Art Projects Gallery is delighted and honored to have the opportunity to present New York based Chinese artist Wang Yefeng’s inaugural gallery solo exhibition, titled “iGeneration”.

Prior to this, Yefeng’s cutting edge works have mainly been exhibited only in museums and other prestigious academic venues. These include the Co-prosperity Sphere Culture Center in Chicago, El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe, Xuzhou Museum of Art China, The Museum of Luxun Academy of Art (Shenyang, China) and 99 Art Space at Shanghai University.

An innovative artist using the digital media and currently leading the Digital Media Program at Rhode Island College as an Assistant Professor, Wang Yefeng’s works feature virtual worlds and imaginary characters created by the artist to raise issues about the real world that are close to his heart. The “iGeneration” solo exhibition showcases two of his important video installation works, “Well-Disciplined Kids” and “A Figure”.

“Well-disciplined Kids” is a 6-channels video art (also available in limited edition Archival Pigment Print mounted in Diasec) made in MAYA virtual modeling and animation program. The series feature dehumanized “made in China” children, devoid of facial expressions, personalities and emotions. As a way to reinforce his own identity and seeing himself to be one of the children, the artist digitally mapped his own face and applied it as a facial texture onto the child characters. The juxtaposition of the children characters innocently playing with surreal animal-headed female figures, a broken tv set, jet fighter and military tank set against a backdrop of desolate, barren terrain, reflects the artist’s view of the dilemma facing modern Chinese people’s “psychological world in an absurd environment”.

In his video art piece (also available in limited edition Archival Pigment Print mounted in Diasec) titled “A Figure”, Yefeng took photos of himself in various postures, wearing an animal head that comprises of a pig skull and deer antlers (a combination that constitutes the symbol of a dragon in Chinese culture based on ancient Chinese mythology). The body postures and gestures in the composition took references from Renaissance paintings, as a memory of how the artist was systematically trained in western classical styles at art schools in China.

Digitally making multiple duplicates of his own image, each image becomes his digital avatar carrying the same emotions and thoughts. Composed in a chaotic-looking arrangement, all the figures moving in extreme slow-motion, the artist fabricates a neurotic field in which the viewers can be engaged to participate in this contemplation.

Artist’s Statement
I work with my two biggest addictions – digital visual culture and the ecstasy of superficiality. The fascination with digital virtual images for art making does not derive only from exploring the alluring possibilities, but also working with its problematic limitations. The digital virtual world is cold and isolated but never lack of fun experiment. The superficiality of consumerism is absurd, spectacle, overwhelming, and actually profound and condensed. Both of them are the sequence of calculation for utmost efficiency;
Both of them are the glamour and outrage inherent in the system of mathematical binary.

My digital avatars are the products of the system of mathematical binary, and created as my personal incarnation.They are consistently cold, emotionless, impersonal, aberrant, narcissistic, ecstatic, and mass-reproduced. The fascination with my virtual characters comes from the fact that they eternally pursue a status of peaceful meditation but always end up as neurotic grotesques. They contain fragments from the society I live in, navigate through it, and assist me with the process of exploration. I am able to give my virtual characters the most honest expression of coldness and absurdity with the typical problematic imperfections of the digital media I utilize.

My narrative is an uncanny complex of my Chinese foundational inheritance, a blurred memory of political outrageousness, and the extensive influence of Westernized consumerism. The juxtaposition of these seemingly contradictory facts reflects me as a Chinese who is immersed in the vortex of a social dilemma.

About Ye-Feng Wang
Yefeng Wang is a new media artist. He was born in 1984, in Shanghai, China. In summer 2011, he finished his MFA studies in Art and Technology Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). After graduation, he started teaching and helping develop digital related courses in the Department of Film, Video New Media and Animation as well as Art and Technology Studies at SAIC as an instructor. He currently teaches in the Art Department and leads the Digital Media Program at Rhode Island College as an Assistant Professor.

Yefeng actively pursues his artistic career in both China and America, and continues think and work critically across the medias among Experimental 3D, video installation, Performance in Virtual Environment, and Art Game. Yefeng has had extensive experience exhibiting and working in prestigious venues internationally, which include InVisible (Co-prosperity Sphere Culture Center, Chicago, IL), Currents 2012, Santa Fe International New Media Festival (El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM), Hypercapitalism – East meets West (Herald Square, NY), Power of Copying (Xuzhou Museum of Art, China), and Impersonal - solo exhibition of Yefeng Wang (HEREarts Center, New York, NY), etc. In May and June, 2013, Yefeng did There is A Body On Screen! and Post-photography, two exhibitions that feature the latest new media works by him at The Museum of Luxun Academy of Art (Shenyang, China) and 99 Art Space at Shanghai University. He was also a residency artist in New York Artist Residency and Studios Foundation from July to September, 2013.

藝途畫廊榮幸舉辦藝術家，王業豐，在畫廊的首度個展《 i 時代》。業豐是一名長年定居美國紐約的中國藝術家。

在這之前，業豐前衛的作品僅限於博物館和其他著名的学术场地展出過。其中包括芝加哥的Co-prosperity Sphere Culture Center 、美國聖達菲的El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe、中國徐州美術館、中國瀋陽的魯迅美術學院博物館和上海大學美術學院99創意中心。

一位富有創意的數碼媒體藝術家，與此同時目前在美國羅德島學院的數碼媒體課程擔任助理教授；業豐的作品特徵包含了藝術家所創造的虛擬世界和想像的人物，對心心相關的現實世界提出問題。《 i 時代》展示業豐兩件主要的視頻安裝作品，“訓練有素的小孩”(Well-Disciplined Kids) 和“一個人物”（A Figure）。

“訓練有素的小孩”(Well-Disciplined Kids) 是採用MAYA虛擬建模和動畫節目製作，由6個視頻組合而成的藝術視頻裝置（同時也會有限量版檔案質量數碼打印紙本供出售）。這個系列的作品展現了機械化、缺乏面部表情、個性和情感的“中國製造”的小孩們。為加強自己身份的特徵，同時覺得自己就像是其中的一個小孩，藝術家利用數碼媒體構造出自己的臉孔，並應用於作為小孩面部的紋理結構。從作品中，可以看到小孩們無知的與各個人物或事物玩鬧，包括超現實的動物頭女性人物、一個破碎的電視機、噴氣式戰鬥機和軍用坦克穿插荒涼，貧瘠的地形背景播放相拼，體現了藝術家認為現代中國人面對“荒謬環境下的心裏世界”

在業豐的“一個人物”(A Figure) 的視頻作品（也會有限量版檔案質量數碼打印紙本），他利用自己的身體，帶上豬腦殼加上鹿角的“頭盔”（豬腦殼加上鹿角的組合在中國文化裏是龍的象徵，源自于中國古代神話），拍下無數個動作和姿勢，再利用電腦技術將各個動作逐一組合起來。身體動作和姿勢的組合，取自于文藝復興時期的畫作，從中表達作為藝術家，曾在中國藝術學校學習西方古典風格時，所經歷的系統式培訓。重複性的採用自己的圖像，每個圖像成為他的數字化身帶著同樣的情緒和想法。看似混亂的組合排列，每個個體在極端的慢動作下移動，藝術家意圖編織一個神經磁场帶引觀眾加入這股沈思的氛圍。

藝術家自述
我發展兩個我最沉迷的嗜好──數碼視覺文化和對表面性的著迷。數碼虛擬影像藝術創作的魅力不單可以探索其誘人的可能性，相反的它的問題也正好是它的局限性。數碼虛擬世界是冷漠和孤獨的，但從來不缺少好玩的實驗。消費主義的膚淺是荒謬的景象、壓倒性的、深刻而簡明。兩者都是根據計算順序以達到最大的效率；兩者亦是數學二進制系統固有的魅力和憤慨。

我的敘述是我所繼承的不可思議的複雜的中華民族基礎，對野蠻無理的政治的模糊記憶，以及西方消費主義的廣泛影響。這些相抵觸的事實的並列，反映了沉浸在這充滿社會矛盾漩渦，身為中國人的我。

藝術家簡介
王業豐是一位新媒體藝術家。1984年出生於中國上海。2011年的夏天，業豐於芝加哥的School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), 藝術和科技部門，完成碩士學位。繼畢業後，他開始在該校的影片、錄影新媒體和動畫部門以及藝術和科技部門擔任講師及其數碼有關課程的發展。他目前在Rhode Island College 的藝術部門任教，並在該校的數碼媒體課程擔任助理教授。

業豐活躍於中國和美國的藝術領域，不斷的思考和認真的研討各個媒體創作工作，包括3D實驗、視頻裝置、虛擬環境的表現和藝術遊戲。業豐與各個國際著名的展館合作並展覽已有豐富的經驗，其中包括InVisible（Co-prosperity Sphere Culture Center, 芝加哥）、Currents 2012, Santa Fe International New Media Festival (El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe,聖塔菲,美国新墨西哥州)、Hypercapitalism – East meets West (美國紐約的先驅廣場)、複製的力量（徐州美術館）以及Impersonal –王業豐個展 (Here Arts Centre, 美國紐約)等等。2013年的5月和6月，業豐在中國瀋陽的魯迅美術學院博物館和上海大學美術學院99創意中心分別舉辦了兩個展覽“There is A Body On Screen!” 和“Post-photography”，展示業豐最新的新媒體作品。2013年的7月至9月，業豐也是美國紐約NARS Foundation的駐場藝術家。

Biography          View Works          View Publication