PIFO Gallery is pleased to present our new exhibition Shoot at Grapes from 18 September to 18 October 2020, the first solo exhibition of Qiu Jingtong. Through the comprehensive use of painting, sculpture, installation and other forms of language, Qiu Jingtong created a series of images different from the adult perspective, and conducted self-reflection and self-expression with a more authentic, inward attitude. Her work shows purity and full of imagination.
-----------------------------------------------
Qiu Jingtong’s art offers a unique perspective that attracts considerable attention. From the earlier subject matters of social reality to the later series about coming-of-age memories, all of her works put a captivating perspective to heighten a sense of the unwillingness to grow up, which reveals the childhood innocence and instincts of the world where she indulges herself. From her perspective, the actual existence and captive imagination of things could create an inversion, that is, what you see may not be necessarily real, what lingers in your mind may not be virtual either. What is the truth on earth? None of scientists, philosophers, sociologists or the artist herself may provide a clear answer to the question. Such a way of seeing, however, reminds us that we once viewed the world that way.
“Shoot at Grapes” aims straight for the heart and goes deep inside our childhood innocence. Without regard to right or wrong, the “examination papers” symbolize the phases of coming of age. True or false, the fragments of memories bit by bit constructed a vision of a refined, singular image, which represents many moments of her life with an absence of conscious awareness. Such a resolute mode of the stream of consciousness applied by Qiu Jingtong, generally speaking, enables her to re-examine herself, and specifically, allows for her freedom of artistic expression.
Transitioning from the weighted realism to the lightness of the steam of consciousness and from anxiety brought by outward observation to the easiness in inward reflection, what has been made manifest is the natural intimacy between Qiu Jingtong’s art and the artist herself as well as her absolute mastery of it.
-----------------------------------------------
Qiu Jingtong was born in 1980 in Shaoguan, Guangdong. She graduated from the Department of Oil Painting at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 2003 and received her master’s degree from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 2006. She lives and works in Beijing. She is the recipient of a Luo Zhongli Scholarship for her work “One Day in Jiangnanxi Road”. The artist has been awarded a number of prizes, including the gold medal for excellent works by fine art graduates nationwide.
-----------------------------------------------
