The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Lacma) is planning an exhibition of new works by Zeng Fanzhi in Venice. Coinciding with the 60th Venice Biennale, Near and Far/Now and Then will be on view at the Scuola Grande della Misericordia, with an installation designed by the architect Tadao Ando (17 April-30 September).
Co-curated by Lacma's director Michael Govan and the museum's curator of Chinese art Stephen Little, the show will debut two recent bodies of work by Zeng: abstract oil paintings and pieces made with ink, graphite, chalk and gold dust on handmade paper that combine Christian, Buddhist and Daoist iconography.
“Zeng Fanzhi’s work engages two different types of materials: one thick and topographical, another thin and translucent,” Little said in a statement. “His work also demands two opposing approaches to viewer engagement—one distant, the other profoundly intimate. Taken together with the Asian and European traditions on which it draws, this exhibition will guide viewers to discoveries prompted by tensions that are deftly deployed by the artist.”
Govan calls Zeng’s work “a balance of technical mastery and emotion”.
- Zeng Fanzhi: Near and Far/Now and Then, 17 April-30 September, Scuola Grande della Misericordia, Venice
