zeng fanzhi debuts latest works at tadao ando-designed show in venice

lacma presents Zeng Fanzhi: Near and Far/Now and Then

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) presents Zeng Fanzhi: Near and Far/Now and Then, an exhibition featuring new works by the renowned Chinese artist. Coinciding with the 2024 art edition of La Biennale di Venezia, with an installation designed by architect Tadao Ando, the Zeng Fanzhi exhibition is mounted in the historic Scuola Grande della Misericordia from April 17 to September 30, 2024. Displayed here are the latest breakthroughs in the artist’s practice. Near and Far/Now and Then premieres two recent bodies of work: new abstract paintings and the debut of handmade paper art rendered in ink, graphite, chalk, and gold dust, among other mineral pigments.

installation view of LACMA exhibition Zeng Fanzhi: Near and Far/Now and Then, Scuola Grande Della Misericordia in Venice, Apr 17-Sep 30, 2024 | © Zeng Fanzhi | image © Stefan Altenburger Photography Zurich

spotlighting the artist’s abstract figuration

The Tadao Ando-designed exhibition focuses on Zeng Fanzhi’s ambitious practice of redefining the abstract through figurative representation and vice versa. The artist’s new oil paintings emerge from decades of research in color theory, drawing on and challenging Impressionism and Pointillism, whereby images materialize only through the careful placement of individual color marks. Here, the brushwork creates figurative elements readily recognizable from afar but, when viewed up close, dissolve into the materiality of oil paint. Tonal variations in one color give way to interwoven schemes of colors, often with more than 30 types of bright pigments in one image. The installation provides an in-depth glimpse into his command of the medium, his wet-on-wet technique, and the emphasis on the sheer materiality of paint that defines his work. In a world now inundated with AI-rendered images, Zeng challenges viewers to recognize the superiority of painting as a time-honored art and craft.

Skull III, 2019–23, © Zeng Fanzhi | image courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

The works on handmade paper point to a new direction in Zeng’s work, ambitiously combining Christian, Buddhist, and literati iconography. They recall the apogee of Chinese monochrome ink landscape paintings of the Song (960–1279) and Yuan (1260–1368) dynasties while also evoking the ambiguities in the ink landscapes of the late Ming and early Qing dynasty painters Zou Zhilin (1574–ca. 1654), Hongren (1610–1663), and Dai Benxiao (1621–1691). The subject matter moves fluidly from the crucifix to representations of rocks and old trees—symbols of strength, resilience, and longevity in traditional Chinese culture. As with Zeng Fanzhi’s paintings, these exquisite drawings deliberately defy categorization in their alignment with the great traditions of Asian and European art.

Nirvana, 2019–23, © Zeng Fanzhi | image courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

a walk through the exhibition design by tadao ando

Upon entering the ground floor of the Scuola Grande, visitors are introduced to the classical proportions of the 16th-century building, bracketed by two sizeable multi-panel oil paintings, one alluding to Buddhist iconography, the other Christian. At the upper level, visitors find the space divided into five thematic sections. Tadao Ando’s design is a progression of walls with a series of increasingly large apertures, each of which is self-contained yet connected with the others. These openings connect two larger works, one at each end of the space as on the ground floor, but, in this case, the two paintings are not strictly representational but instead suggest abstractions of light and water. A selection of Zeng’s smaller format oil paintings and works on paper are respectively featured in and around Ando’s temporary walls. Against the backdrop of the Misericordia’s majestic spaces—steeped in history and richly decorated with frescoes—Zeng’s project grounds his audience in the visceral experience of art.

The exhibition is co-curated by Michael Govan, LACMA CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director, and Stephen Little, Florence and Harry Sloan Curator of Chinese Art and Department Head, Chinese, Korean, and South and Southeast Asian Art.

Lóng Táitóu II, 2019–23, © Zeng Fanzhi | image courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth