Weekend Arts: Mao Jiake's Solo Exhibition
Yesterday I saw an interesting solo exhibition.
The artist is the father of a friend of many years. He isn't a professional artist — he simply graduated in art when he was young, and most of his career has actually been spent first in government and then in business. Yet the upheavals and fierce competition of the worldly life did not wear away his love of art and his pursuit of it.
The earliest painting I saw in the exhibition was completed in 2007, so the work spans more than 15 years.
Most of the works were made in the artist's spare time from work — in hotels, on trains, in airports, museums, parks and even restaurants.
I think only an almost addictive love could give a person such perseverance.
Talking with the artist himself, I also found that he often approaches everything he does with a naive, romantic, youthful spirit, which makes his artistic pursuit feel unburdened and easy. I think it's this mindset that lets him find balance between work and art in an everyday, natural way.
The Mirror Series
"God has created nights well-armed with dreams, and mirrors, to make clear to man he is a reflection and a mere vanity. Therefore these alarms."
— Jorge Luis Borges, *Mirrors*
This series is influenced by Lacan's theory of the gaze and Borges's writings on "mirrors." Through presenting the "mirror image" as a special kind of existence, it tries to look back on and reflect upon the meaning and revelations of self, other, time and life.
Mirror
mirror-5
Lithograph/oil
29×31cm
2015
Mirror mirror-12 Etching/oil 29×31cm 2015
Mirror mirror-13 Etching/oil 29×31cm 2015
Mirror
mirror-10
Etching/oil
29×41cm
2015
The Las Meninas Series
According to the artist, the inspiration came from the portrait painting of the Spaniard Velázquez. The "maids of honour" are rendered in a sketchy, blurred way: a base is laid down, in parts or over the whole, by copperplate printing, and the image is then painted using oils, palette knives and so on.
Homage to Velázquez – Las Meninas
salute velasguizhi palacemnid-4 Oil 80×105cm 2021
Las Meninas
palacemaid-2 Etching/oil 29×31cm 2017
The Manuscripts Series
Flowers, plants, buildings and scenery are drawn in crayon and oil pastel on photocopies of Republic-of-China-era archive paper with a special significance. The interplay, and the rough brushwork, are very interesting.
Manuscripts series Crayon/oil pastel 22×30cm 2021
Manuscripts series Crayon/oil pastel 22×30cm 2021
Manuscripts series Crayon/oil pastel 22×30cm 2021
Queen queen-4 Oil on paper 22×30cm 2019
The curator is Zhang Yuzhuo, a young post-90s talent, and the exhibition was arranged casually but with clever touches.
Two international students from the Nanjing University of the Arts were invited to sing live at the venue; only later did I learn that one of them came from Zambia in Africa. The music was fun, too.