Mind Space: Maximalism in Contrasts

“I think art-making still has to pursue the truth. That is the most important. Art in itself has to believe something… That is actually what Maximalism is. Individualism is not something grand, like a theme, but it’s something truly rooted in your heart.”

– Gao Minglu, University of Pittsburgh professor and curator, quoted in Jing Daily

“[A] complex riposte to banal forms of realism, Eastern artistic convention and mass-produced kitsch.”

– Lisa Movius, Art in America (October 2010)

This exhibition of mixed media installations explored a new realm of artistic expression. Mind Spaceintroduced four Chinese abstract artists who conveyed the concept of “Maximalism” to a global audience. Maximalism is a term coined by curator Dr. Gao Minglu, one of the world’s leading scholars of Chinese contemporary art. Maximalism expresses the meditative mind of the abstract artist during the creative process, emphasizing the spiritual experience of art-making. According to Minglu, the meaning of a work is elusive, residing less in the physical art object itself than in the emotional and psychological journey of its creation, so that the work becomes a subtle spiritual diary of the artist’s inner life.

The creations of Zhu Jinshi, Zhang Yu, Lei Hong, and He Xiangyu are a dialogue between artist and nature, an inventive response to a rapidly changing material world. For instance, Xiangyu’s abstract rice-paper artworks repurpose crystallized Coca Cola for conventional ink, imbuing an iconic symbol of modern mass-production with the spiritual qualities of artistic introspection. Zhang Yu’s abstract arrangements of random fingerprints transmute a forensic tool for human identification into a profound image of beauty and infinity. All of these artists embrace the ancient Chinese concept of yan bu jin, which holds that “meaning is always beyond language.”

Mind Space was organized by Pearl Lam Galleries, Shanghai, China, and was toured in the U.S. by International Arts & Artists.

Share this article:
More...