- This event has passed.
XU DE QI – Maogritte and China Girl
24 January 2020 @ 00:00
The Pirra Gallery is pleased to host for the first time a solo exhibition, curated by Vincenzo Sanfo and Diffusione Italia International Group, of the Chinese artist Xu De Qi. In conjunction with the Chinese New Year, the exhibition offers the opportunity to explore the creative world of one of the leading interpreters of contemporary Chinese painting through fifteen generously sized oils.
Leading artist of a playful and joyful Pop Art, his works investigate, under a subtly ironic lens, what the new Chinese generations are attracted by, poised between past and future. The protagonist of the paintings of Xu De Qi is, in fact, the non-conflictual “coexistence” of tradition and innovation, which should take place in any field, including the cultural one. On the occasion of this exhibition it is possible to see, for the first time, some paintings in which, to convey a message of comparison and exchange with Western artistic production, Xu De Qi uses the iconic image of Mao “contaminated” by the equally iconic works of Magritte. Mao is as well the protagonist of works in which, smiling but monochrome, he stands out on bright backgrounds and on big and colored chrysanthemums to communicate the fortune of living in an extraordinary moment of change in society, fantastically projected towards a colorful future. Xu De Qi represents this positive thought also through his emblematic “China Girls” and “Fish Girls”, young and modern Chinese girls surrounded by goldfish, a traditional symbol of happiness and luck (among which, however, it is easy to identify even a Disney Nemo), or that stand out on the typical landscapes of the classic blue and white porcelain, wearing sunglasses in which aspects of the new China are mirrored. The great technical ability of Xu De Qi is combined with the desire to tell with a light and playful language, rarely veiledly critical, the new well-being achieved by contemporary China and the role it claims also in the world of art.
Well-known and popular also in Europe and United States, where he exhibits with increasing success, Xu De Qi is considered as one of the great Chinese masters of contemporary painting.
The exhibition will stay open until February 23rd 2020.
