The Center Artasia Paris, presents from September 29 the first monographic and retrospective exhibition in France of the Chinese artist Wang Yigang, gathering his works from the beginning of the 1990s to the most recent paintings. Ami Barak, independent curator and art critic, designs the exhibition.

From the 1990s, China enjoyed an unprecedented boom in all areas including cultural advances and Wang Yigang immediately positioned himself as one of the pioneers of this form assumed modernist expression.

In China, the abstraction as practiced by the artist Wang Yigang still gives rise to debate because while maintaining a proven link with a certain tradition, it flourishes by letting go of the moorings and taking the path of the experiments of inspiration West. But undoubtedly its cultural horizon is one of a spirituality that is eminently local and that makes its art equally worked and equally tormented.
The abstract temptation as defended by the Chinese artist is that of freedom and it is for this reason that his art is of such importance in history in the present. The title of the exhibition resumes an injunction pronounced by the artist in an interview and which denotes a profession of faith as well as a manual for the address of the viewer.

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About the artist

Born in 1961 in Qiqihar, Wang Yigang began his career in the early 1980s, performing in his early works influenced by his studies of Cubism and Futurism. Winner of the Encouraging Youth Artist Prize at the National Youth Art Exhibition in 1985, he graduated the following year from the oil painting department of the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts in Shenyang.

Throughout his 25-year career, artist Wang Yigang has demonstrated pluralism in his style, from figurative to abstract expressionism and pop art. The artist has exhibited his works worldwide, in China, Beijing, Shenyang and Shanghai but also in Japan, Singapore, Russia and the United States. He has also presented his works in Europe, especially in Spain and Germany.

While continuing his creative work, he was awarded the 1993 China Oil Painting Biennial Academic Award and later became Professor of Art at the Teachers' Institute at Shenyang University. He currently teaches at the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts.