Xiaoze
XIE continues to contemplate the
relationships between history, media, and time in his second exhibition of
paintings with Charles Cowles Gallery. The juxtaposition of images found in stacks
of daily newspapers gives a glimpse into the news of the day and creates its
own disjointed narrative. XIE
finds and photographs compositions in situ at university and public libraries
both in the United States and abroad. XIE
takes inspiration from these existing stacks which are the basis for his
paintings. XIE's paintings have beautiful precision, or as Eleanor Heartney writes, "they
bring together a photographic way of looking with richly descriptive brush
strokes." These paintings are both still life and "a kind of modern
day history painting which incorporates both our longing for certainty and our
doubts about its credibility."
XIAOZE XIE's new paintings are based on newspapers dating from late 2001 to early 2003,
a period when turmoil and violence dominated the front pages of daily papers
everywhere. Ranging from legible stacks of newspapers with readable headlines
to abstract close-ups, these new paintings are more frenetic both in subject
matter and in the level of painted detail. Warfare in Afghanistan and Iraq, demonstrations against these
conflicts, the space shuttle Columbia disaster, and a myriad of
unidentified explosions, tanks, and machine guns have an aggressive presence in
the paintings. The human repercussions of war are evident in the grasping mass
of hands reaching for relief supplies. The
pathos of the stories is belied by the implication that there is an ubiquity in these images and this kind of news, which is
almost numbing in its infinitely devastating incarnations. These new paintings
seem to scream their contents rather than passively "sleep" on the
shelves of periodical reading rooms.
XIAOZE XIE’s work is included in distinguished public
collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, and Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, AZ. XIE's work is included in Regeneration: Contemporary Chinese Art from China and the US,
currently on view at the Samek Art Gallery, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA,
through April 4, 2004,
and traveling nationally through 2006.
An
illustrated catalogue with an essay by Eleanor Heartney, is available in conjunction with this exhibition (24 pages,
$20).
The exhibition will be on view at the Charles
Cowles Gallery, 537 West 24th Street, between 10th and 11th
Avenues in Chelsea. Hours are
10am
to 6pm, Tuesday
through Saturday.
There will be a
reception for the artist on Saturday, March 20 from 6-8 pm.
For further information
or photographs, please contact the gallery.
Above image: March
– April 2003, L.T., 2003. oil on canvas, 60 x 86
inches