Archive Exhibitions

Morphogenesis: the paintings of Jin Bo

2011-08-01 15:16

What: Morphogenesis
Where: Galerie Carré Doré
When: 2-6 August 2011

Jin Bo is a leading exponent of the new generation of Chinese painters: very much part of that country’s dynamic economy but always on the lookout for ways to span the gap between East and West, a dream savoured not only by artists but also for many decades by politicians.

Having graduated from the Institute of Fine Arts in Tianjin in 2001, Jin Bo went on to study both in Clermont-Ferrand and in Toulouse. His visual language is thus a fascinating blend of two cultures - on the one hand the Socialist Realism he grew up with in his home town of Huhehaote, and on the other the 'cultural imperialism' of the Occident, in which he has been deeply immersed by his studies in perspective, volume, and natural forms from the Renaissance to Cubism.


^{La Jeunesse, Superposée, 2007}

At first sight his work presents something of a visual conundrum: painting or photograph? The illusion is created by an astonishing attention to detail typical of the technique of super-realism which has become his trademark.

Crucially, all his images appear as if blurred by the camera, merging with their backgrounds and appearing to 'morph' into other faces in a kind of photographic portraiture that derives as much from Picasso as from the world of film. The portrait of the Mona Lisa is just one example of this playing with form and content - but for all its realism, this is no photograph but an elaborately worked painting. Through his shadowy 'lens', Jin Bo explores the complex worlds of the human unconscious - its passions, its dreams but also its destructive madness.


^{Marilyn Marilyn, 2008}

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Three surrealist sculptures by the artist Thierry Benenati (known as 'Bene') will also be on show. Bene's work is well known and hugey admired by a number of celebrities, including French film actor Gérard Depardieu.