The exhibition comprises oil paintings and sketches by Zhang Ran over the past few years, aiming to present the conditions and realities of the self through her reflection about the changes in her role and the phased examination while adapting to the altered role. Zhang Ran’s art comes from her observation of life, and life in its turn also shapes her way of doing art, leading to the transformation in his aesthetic practice.
Representation means faithful rendering of given images, “shadow of the shadow”, in Plato’s words. Between reality and painting, the differences derived from the shift in the artist’s practice is actually an implication of the sentimental intensity on the part of the creator. “Practice”, plural and procedural, can also refer to the behavioral process an artist goes through between reality and painting, along with her psychological trajectory.
The self-portraits at the exhibition highlight the practice the artist made in easel painting. Though graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Luxun Academy of Fine Arts, she did not focus her early works on painting but chose mixed media like installation and text. Changes in her role as a women led to shift in her perception and thinking, thus releasing her from the burden of the easel and inspiring her to transfer in a skilful and natural way the passage of time onto the canvas. These self-portraits therefore become the dual representation of her state of mind and her image then.
Besides, we see delicate and fine treatment of everyday life scenes in the still life series dubbed “women’s school”, giving prominence to the contrast between the visual effect and the image material, echoing the changes in her role in family life and in art practice. These portraits, though observation of her friends and his family, mirror herself as an artist in an attempt to free herself from the constraints. With figures in a tranquil but disquieting atmosphere, these paintings seem to be figurative and true-to-life but in fact drift toward distortion. The three series work to present an artist who reveals her inner world by means of self analysis.
