Jean-Charles Blais has been present in the public eye since the 1980’ s, becoming famous for drawing on recycled material (in particular on torn out posters). In 1982, a group of young artists formed the “Figuration Libre” school with the idea of opening of movement of free and passionate art. Although this school and many other artistic movements on its fringe were similar and it only lasted a short time, the reputation of this movement spread far and wide at the time. Jean-Charles Blais founded the “The Sailor With Two Hearts” and became the representative of free figuration in France. After becoming immensely success- ful, his works underwent a huge evolution, when he started to make prominent his painter- ly character and artistic intuition from beginning to end. Jean-Charles Blais’ s most repre- sentative works must be his drawings and paintings on poster and paper, his collages and his compressings; great blotches of colour making human “silhouettes” emerge and a use of large contrasting black and white forms become the symbol of the artist’ s representative character. This form has been used in collaborations with fashion brands, urban spaces and structures. The paintings of the current exhibition are from the artist’ s most representative series of works.
Jean-Charles Blais was born in 1956 in Nantes, France. From 1974 to 1979 he studied at the Rennes Art School. In 1982 he settled in Paris. His work has been the object of solo shows and retrospectives at the most prestigious museums and galleries including Centre National d’ art et de Culture Georges Pompidou, the Picasso Museum, Paris’ Galerie Yvon Lambert, New York’ s Leo Castelli Gallery, Germany’ s Buchmann Gallery，France’ s Catherine Issert and Japan’ s Kenji Taki Gallery. In 1990 Jean-Charles Blais was commissioned a work for the Assemblée Nationale tube stop in Paris that would be exhibited for 24 years. Blais came up with the work "Black Heads": huge collages on posters that were stuck on the inside walls of the tube station which were enlargements of smaller painted works. The commis- sion was exhibited until 2014. In 1996 he was invited by MOMA to produce the public project “Phone Booth”. In recent years he has been appreciated by numerous Asian collec- tors and his works can be found in several major collections, including the collections of the Museum of Modern Art New York, the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien and Centre National d’ art et de Culture Georges Pompidou. But this is the artist’ s first exhibition in China.
Wang Keping is well-known member of the Chinese contemporary art avant-garde. He was an important member of China’ s first experimental artistic group the “Stars” . He often uses maple, cherry, oak and other types of wood to produce extremely diverse sculptures of female figures. There is no need for esoteric artistic theories to interpret the sculptures of Wang Keping in depth. The shape of each one of his works is filled with vitality. The texture and gloss of the wood’ s quality exudes a kind of rustic fragrance. It could be said Wang Keping is the Chinese contemporary artist who most “understands” wood. He uses a most natural and concise style to express a beautiful and natural feeling.
Wang Keping was born in 1949 in Beijing before settling in France in 1984. He has been recognized as a major sculpture artist in China. His works have been exhibited and collected by museums and galleries throughout the world including Centre National d’ art et de Culture Georges Pompidou, the Maillol Museum, the Netherlands’ Groeningen Museum, the Taiwan Museum, the City of Paris, the Seoul Olympic Park and many others.
Both artists are equally active and renowned from the end of the 1970’ s and beginning of the 1980’ s: one received critical appraisal as a representative of France’ s “Figuration Libre” school which was never previously exhibited in China and the other is an important member of China’ s “Stars” group. We very much look forward to these artists producing a classic and easily enjoyable exhibition in contrast with the quick pace of the information era.