Qiu Jie New Works Exhibition

Duration: February 5th, 2010 – March 31st, 2010
Location: Shanghai Gallery of Art @ Three on the Bund
Address: No.3 the Bund 3rd Floor 3 Zhongshan Dong Yi Road Shanghai

Qiu Jie New Works Exhibition offers a window onto the imagination of the artist from inside the Shanghai Gallery of Art. Born in 1961 in Shanghai, Qiu Jie began his career as a political propaganda painter before moving to Switzerland 20 years ago. There he developed a pop political style to depict his vision of the world, creating a realism built up of storyboards and cinematographic shots. His fine pencil strokes evoke memories of his native China – landscapes, portraits, historical or anecdotal scenes – artist’s recent drawings and paintings that are occasionally extended into the gallery space through accompanying theatrical installations.


Impression of Qiu Jie’s New Works by Wang Fei

I met Qiu Jie in a Go club in Geneva. He was in his thirties and about to gain publicity in the Switzerland art world. It has been more than twenty years since then. Qiu Jie hasn’t changed his career path. Nor has he given up painting. In fact, he has stayed the course and made enormous progress, for example, becoming a professional painter abroad. Only those close to him would know the difficulties he has been through. I can’t help sighing and thinking, “How stubborn you are, Qiu Jie!”

Compared to conceptual artists, Qiu Jie’s work is more sentimental. Fifteen years ago, with his vanguard artistic sense, he introduced works that focused on China’s Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, China’s economic reform, and the conflicts between Chinese and western cultures. Although he was overseas, we should still categorize him as an early political pop artist in China. With deeper understanding for artistic phenomena, Qiu Jie’s style has adapted significantly. In the past ten years, he has developed a unique talent for lead pencil painting. His lead pencil paintings have shown people a fresh form of artistic expressions and earned great acclaim in the art world.

Qiu Jie excelled in canvas painting, creating some great works in that genre. But ultimately he chose to make a change; he decided to put down the tools that he was familiar with and switch to lead pencils and paper. It goes without saying that it is difficult to stand out in the modern art world with such rudimentary tools. I remember that Michael Jordan once said that with his jumping ability he could be a professional pole vaulter. However, he could be the absolute best in basketball. Qiu Jie has chosen lead pencil painting, which is usually viewed as less prestigious than canvas painting. But in fact, it’s like fighting a rabbit with the force of a tiger. It is actually heavy but seems light so it creates another level of painting. Although Qiu Jie’s decision is different from Jordan’s, their thoughts are quite similar.

There is a saying: People prefer reading articles with inflection than those that are dull. Qiu Jie has made tremendous effort to perfect the structure of his works, to the point where has so absorbed that he neglected to eat and sleep.

Qiu Jie applies a cavalier perspective to traditional Chinese painting, strictly rendering all types of content vividly. This is different from the traditional western perspective in which the close subject is clear and the distant subject is out of focus. Every detail in Qiu Jie’s work is concise and clear. Even a facial expression of a person, as small as a match, is clear. Yet the whole painting itself seems quite harmonious, interactive or even aggressive. This is to say, his years of hard work on sketch structure have unified disparate opposing forces and thus his work possesses remarkable strength. This strength is also the reflection of the pressures in everyday life.

The strength of canvas is the hues so the painters need to pay much attention to black, white and grey to depict it accurately. In Qiu Jie’s paintings, there are many excellent details that almost could exist as separate works unto themselves. But to have a whole picture, he has to make some sacrifices and make them part of the grey-toned background. As a result the backgrounds of his paintings are exceptionally well rendered, featuring multiple layers with different levels of meaning. Furthermore, Qiu Jie harmonizes the subjects of his drawings with a strict application of light. We see not only the delicate grey layers of the paintings but also the precise remaining white parts where the artist makes his greatest effort.

If someone were to ask, “How to catch a lion in the Sahara desert?”
I would answer, “Remove all the sand.”

In his lead pencil painting, Qiu Jie made tremendous effort to render whites and grays accurately, like removing all the sand from a desert to catch a lion. He has been cultivating this talent since the age of 10. Then, he drew a sketch of a plaster model daily in the Russian drawing style. We can say it’s a Tongzi Gong.

Without understanding history, one would become a barbarian, and if one does not absorb new knowledge, he would become ignorant. Besides canvas and traditional Chinese painting, Qiu Jie also learns from prints, Chinese New Year woodcut prints, propaganda posters, paper-cut, farmer’s painting, stamps and calligraphy. The more he extracts, the better his work becomes. Although the pencil Qiu Jie holds is slender, his mission carries great weight.

Such a great, profound lead pencil painting requires not only superior technique, but also energy, excellent eyesight and perseverance. We are indeed in the midst of a Golden Age of Qiu Jie’s style: his expression is creative and let it be. The presentation of everyday life in his works is at once indifferent and warm, implicit and bold. With the simplicity of lead pencils, he creates multiple layers of artistic expression.

Though his heart is in his home country, he embraces the whole world.
Though he has accomplished much in his long career, he still works hard for art.


Wang Fei
Switzerland



Qiu Jie New Works Exhibition displays a series of new artworks by Shanghainese artist Qiu Jie who has been living in Switzerland for the last twenty years. In this solo show, the public will have the opportunity to communicate with the artist closely by becoming the model of his creation: Qiu Jie will draw the portraits of the audience on site, which will finally be included as part of his artwork Portrait Series. This on-going process art piece will be extended on the wall by the artist’s creation as well as the audience’s participation. The interactive character of this show would break people’s common impression on contemporary art which is commonly perceived as sorely comprehensible. Qiu Jie’s realism and sentimental creation encourages more people to open the door of the contemporary art world, to dig the emotional story behind as well as its artistic value.

The Shanghai Gallery of Art has always committed itself to introducing the greatest contemporary artists with international reputation to the public, and there is no exception for this solo exhibition by Qiu Jie. His artworks have been exhibited in many renowned art museums and galleries around the world within the past decade, including Saatchi Gallery, Red Mansion Foundation in London, Arario Gallery in Korea, Hanart TZ Gallery in Hong Kong, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Switzerland, Shanghai Art Museum, and Museum of Contemporary Art in Shanghai. His art pieces have been collected by numerous internationally renowned collectors, for instance, the biggest collector of Chinese contemporary art Dr. Uli Sigg, the German publisher and collector Mr. Caspar H. Schübbe, the founder of Asian Art Achieve Ms. Jane Debevoise, the Director of Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Shanghai Mr. Samuel Kung, as well as some art institutions such as the Foundation for Contemporary Art in Geneva, Red Mansion Foundation in London, and Museum of Fine Arts in Amsterdam, etc.

Presenting such an outstanding artist to the public at the very beginning of 2010, Shanghai Gallery of Art is persevering in the academic exploration as well as creating a systematic, deep and interactive artistic communication platform between artists and audience. Through the exploration of the most valuable contemporary art, Shanghai Gallery of Art has achieved to stand as one of the highest academic positions and authorities in the Chinese contemporary art world. And SGA will drive to be the most direct and reliable channel for all contemporary art lovers.



Artist’s Resume

Selected Solo Exhibitions:
2010 Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai, China
2009 Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong, China
2008 The Red Mansion Foundation, London, UK
2008 Arario Gallery, Beijing, China
2008 Arario Gallery, Cheonan-SI, Korea
2006 Leda Fletcher Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland
2004 Martin Krebs Gallery, Bern, Switzerland (in collaboration with J.F. Luthy and P. Stoffel)
2004 Centre d’art en Ile, Geneva, Switzerland
2000 Museum of Contemporary Art, Basel, Switzerland (in collaboration with Ai Wei Wei)
2000 The BF15 Space for Contemporary Art, Lyon, France
1999 ‘UQS 1’ arcade space, Zurich, Switzerland
1999 ‘UQS 2’ Artamis Stargazer Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland (in collaboration with Tomas Schunke)
1998 Corsnier Hall, Palais de l’Athénée, Geneva, Switzerland.
1998 Martin Krebs Gallery, Bern, Switzerland
1994 Andata/Ritorno Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland
1992 Museum of Fine Arts, Shanghai, China (in collaboration with Shen Fan)
1985 Palace of Culture, Xu Hui, Shanghai, China.

Selected Group Exhibitions:
2009 Art Taipei 2009, Arario Gallery
2009 Scope Basel Art Show, Miki Wick Kim, Contemporary Art
2008 The Revolution Continues, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
2006 Borderless, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Shanghai, China
2005 Discover-Rediscover, Rath Museum, Geneva, Switzerland
2004 Art of Shanghai, Gallery Leda Fletcher
2003 Colours make the wall, Factory Secheron, Geneva, Switzerland
2001 Mai 1968, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Geneva, Switzerland
1999 Change Directory, Museum of Contemporary Art, Bern, Switzerland
1999 Somewhere 1 Attitudes, Contemporary arts space, Geneva, Switzerland

Distinctions and Prizes:
1996 Award of a workshop of Artist for 2 years
1995 Federal prize of Fine Arts, Switzerland
1995 Scholarship Simon I. Patino, City of Arts, Paris
1994 1st Prize of decoration and visual art in Geneva, City of Geneva


The Field is So Open_100x140cm_pencil on paper_2008
Spring Wind_236x168cm_pencil on paper_2009