Wu Jianjun

Wu Jianjun 吳

建

軍

de Sarthe Gallery

Wu Jianjun 吳

建

軍

de sarthe gallery

Some might see art as a constant innovative process, an endless evolution seizing the latest trends of a fast moving environment... Wu Jianjun goes in the opposite direction. He is painting what doesn’t change, what has always been and what will always be as long as human exist.

The bodies painted by Wu Jianjun are not represented in a realistic way, they are bodies out of time: the bodies of mankind. There is no skin in these bodies, but only the tensions of the flesh. A force inhabits these incandescent carcasses and the colors used by the artist operate as a thermal camera highlighting the fire inside of them.

Wu Jianjun art is never illustrative or narrative. It requires no interpretation, no understanding. His works are meant to be feel, they don’t appeal to our intellect but they embrace our animality. Faces and figures appear from the green background and directly strike us. They aim at our heart, they aim at our guts, and they aim at our nervous system.

Sometimes disturbing, they carry an undoubtable truth that we don’t see with our eyes but perceive with our instinct. There is nothing hidden, no magnified beauty to seek, just the plain truth of human existence as it is, with its hardness but also its grace, that transpierces the canvas and the audience. Wu Jianjun cannot be reattached to any trend, his works will echo the same truth enclosed in the canvas as long as man will be.

ARTWORKS

Woman Portrait No. 2 2014 Oil on canvas 30 x 40 cm

Small Portrait No. 2 2015 Oil on canvas 30 x 40 cm

Small Portrait No. 9 2015 Oil on canvas 35 x 45 cm

Small Portrait No. 4 2015 Oil on canvas 40 x 30 cm

Small Portrait No. 5 2015 Oil on canvas 40 x 30 cm

Small Portrait No. 1 2015 Oil on canvas 40 x 40 cm

Small Portrait No. 4 2016 Oil on canvas 45 x 35 cm

Small Portrait No. 2 2016 Oil on canvas 45 x 35 cm

Small Portrait No. 3 2016 Oil on canvas 45 x 35 cm

Small Portrait No. 6 2015 Oil on canvas 45 x 35 cm

Small Portrait No. 7 2015 Oil on canvas 45 x 35 cm

Small Portrait No. 8 2015 Oil on canvas 45 x 35 cm

Small Portrait No. 3 2015 Oil on canvas 50 x 40 cm

Man, Birdchild And The Sunlight 2014 Oil on canvas 100 x 60 cm

Man Sitting In The Corner 2014 Oil on canvas 80 x 130 cm

Bird Mask 2010 Oil on canvas 100 x 60 cm

Gauze Mask 2009 Oil on canvas 100 x 60 cm

Opera Mask 2010 Oil on canvas 100 x 60 cm

Man Gatering Darkness 2014 Oil on canvas 100 x 60 cm

Body Depiction, Me 2006 Oil on canvas 130 x 80 cm

Man Wearing A Shower Cap 2007 Oil on canvas 130 x 80 cm

Shore 2014 Oil on canvas 130 x 80 cm

Unhuman Body No. 1 2006 Oil on canvas 130 x 200 cm

Birdman 2016 Oil on canvas 150 x 80 cm

Man Standing 2014 Oil on canvas 150 x 80 cm

Man Wearing Pajamas 2016 Oil on canvas 150 x 80 cm

Man Wearing A Bird Mask 2016 Oil on canvas 150 x 80 cm

Watching The Fire 2016 Oil on canvas 150 x 80 cm

Man With A Brush 2016 Oil on canvas 150 x 80 cm

Man Smoking 2016 Oil on canvas 200 x 130 cm

BIOGRAPHY

BIOGRAPHY 1966

Born in Sichuan Province, China Currently lives and works in Chengdu EDUCATION

1990

Graduated from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Chongqing, China SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2016

Wu Jianjun Solo Exhibition, de Sarthe Gallery, Beijing, China

2009

Posture—Wu Jianjun Oil Painting Exhibition, Funartspace, Beijing, China

2008

Metamorphosis—Wu Jianjun Oil Painting Exhibition, Linda Gallery, Singapore

2006

Body Pattern, Funartspace, Beijing, China GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2015

Living in Chengdu, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan; Chengdu Art Museum, Chengdu, China The Future is The Past, Vienna, Austria

2014

Presence of Fragments, Blueroof Art Museum, Chengdu, China

2013

Chengdu Contemporary Art Exhibition, Chengdu Eastern Music Park, Chengdu, China

2012

Sculpture of Blueroof Artists, Blueroof Art Museum, Chengdu, China

2011

Vegetative Patient, Blueroof Art Museum, Chengdu, China

2010

The Visible, re-C Art Space, Chengdu, China

2009

Artists Gathering Exhibition, Songzhuang Art Museum, Beijing, China Less Is More, Endless Art Gallery, Nanjing, China Returning, Chongqing Art Museum, Chongqing, China Character of the Dialect, Blueroof Art Museum, Chengdu, China

2008

Corresponding Nanjing & Chengdu, Nanjing; Chengdu, China Art Padova 08’, Padova, Italy Art Singapore 2008, Suntec, Singapore The Sichuan Movement, Museum Nasional, Jakarta, Indonesia Art Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Holland

2007

China Now Now, Canvas International Art, Amsterdam, Holland Five Artists, Art+Shanghai Gallery, Shanghai, China Treatment GuaSha, Artistic Conception Museum, Chengdu, China Three Years in Blueroof Art Center, Blueroof Art Center, Chengdu, China Guiyang Art Biennale Exhibit 3th, 2007, Guiyang Art Museum, Guiyang, China

2006

Beyond Dimension—Chinese New Painting, Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing, China Art Verona '06, Verona, Italy China International Gallery Exposition, Beijing, China

2005

Winter'05, Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing, China Sensus Communis-Korea, China, Japan Oil Painting Art Exhibition, Korea Forever Intriguing, YIBO Gallery, Shanghai, China Tu Hongtao & Wu Jianjun, Soka Contemporary Space, Beijing, China Blue Artists, Chinese Contemporary Art Gallery, Beijing, China 18 Contemporary Artists “Living In Chengdu”, Soobin Art Gallery, Singapore

2003

The Third National Exhibition of Oil Painting, China Art Museum, Beijing, China Sichuan Oil Painting Art Exhibition, Sichuan Art Museum, Chengdu, China

1995

The First Chengdu Exhibition of Oil Painting, Sichuan Art Museum, Chengdu, China

Published on the occasion of de Sarthe Gallery - Beijing exhibition:

WU JIANJUN Sept 3 - Oct 9, 2016

de sarthe Gallery - beijing 北京市朝陽區草場地藝術區328-d 328-d, Caochangdi, Chaoyang District, 100015 Beijing, China T. +86 010-84182441 | E. beijing@desarthe.com

www.desarthe.com Catalog: © 2016 de Sarthe Gallery Design: Willis Lam, de Sarthe Gallery

de Sarthe Gallery