Vanishing Reflections: Victor Wang Solo Exhibition

In recent years, Victor Wang often dreams about his childhood and the scenes in his memory. Although they are already in the distant past, some of the places, images, feelings, and events are still vivid. After he wakes up, the artist tries to capture those fragments of past memories because these transient dreams are records of different stages of his life.

On view in the exhibition are 23 of Wang’s paintings dated from 1995 to the present day. They include figure sketches, landscape painted in the style of cursive calligraphy, and oil paintings. The artist’s remarkable mastery of classical painting techniques as well as his precise and excellent grasp of the figures’ movements and poses can be easily seen in these works, which also display layering of colors and unrestrained brushstrokes resulting from the influence of the Western culture.

“Sunflower” is the theme of this exhibition. It is not only associated with the landscape of northern China that Wang has been familiar with since childhood, it was also a political symbol during the Cultural Revolution. Even though time changes, these memories have always been part of the artist’s existence as well as his nostalgia for the native home. Audience will see sunflowers in different states and forms in the exhibition. They are the crowns worn by models; they form the distant background in some of the paintings; they create a scene of a waste land after gusts of wind. These scenes are manifestations of the artist’s journey in life, which he has transformed into vessels of emotions to express his perception and understanding of the fleeting time.