ZHANG FUMING
Artist / Printmaker
The Quest: The Exquisite Rice Bowl
Solo Exhibition - Ion Arts Gallery
"Zhang Fuming’s works – “Educate”, “For the Future”, “Taking the Plunge (Picking a Bowl)” and 風調雨(順) , call to mind the work of Lim Mu Hue working in the 1960s, the drawings and prints are concentrated on the individual who labours and sweats for a living. These works also recall the epic quality of the drawings of Jimmy Ong, whose work Fuming admires. The robust, primitive line-work is almost ferocious – the medium is much suited to fuming’s themes, and his depiction of people has taken on a new energy and realism. Whilst his student work depicted a ghostly, metaphorical human figure, the new drawings have unabashedly drawn on actual people and actions. This includes the image of father, hardworking, dedicated, caught in the cycle of labour and survival, and also images of family and working colleagues.
The theme of Fuming’s work remains unchanged, the artworks for “The Quest: The Exquisite Rice Bowl” are a development of Fuming’s ongoing ideas of human labour, as well as the labour of charting an identity in a world that values what is material and powerful. Refreshingly old-school, he creates a final face-off with three large drawings “Busy Hands, “Messy Legs” and “Altar”, as a kind of altar-piece.”
- Seah Tzi-Yan, Programme Leader and Curator