Zhou Weihua - Chinese contemporary artist
 

 

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Zhou Weihua’s memories of those old images are reflected in his new paintings. Those images are symbolic of history and culture. Just as in his “Carefree” series. Zhou Weihua does not use images of the Great Wall, Zhong Kui and wealthy ladies on horseback in order to judge society, but purely as an ingredient of his compositions. Painters and artists are used to denying the existence of knowledge. Zhou Weihua places symbols from different stages of history onto the same canvas with ease, and arranges them in a way that makes them interesting.

Has Zhou Weihua no stand point? A young lady walking in front of the Tian’an Men. Jing Gan Mountain behind a happy girl and Mao Zedong. This inevitably evokes our experiences. The artist does not judge politics or history; he wants to show these objects freely to distract viewers from the disguised serious meanings that history places on these objects. Willing or not, the artist has been exposed to historic images and politics and acknowledges their importance. If they are extensions of the viewer’s thoughts, they will find out that this reality (which is free-flowing) is closely connected to the past’s realities; we have just changed our ways of viewing it.


Zhou Weihua mostly highlights youth. In his paintings, he portrays the girls that we see in developing cities in China. They appear to be happy, flying, jumping or in other leisurely poses. These girls know no misery or sadness. They smile happily and escape from the urban limitations of reality. Zhou Weihua stands where they are standing, in order to look at the world. They compose the real theme of his art works: youth, passion and casualness.

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