LINSEED很荣幸地呈现郑芝琳（b. 1991, 中国）个展“感动”（Moving），此次展览亦是艺术家在画廊的第二次个展，即将展出一系列全新画作及雕塑。似乎是因一种不可忘却的疏离和不满而起，郑芝琳的画面往往在时缓时急、坚实与流溢、异质的遥远与虚妄的现实之间徘徊。展览中的作品通过探索在艺术家近期对舞蹈和舞台的研究中所引发的一系列有关身体与观看的问题，重新思考身体、个体与空间、话语之间的关系。展览将于2024年11月6日开幕，并持续至2024年12月28日。
郑芝琳 ZHENG Zhilin
粗壮及被其挤压的空气 Hulk and the Air It Squeezed, 2024
布面丙烯 Acrylic on canvas
180 × 392 cm (双联 Diptych)
郑芝琳 ZHENG Zhilin
闪亮的序幕 Prologue to Glory, 2024
纸上彩铅 Coloured pencil on paper
56.5 × 62 cm
即便四肢如此坚实，郑芝琳画面中的人物看上去总是七扭八歪、重心游移。似乎是为了达到某种运动的轨迹，而不择手段地违背人体结构的古怪形体—— 例如《闪亮的序幕》为了让头颅有处可靠而延伸的肩膀、《缎光之夜》为了激烈冲突的四脚朝天，让人联想起近现代壁画浮雕对平面空间的稚拙掌握下，笨重的身体与扭曲的姿势。这样看似对身体可能性的不假思索却有一种“似乎能控制一切的力量感”，看似对空间稚拙地占据却挑衅着身体在空间与话语中不断退怯又让渡的关系。
郑芝琳 ZHENG Zhilin
缎光之夜 Night of Satin, 2024
布面油画 Oil on canvas
83 × 164 cm
艺术家近期对舞蹈与舞台的探索不仅给这系列作品中的的肢体造型带来了更为丰富的力量与动态表现，也将她的画布演变为一个具有复杂观看关系的场域。例如《粗壮及被其挤压的空气》椭圆形的构图，像是一套舞蹈动作中连续的定格、一道运动中的身影，而在圆形中央的聚光灯却炙烤着空空如也的地面。不再是匿名的，这些在逼仄透视关系下的空间因散落着的色块（《转场》）或水磨石地板（《缎光之夜》）变得具体的同时，也变成一面镜子，映射出那双时而在观众席、时而在舞台、时而在后台的观者的眼睛。
郑芝琳 ZHENG Zhilin
转场 Cross-fade，2024
布面油画 Oil on canvas
80 × 50 cm
既是舞台上的对象，又是剧场里的游荡者，郑芝琳的作品不断思考着观看与被观看之间的关系：遭遇《嘘，此处停顿》中的背影是让人感到惊异的，因为无法分辨入侵疲惫后台的究竟是他们还是自己；看着《海市蜃楼》里的恣意如神仙而感到的闲适也只是顷刻，一旦追随他们看向远处那个剪影的目光，是否意味着自己变成了这个供人观赏的主人公？如果说舞台之下、帷幕背后就可以保持当下个体的遗忘与淡漠，郑芝琳作品中无处不在的游荡视角却旁观着这种自以为是的不真实，在难以抵抗的虚妄笼罩下，是还在不断对抗着的感动的身体。
郑芝琳 ZHENG Zhilin
嘘，此处停顿 Shush, Here comes a PAUSE!，2024
布面丙烯 Acrylic on canvas
120 × 160 cm
关于艺术家
郑芝琳1991年出生于广东，现工作生活于广州，分别于2014年和2017年获得广州美术学院的油画学士学位和硕士学位。充满着变形、偏移与错位，郑芝琳的画面上演着这些极端的空间与身体之间的角力。她的作品在表达一种摇摆于凝滞感与流动性之间的身体力量的同时，也玩味地呈现出观看与对象之间错综复杂的相互作用。在细腻的光线变化处理与无所不在的移动视角之间，郑芝琳的画面似乎来回穿梭于永恒与短暂的两极，也在这过程中不断探索着个体与更大语境之间的矛盾与和解。
郑芝琳 ZHENG Zhilin
幕后 Behind the Scene，2024
纸上彩铅 Coloured pencil on paper
82 × 46.5 cm
其近期个展包括: “感动”，2024，LINSEED，上海；“闪烁的悬停”, ZONAMACO 当代艺术博览会，2023，LINSEED，墨西哥城 ;“ 浮游 ，流转，弥散 ”，2022，LINSEED，上海 。其近期群展包括: 2025，Frieze LA 弗里兹洛杉矶艺术博览会，LINSEED，洛杉矶（即将展出）；“Deli Dali”，2024，Galerie Marguo，巴黎；“推手”，2023，LINSEED in collaboration with A.I.，伦敦; “X美术馆三年展2023: 萦绕之所” ，2023，X美术馆，北京 ; “NEW/NOW"，2023，ART SG 新加坡艺博会，LINSEED，新加坡; “隔岸观火”，2021，LINSEED，上海。
郑芝琳 ZHENG Zhilin
螺旋转步 A Spiral Turn, 2024
石膏细料、丙烯、彩铅 Plaster, acrylic, coloured pencil
20 × 30 cm
LINSEED is pleased to present “Moving”, the second solo exhibition of ZHENG Zhilin (b. 1991, China) with the gallery, showcasing a series of her latest paintings and sculptures. Steered by her irresistible sense of alienation and discontent, Zheng’s work often captivates the viewer with her vivid tableau hovering on the spectrum between the static and the fluid, between the otherworldly and the worldly. This new body of work after her recent exploration of dance and stage addresses issues of the body, the seeing and being seen in the strained relationship between the individual, the body, and both its space and discourses. The exhibition will be on view from November 6 to December 28, 2024.
郑芝琳 ZHENG Zhilin
海市蜃楼 Heat Reflection，2024
布面油画 Oil on canvas
60 × 80 cm
Often barefoot, figures who unabashedly expose their exaggeratedly robust limbs populate and topple Zheng's paintings. It is as if their rich gestures and movements are led unconsciously by the disproportionate and tumescent body. These self-sustained bodies go contrary to the docile bodies that Zheng has experienced, which display the favored and conceal the despised. Yet rather than flesh, the bodies of Zheng’s figures peculiarly share similar colors and even texture with their sometimes scanty clothing in subtle variations of luster, implying a sense of sculptural substance. Studying the unflinching solidity and power in the bodies from the ancient mythological statue to the political murals in the Global South, Zheng's research of the body is preoccupied with the expression of strength.
While the limbs seem unwieldy, figures in Zheng’s paintings always look twisted and tilted. The anatomical body's structure is willingly violated by any means possible to achieve the flow of movement. For example, in Prologue to Glory, the shoulder is extended abruptly for the head to lay; in Night of Satin, the feet face impractically skyward in this fierce physical interaction. The violations are reminiscent of the lumbering bodies and contorted poses in early relief sculpture—a result of the limited mastery of two-dimensional space. What appears to be an uncalculated deployment of space and body, for Zheng, conveys a sense of power that seems undaunted by and challenges the ever-retreating and disciplined body in relation to space and discourse.
Zheng’s recent exploration of dance and stage not only brings a richer expression of power and dynamics to the body but also evolves her tableau into a site of complex viewing relationships. For example, while the circular composition of Hulk and the Air It Squeezed vaguely alludes to a set of consecutive dance movements in motion, the floor under the spotlight takes center stage. Instead of leaving them anonymous, the depictions of the floor in this suite of paintings are dramatically foreshortened and underlined by the textural brushstrokes of, for instance, colored stripes in Cross-fade and terrazzo in Night of Satin. The pointed use of architectural devices constantly shifts from different points of view which brings forth the presence of gaze in the seeing.
At once an object on stage and a subject wandering along the theatre, Zheng’s figures oscillate between watching and being watched: the rückenfigur in Shush, Here comes a PAUSE! is the flaneur as well as a symbol of the viewer’s eyes that invades the weary backstage; the idleness one feels in Heat Reflection is suspended when they follows the character’s gaze into a distant figure and realize themselves becoming the protagonist for the pleasure of viewing. The omnipresence of the wandering eyes in Zheng’s work raises the question against the prevailing amnesia and alienation under the stage and behind the screen, while the moving body under the shroud of irresistible vanity constantly “squeezes the air.”
About the Artist
ZHENG Zhilin was born in Guangdong in 1991, and currently lives and works in Guangzhou. She graduated from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, where she received her BFA in 2014 and MFA in Painting in 2017. Fascinated with distorted and deviated perspectives, Zheng’s work enthralls the viewer with a vivid tableau unfolded by the strong tension between the imaginative space and eccentric body. While preoccupied with an alternative expression, oscillating between solidity and fluidity, of the power in the self-sustained body, her painting presents an intricate interplay between the eyes and the object. Through her subtle rendering of light and the omnipresent wandering eyes, Zheng’s work traverses between the eternal and the ephemeral, exploring the individual’s relationship with its surroundings.
Her recent solo exhibitions: "Moving", 2024, LINSEED, Shanghai; “illuminated standstill”, ZONAMACO, 2023, LINSEED, Mexico City; "Pedesis", 2022, LINSEED, Shanghai. Her recent group exhibitions include: 2025, Frieze LA with LINSEED, Los Angeles(upcoming); “Deli Dali”, 2024, Galerie Marguo, Paris; “Gestures of Resistance”, 2023, LINSEED in collaboration with A.I., London; “X Museum Triennial 2023: Home Is Where the Haunt Is”, 2023, X Museum, Beijing; ”NEW/NOW”, 2023, ART SG with LINSEED, Singapore; "Watch the Fire from the Shore", 2021, LINSEED, Shanghai.
