Nicholas Robinson Gallery is pleased to present the second gallery exhibition for painter Wei Dong.

Wei Dong’s new paintings consist of single or multi-figure compositions, reflecting on and satirizing the social mores of both the Maoist era in China, and its legacies within contemporary China. These narrative vignettes also illustrate a highly personal lexicon of desire, or more specifically a painterly excising of the suppression of these desires.

Classically academic, and often inspired by important masters and masterpieces of the Western canon (especially Vermeer, Parmigianino and Ingres, but including many technical and stylistic nods to other Old Master antecedents), the paintings’ meticulous verisimilitude is tempered by a highly distinctive and subtle mannerism.

Demeanors are often calm and serene, suggesting a stoic attitude toward the torment, torture and injustice the figures are subjected to. Violence, both actual and implied, is meted out with similar tranquility (even dispassion). Depending upon their roles, the protagonists are either represented in varying degrees of undress, or are clad in the androgynous uniforms of the Cultural Revolution.

“I grew up in the Mao-era in China when social realism was the dominant form….But my works are not in the realm of Social Realism, not even close. For me, it is just a language. You may find that elements in some works seem to have reference to reality or historical scenes. However, the references themselves are not as relevant as some may think. They are just a tool or context to reveal what I really want to share. When I was an art student….I was extremely interested in religious paintings, often in the Western art books prohibited in China. Anything prohibited interested me back then….

I grew up in a military academy….The influence is essential in shaping my perception of gender, sexuality and the body. People around me wore Mao clothes, in which gender is simply invisible. It was a very confusing time to be a boy who was intensely curious about sexuality. I started to make up my own stories, often mixed up with the propaganda I saw in public. But these stories were for my own fantasy and not to tell. I was a loner. I internalized these feelings and in addition to loneliness I also felt ashamed as we were always told that sexual fantasies were wrong….When I grew up I had this irresistible desire to reveal the stories that were intended for me to others. In a way, my obsession with female sexuality and attentiveness to flesh are ways to explore my own desires as well as challenge cultural and social constructions.” Wei Dong, Interviewed by Yannis Tsitsovits, Under/Current Magazine, September 2010.

Based in New York since 2001, Wei Dong has exhibited his work worldwide, in both commercial and institutional contexts.

Please contact the gallery for further information.