Pace Beijing opened "Touchable," an exhibition of new work by prominent Chinese contemporary sculptor Sui Jianguo on July 9.Regarded as a leading light in the field of contemporary Chinese sculpture, Sui is known for a body of work that probes deep conceptual questions while retaining an experimental formal edge that leads to frequently innovative and surprising forms.Sui’s latest works emerged out of his Blind Portraits series, which consist of sculptures that resemble Chinese scholar’s rocks: natural geological forms onto which imaginative sentiments are projected, in the literati tradition. In Sui’s opinion, however, stone is a material that adamantly resists these fanciful attributions that originate from a certain cultural worldview. In his “Untitled” series made of clay, on the other hand, the physical properties of his chosen material become the subject of the work, demonstrating how man relates to the world around him in a microcosmic fashion.As with the best of his previous work, this exhibition dramatizes the “collaboration” between artist and material by homing in on the inherent properties of each material, which Sui views as independent agents that serve to propel the artist’s creative process forward.Sui Jianguo was born in 1956 in Qingdao, Shandong province. He received a BA from the Fine Arts Department of Shandong University of Arts in 1984, and an MA from the Sculpture Department at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1989, and currently serves as the head of this same Sculpture Department at his alma mater. “Sui Jianguo: Touchable” runs July 9 through August 22, 2015 at Pace Beijing.Follow @ARTINFOHongKong
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