graduate of the Claremont School of Art (WA) and the Victorian College of the Arts (VIC). In 1998 he established Art Link Foundry and Sculpture Study Centre in Beijing, and between 2002-09 he was the Founding Director of the Pickled Art Centre in Beijing. He has undertaken artist residencies in Vienna, Valencia, and Seoul. Selected solo exhibitions include In the Grey Scale, Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne (2010) Black Light, 798/Red Gate Gallery, Beijing (2008) Work in Progress, Color Elefante Gallery, Valencia (2008) Li Gang - New Painting, Galeriazero, Barcelona (2008) Li Gang Painting Sculpture Printmaking, Two Lines Gallery, Beijing (2006) and Rust, Sculpture Installation, Chinese European Art Centre, Xiamen University, Xiamen (2004). Selected recent group exhibitions include Width, Museum of Contemporary Art, Song Zhuang, Beijing (2009) New Harmony 5x5, ArtMia Foundation, Cao Changdi, Beijing (2009) ReGroup: New Opportunities in A New Climate, Red Gate Gallery, Beijing (2009) Catching Light: 4 Chinese photographers, QUAC 798 Art District, Beijing (2009) New Photographers, QUAC 798 Art District, Beijing (2009) Transparent Memories, Two Lines Gallery, 798 Art District, Beijing (2008) Olympic Stars, Red Gate Gallery (2008) Process-Journey, Australia–China Touring Exhibition, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong (2007-08) Gang of Eight, Painting, Two Lines Gallery, Beijing (2007)and Dialogue - 2007, Sculpture, Norwegian Embassy, Beijing (2007). His work resides in collections in China, Australia, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, USA, Canada, Malaysia, Korea, France, Italy, and Spain.
Li Gang: in the grey scale is presently touring urban and regional galleries in Australia as part of the Year of Chinese Culture in Australia from July 2011 to June 2012. Li Gang: in the grey scale is supported by the Australian Government, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Australia China Council Department of Actinology Epsom, and RMIT University.
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