Cui Jie Residency

12.11.2015—

Chinese resident artist Cui Jie solo exhibition
at START Gallery in Jaffa, Israel, November 2015

Opening of Cui Jie's exhibition "Ground Invading Figure #28-35" at START Gallery, Jaffa, 12 November 2015.

Inspired by Orson Welles’ multi-perspective, Cui magnifies and pays much attention to the architectural details of structures, buildings and landscape, using fragments and layers to convey a sense of alienation. Each layer comprises sculptural impastos and is meticulously executed, representing the transformation of China’s urbanscape through time and politics. Using a calculated and deadpan brushwork and palette, Cui’s landscapes and interiors make comparative studies of cities as distinctive laboratories, combining elements of Bauhaus architecture, Chinese propaganda and Soviet communist aesthetics. In other words, Cui’s paintings are like a time capsule that preserves the past and re-imagines the present with a futuristic touch.

Cui Jie, 'Ground Invading Figure #35', Oil on canvas, property of the Tiroche DeLeon Collection.

Having spent almost three months living and working in Serge Tiroche’s home in Jaffa, in her final exhibition, Cui exhibits a new body of works from the series Ground Invading Figure. Drawing inspiration from movies and pictures, Cui’s works bring to the centre of her canvases the distances and shapes which come to life when two characters meet. Cui is not interested in the story or the situation behind the encounter; instead, she offers us a different perspective which focuses on the movement and details rather than content, drawing our attention away from the obvious. Among Cui’s most remarkable works, features Atarim Square, which the artist re-imagines surrounded by Bauhaus’ architecture, typical of Tel-Aviv buildings.

The solo exhibition was held in START gallery in Jaffa’s flea market, part of a new high-end commercial complex called ‘Pishpeshim Up Market’. The residency and exhibition are a collaboration between the Tiroche DeLeon Collection, START and the artist’s Shanghai gallery - LEO XU Projects.

About the Artist

Cui Jie was born in 1983, in Shanghai, China. In 2006, she graduated from the China Academy of Art Oil Painting Department. Currently she lives and works in Beijing, China.

Cui Jie is described by The Wall Street Journal as one of "China's Rising Art Stars”. Her works have been exhibited worldwide, including in “Poetic Realism: An Reinterpretation of Jiangnan-Contemporary Art from South China” (Centro de Arte Tomás y Valiente, Madrid, 2008); “Notes of Conception” (Iberia Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, 2008); The 4th Prague Biennale (2009); 1^st Cafa Future Sub-Phenomena (CAFA Art Museum, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, 2012); FACE (Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, 2012); My Generation: Young Chinese Artists (Tampa Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, St.Petersburg, Oklahoma City Museum of Art, U.S.A, 2014) .

Cui Jie is represented by LEO XU PROJECTS in Shaghai and Mother’s Tankstation in Dublin.

Artist Statement about the series Ground Invading Figure :

"In the beginning of 2010, before I started painting architectural landscapes, I painted a small canvas, whose content was a few characters’ limbs and movements that expressed a plot in suspension. Afterwards, having left it aside, I always thought I hadn’t finished painting it, until the beginning of the year 2011, when I started feeling interested anew in the painting’s content and thus, from this material, created this series “Ground Invading Figure”.
This series and my paintings of architecture have a commonality: the time span of creation has been very long. Because new ways of looking at them constantly emerged, they seemed to persist existing in an unfinished state and the more I painted the thicker the surface became, and the more layers were added. This is why I initially wanted to emphasize the “layer” within the title of the exhibition."

Cui Jie, 'Ground Invading Figure #28', Oil on canvas, property of the START Collection.