部分展览包括：流动的身影，香格纳苏河，上海（2024）；拾萬石家庄开幕展，拾萬空间，石家庄（2024）；午夜潜泳，双个展，逸空间，南京（2023）；如果明夜有⼤⻛，个⼈项⽬ K11，⻢丁⼽雅⽣意， 上海（2022）；⿊夜⾥的太阳镜，弥⾦画廊，上海（2021）；⻢⼽图⽂，⻢丁·⼽雅⽣意，上海油罐艺术中⼼，上海（2021）；ASIA NOW 巴黎，Martin Goya Business，巴黎（2020）；etc.
Gao Yingpu born in Jilin in 1993, graduated from the Multidimensional Expression Studio at the China Academy of Art in 2016, and currently lives and works in Hangzhou. Gao Yingpu’s creative endeavors encompass painting and painted installations. His works reflect his contemplation on the relationship between individuals and local consumption, how they collide and integrate in the cultural migration akin to monsoons and ocean currents, aiming to manifest both the collective and the personal. His works have been exhibited at venues including Shanghai K11, Shanghai Oil Tank Art Center and the Beijing CAFAM Biennial.
Selected exhibitions include: Bodyscapes in motion，ShanghART SUHE，Shanghai（2024）；Opening Exhibition, Hunsand Space，Shijiazhuang（2024）；Dive into Midnight, dual solo exhibition, East Gallery, Nanjing（2023）；If There is Strong Wind Tomorrow, solo project, martin-goya business, Shanghai（2022）；Sunglasses in the Dark, Gene Gallery, Shanghai（2021）；Martin Goya Graphic, Martin Goya Business, Tank Shanghai（2021）；ASIA NOW Paris，Martin Goya Business，Paris（2020）；etc.
K: Can you talk about the concept of the exhibition theme "Metamorphosis"?
Z: The theme of this exhibition is "Metamorphosis", a concept derived from the medical terminology that refers to the process by which a foreign tissue enters an immunologically active host and the host's immune system perceives it as a foreign invader and attacks it with antibodies. This phenomenon is particularly common after organ transplants, where patients often experience a violent rejection reaction and great pain after receiving the organ. Similarly, the interactions between people and between people and societies are similar processes – i.e, the individual is inevitably alienated during the process of rejection, resulting in the formation of new identities and self-perceptions.
K: What has influenced the change in style of your works before 2021 compared to the current style?
Z: I chose an oil painting realistic studio for my undergraduate studies, and the exam oriented art teaching sparked a strong interest in the paintings of realistic artists such as He Duoling at that time. Despite being exposed to different art styles under modernism at that time, there was not much resonance. The changes in aesthetic perception, accumulation of cognition, and revisiting David Hockney's paintings in modernism during my junior year have given me a new understanding of painting and injected new blood. I have begun to consciously transform my works and painting habits.
宇航员 / Astronaut
2018
布面油画 / Oil on canvas
80×120cm
K: In your early works, the characters had specific facial features, but in your current works, the characterization of the characters is summarized, aor even the absence of the five senses in your works?
Z: In previous works, in order to vividly depict characters, specific facial features were depicted, with more emphasis on details. Due to the shift in aesthetic preferences and the need for overall visuals, the facial features of characters are no longer as distinct in current works. Therefore, the characterization of characters is summarized, and the pursuit of holistic imagery is the result of aesthetic tendencies. It is no longer just about expressing the specifics of individuals, but mapping the characteristics of the group.
绿地 / Green Land
2024
布面油画 / Oil on canvas
200 ×150 cm
K: Are the expressions of the relationship between two or more images appearing in some of the works in this exhibition based on your feelings about current interpersonal relationships? Can you elaborate on one or two of them?
Z: Yes, the visual representation of their relationship status comes from my refinement of the interactions and relationships between people and between people and society. The two characters in "Discount Store" symbolize the stable marital relationship required by social attributes, and outside the window is a peaceful and contented scenery. In actual life, the state of relationships is diverse and complex. The scene in "A bad day" where a person immersed in the sea is grabbed by an executor wearing a helmet and tendrils, shows the state of competition between different species.
In the painting process of these works, I will weaken these elements with certain characteristics. Using the technique of association to recombine these elements, adjusting the color tone according to the needs of the picture, and emphasizing the overall integrity of the picture. Show the shaping of relationship states in different environments.
糟糕的一天 / A bad day
2023
布面油画 / Oil on canvas
140 × 90 cm
K: What is the special story or meaning behind the obvious narrative in the diptych painting "Befall"?
Z: The material is the appearance of a leader getting off the car, the owner of the highest power, and the character next to him is a bodyguard. The yellow tone symbolizes the visual effect perceived when the "God" descends, which is a sacred and warm scene. In this process of evolution, humans gradually possess the highest power and are shaped and alienated in such an environment. Becoming a god like being.
局部 / Local
降临 / Befall
2024
布面油画 / Oil on canvas
300 × 200 cm（双联）
K: What is the connection between "The person at the front of the car", "The person at the back of the car ", and "Befall"?
Z: "The person at the front of the car", "The person at the back of the car "is the bodyguard next to the car in"Befall".It is the person who is instrumentalized and alienated. I associate the bodyguard's inner state with a third perspective, exploring the inner workings of the profession in "Befall",and perceiving that they have weakened their self-identity in their situation, and that their egoic attributes have been alienated by their professional qualities. In contrast to the "God" in The Descent, the bodyguards are no longer distinct individuals, but a unified and alienated group under the authority of the "God".
车尾的人 / The person at the back of the car
2024
布面油画 / Oil on canvas
40 × 40 cm
K: Based on your early works depicting flowers, what are the sources and creative motivations for the flowers in the Goddess of Flowers series?
Z: In the Goddess of Flowers series, the element of flowers comes from the "table flowers" used in speeches and conferences. "Goddess of Flowers 1" is the form of flowers on the speech table, while "Goddess of Flowers 2" and "Goddess of Flowers 3" clearly present the form of conference table flowers. Although it serves a decorative purpose in the scene, its meaning in my work is dangerous, ugly, and the presence of 'monsters'. By extracting and alienating table flower elements, and combining them with natural landscapes, a strange, cold yet romantic temperament is formed.
花神 1 / Goddess of Flowers 1
2024
布面油画 / Oil on canvas
150 ×120 cm
K: The color tones of the works in this solo exhibition are quite different, such as "Calm Waves" and "Capture". What influenced the two?
Z: The reason for the significant difference in color tones between these two works is due to the different needs of the painting process and the expression of the theme.
The "captured object" in "Capture" is a species between wolves and dogs. It is driven to the forest and returns to its rightful place, but its uniqueness prompts people to "hunt" it and restrain it. The reason for the overall bright color tone is to create a contrast between the intense process and the comfortable and bright environment. And "Calm Waves" is a game between partners, seemingly sitting opposite each other, calm and peaceful, but in reality, there are hidden waves surging and constant friction.
风平浪静 / Calm sea
2024
布面油画 / Oil on canvas
150 × 200 cm
K: What is"Alienation "that constantly appears in your exhibition theme and works?
Z: "Alienation" refers to the transformation of an individual or group's qualities, strength, or essence into a force or state that opposes or dominates them. In the field of philosophy, alienation is often used to describe a state of separation and confrontation between subject and object, self and other. Things that are similar or identical gradually become dissimilar or different. In my works, I focus on the interactions and relationships between people and between people and society. Exploring the process of shaping and alienating individuals in different environments during interactions between people and society, viewing the surrounding environment from an individual's perspective and exploring one's own inner self.
K: What kind of vision do you have for yourself in the new year?
Z: Normal drawing, always endeavoring to do still better. Live well.
Zhu Yiming, born in Henan in 1996. He received bachelor's and master's degrees from the Department of Oil Painting of Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, at 2019 and 2023. Now he lives and works in Tianjin. His creations focus on the interactions and relationships between people and society. By refining personal emotional experiences into visual language and using associative techniques to recombine elements from daily life, he expresses the process of shaping and alienation of individuals by different environments.
His recent group exhibitions include:"Brand newarchitecture, Figurativism loom on every floor", KeYi Gallery, (Hefei, 2024); "Dark Sky Park", Shanshang, (Xiamen, 2024); "Rear Wave: New faces of new painting", Line Gallery, (Beijing, 2023); "Extensive records of the Taiping Era", Moordn Art, (Foshan, 2023); "The Essence of painting – Beyond the concept", Sailing space, (Shanghai, 2023); "A list of strangers", Shanshang, (Xiamen, 2023) ; "Trap of being", Sense Gallery, (Beijing, 2023); "Landscape painting", Hunsand Space, (Shijiazhuang ,2022); "Fragments", Bonian Space, (Beijing, 2022), etc.
