Hide and Swallow
Mengxi Zhang
22 April - 17 May, 2023
Beijing
Mengxi Zhang
22 April - 17 May, 2023
Beijing
Tabula Rasa Gallery is delighted to present the debut solo exhibition of
London-based artist Mengxi Zhang. Opening on April 22nd, 2023, at
our Beijing space, the exhibition showcases a series of paintings that
investigate the interrelatedness of various elements, including biological
cells, plant life, bodily organs, sensory perception, architectural structures,
and environmental sounds. Through the use of forms, colours, textures, and
materials, Mengxi creates a captivating visual language that celebrates the
physicality and complexity of the body.
Mengxi’s fascination with the microscopic world of cells, which greatly influences her artistic practice, was sparked by her mother’s profession as a doctor and exposure to photographs of human cells. For her exhibition, she uses these organic particles as a metaphor for the basic units of the macrocosm we inhabit, opening up the abstracted formulation of energy being absorbed and released from our body to our surroundings.
In Sooooo yummy!, Mengxi employs fleshy colours and squiggly forms to allude to the digestive system, where mechanical, desire, pleasure, and sickness intertwine. Similarly, in Wheels, she explores the body as a vehicle, blurring the line between the body and the painting through gestural marks and vivid colours. The intuitive making process in her practice aims to break hierarchies of the known over the unknown and voluntary over the involuntary, inviting viewers to consider the possibilities of non-normative bodies and layered disturbances that move through time and space.
About the Artist Mengxi Zhang (b.1989, China) is a London-based artist who completed her B.A. in Fine Art at Central St Martins College of Art and Design in 2012, followed by her two-years study at Turps Studio in London. As an emerging artist, she has been active in London, showcasing her work in spaces such as the Kupfer Project Space Residency (London, 2022), Terrace Gallery (London, 2022), and OHSH Projects (London, 2021), just to name a few.
Mengxi’s fascination with the microscopic world of cells, which greatly influences her artistic practice, was sparked by her mother’s profession as a doctor and exposure to photographs of human cells. For her exhibition, she uses these organic particles as a metaphor for the basic units of the macrocosm we inhabit, opening up the abstracted formulation of energy being absorbed and released from our body to our surroundings.
In Sooooo yummy!, Mengxi employs fleshy colours and squiggly forms to allude to the digestive system, where mechanical, desire, pleasure, and sickness intertwine. Similarly, in Wheels, she explores the body as a vehicle, blurring the line between the body and the painting through gestural marks and vivid colours. The intuitive making process in her practice aims to break hierarchies of the known over the unknown and voluntary over the involuntary, inviting viewers to consider the possibilities of non-normative bodies and layered disturbances that move through time and space.
About the Artist Mengxi Zhang (b.1989, China) is a London-based artist who completed her B.A. in Fine Art at Central St Martins College of Art and Design in 2012, followed by her two-years study at Turps Studio in London. As an emerging artist, she has been active in London, showcasing her work in spaces such as the Kupfer Project Space Residency (London, 2022), Terrace Gallery (London, 2022), and OHSH Projects (London, 2021), just to name a few.
Tabula Rasa Gallery (London)
Unit One, 99 East Road,
Hoxton, London
N1 6AQ
Unit One, 99 East Road,
Hoxton, London
N1 6AQ
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