Tang Contemporary Art is proud to announce the opening of Shen Ling’s solo exhibition “Void Flowers, Yearly Portrait”, held in the gallery’s Beijing 2nd space on November 5. Curated by Feng Boyi, the exhibition features more than 50 pieces of works, including oil painting, paper album, and mixed media works. It’s the most important solo exhibition of Shen Ling in recent years.
Curator's Words
Shen Ling's " Void Flower " portrays her many self-reflections over the past years and her feelings about the passage of time. It's like the mirror image of everyday life. As a kind of compensation for the short blooming days, Void Flower refers to the mundane everyday life, which is mostly languid leisure and melancholy. The " Yearly Portrait " is a metaphor for the weight of time, and the images inside it may continually shuttle and leap in the exhibition space, emphasizing the connection between her works and serving as a retrospective of her career.
Over the past years, Shen Ling has been taming her inner chaos, slowing down her pace, and developing inner awareness. She travelled between the real and art worlds, eliminating the redundancy to express her unique style amid ambiguity. In addition, she even gradually erased the traces of her previous creations to get rid of all kinds of unease brought by reality. Fortunately, with painting, she can endure the tedious days, get rid of the clutter, and catch the precious pieces of life that have nowhere to hide.
Perhaps, for Shen Ling, painting and living by heart is true freedom and the greatest decency. Everything else is collateral and dispensable.
 Void SpaceMixed media on paper, Album of sixteen leaves 32 × 352 cm 2020 |  Void Flower Series 57Mixed media on paper 38 × 38 cm 2020 |  Void Flower Series 49Mixed media on paper 38 × 38 cm 2020 |
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 Void Flower Series 45Mixed media on paper 38 × 38 cm 2020 |  Void Flower Series 44Mixed media on paper 38 × 38 cm 2020 |  Void Flower Series 44Mixed media on paper 52 × 37 cm 2020 |
 Void Births LightMixed media on paper, Album of twenty leaves 35 × 550 cm 2020 |  Void Flower Series 40Mixed media on paper 56 × 42 cm 2020 |  Void Flower Series 39Mixed media on paper 56 × 42 cm 2020 |
 TwilightOil on canvas 200 × 200 cm 2021 |  Tacit Understanding is More Than WordsMixed media on paper, Album of sixteen leaves 32 × 352 cm 2021 |  Void Flower Series 1Mixed media on paper 42 × 29 cm 2020 |
 The Song of Four SeasonsOil on canvas 75 × 60 cm 2022 |  Toward the Sea, Oil on canvas, 200×200 cm, 2022Oil on canvas 200 × 200 cm 2022 |  Six Records of a Floating Life 6Oil on canvas 200 × 200 cm 2015 |
 Six Records of a Floating Life 5Oil on canvas 200 × 200 cm 2015 |  Six Records of a Floating Life 4Oil on canvas 200 × 200 cm 2015 |  Six Records of a Floating Life 1Oil on canvas 200 × 200 cm 2015 |
 Qi NanOil on canvas 200 × 200 cm 2011 |  Portrait No.3Oil on canvas 75 × 60 cm 2022 |  Portrait No.1Oil on canvas 75 × 60 cm 2022 |
 Photography RealismOil on canvas 145.5 × 112.5 cm 1994 |  Creation of Graduation·Loneliness No.4Oil on canvas 152.7 × 192.5 cm 1989 |  Flush of the MorningOil on canvas 200 × 200 cm 2021 |
 Autumnal Wind and Rain on a Moody DayOil on canvas 200 × 200 cm × 3 2016 |
Artist
Shen Ling
Shen Ling was born in 1965 in Liaoning Province, China. In 1985, she graduated from the Afflicted High School to Central Academy of Fine Arts, and in 1989, she received her bachelor degree from the Oil Painting Department of Central Academy of Fine Arts where she is currently working.
Shen Ling’s recent solo exhibitions include: “Intensity of Concreteness”(Tang Contemporary Art, Hongkong, 2019)，“Flowers and Birds” (Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing,2014), “Fleeting Time – Works by Shen Ling”, He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen,2011). Her work also exhibited in “ The 9th Beijing International Art Biennale”(National Art Museum of China, Beijing, 2022), “In Time – Chinese Biennale of Oil Painting”, China Art Museum, Shanghai, 2018)，“The Era of Portrait - 30 Years of Contemporary Art”(Power Station of Art, Shanghai，2013)，“Self-Image: Woman Art in China 1920-2010” (Museum of Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, 2011)；“Exhibition of the Works of Shen Ling & Wang Yuping” (Today Art Museum, Beijing, 2010).
Curator
Feng Boyi
Feng Boyi, male, born in Beijing during the 1960s. Han ethnicity. No political affiliations. BFA degree majoring in History. Married. Blood type B; born in the year of the Mouse; Libra; rising sign: Virgo. Has been doing curating, critiquing and editing works since the late 1980s.