Gene Gallery collaborates with Canton Gallery to present artist Chen Pai’an’s solo exhibition “Be an Artist Then?”. The exhibition duration is from May 29, 2021 to June 28, 2021.

“Be an Artist Then?” is artist Chen Pai’an’s first solo exhibition in Shanghai. Chen brings ten large-scale plane works to the exhibition, transforming Gene Gallery into an independent microcosm in which his personal aesthetic and classical painting themes are cross-referenced. Through the presentation of classic painting themes, these works, as part of the artist’s exploration and summary of painting elements, show the artist’s own understanding of the aesthetic and functional aspects of artworks, and also make comments on contemporary social realities.

Classical theme paintings are inspired by Chen Pai’an’s own life and early experience with oil painting, while the theme of “painting” is universal — it is made up of recognizable and familiar painting elements: Landscape, still life, flowers and abstract composition have appeared in the creation of all ages and schools since the birth of painting. Points, lines and surfaces of various sizes, colors and shapes have been placed in the picture, and are gathered together to jointly construct “beauty”.

The “painting” at the heart of the exhibition is for the artist one of the symbols of his memory of early exposure to “beauty”. For him, the act of owning “painting” has become a symbol of spiritual abundance as a “person”. It is also inherent in the home decorating tradition and the world’s consumerist culture. Traces of fiction, stacking and reorganization can be seen everywhere in the exhibition. Chen Pai’an repeatedly uses similar colors and structures in various pictures, thus entering into new relationships and inevitably changing features and forms. For Chen, a work is always a reference for the next one.

All the works presented in the exhibition were created by Adobe Illustrator, using both acrylic face mount and acrylic microspray. In this mounting technology, acrylic is used to get a transparent and smooth industrial product texture on the surface. The light conduction property of acrylic causes the color of the picture to halo out, forming a soft edge of color block. In all the paintings, a large aluminum keel back frame is used to support the stability of the back, and the works are suspended on the wall to produce a sense of lightness.