周岩：九霄云外
2024年5月25日—7月7日
Gallery I｜SPURS Gallery，北京市朝阳区酒仙桥北路二号院798艺术区D-06
马刺画廊荣幸宣布将于2024年5月25日推出艺术家周岩的个展“九霄云外”。展览将于2024年画廊周北京期间于Gallery I展出艺术家全新的影像、雕塑、绘画及装置作品。这是继2020年末呈现的“微暗的火”之后，周岩在马刺画廊举办的第二次个展。他从过去四年中自己与身边人群关系的变化出发，逐渐更多地关注到精英主义与反智主义人群之间的对峙上。展览通过对艺术家个人那些无处安放的情绪或无法言说的经历进行梳理，呈现了他对整个系统与其运作方式的种种疑惑与无尽的想象。
周岩擅于实验性地在影像作品中引入游戏引擎概念，让观看者通过与影像内容的互动进入他所搭建的情境中。处于展厅中心的实时互动影像装置作品《盲区》（2022—2024），来自艺术家在一次核磁共振检查时在仪器中平躺了20分钟的经历。观看者可以踩踏互动装置对影像作品进行实时干扰，通过模糊与清晰画面之间的切换，作品模拟了一种视野被遮蔽或观察受限时，无法通过知识经验对事物进行判断的不安情绪，甚至陷入一种被迫的深度反思。
展览中的作品更多是周岩对疫情时期的生活与社会时事进行的片段式的抓取。如动画装置《奖杯》（2024），象征着游戏胜利的卡牌收藏架与三段一闪而过的动画，共同描绘着指令下达与目标完成的叙事背后，对过程的极速抹杀。而过程如何再现——艺术家将一种猛烈运动留下的痕迹与他自己的攀岩经历共构为雕塑作品《捷径》（2024），三个部分散布于画廊不同角落，攀爬岩点被精简为两个，终点被悬置于空中。
金色的雕塑《无尽的等待》（2024）躺在展厅的角落，户外防水面料排列成的装置《无》（2024）悬挂在空中，影像作品《圈套》（2024）的光影碎片时隐时现——周岩将各种无处排解的万千思绪仔细审视与打磨，对行动与结果之间的过程进行严格记录。这些在现代被定义为“无聊，不重要，理应遗忘”的记录，艺术家通过展览与作品展现的是对其无限的关注与珍重。
展览将持续展出至2024年7月7日。
周岩，《盲区》（片段），2022—2024，互动影像装置，实时｜Zhou Yan, Blind Field (clip), 2022–2024, interactive video installation, real time
Zhou Yan: Cloud 9
May 25–July 7, 2024
Gallery I | SPURS Gallery, D-06, 798 Art Zone, No. 2 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing
SPURS Gallery is thrilled to announce the opening of “Cloud 9”, Zhou Yan’s second solo exhibition with the gallery, on May 25, 2024. The exhibition will showcase his latest series of video, sculptures, paintings and installations. The exhibition, in Gallery I, is also presented concurrently with Gallery Weekend Beijing 2024. Following his debut exhibition with the gallery, “Pale Fire”, in 2020, Zhou shifts his focus to the split between the elitism and the anti-intellectualism during the global outbreak, which procured from his personal relationships that drastically evolved in the past four years. Disentangling the artist’s personal emotions and unspeakable life experiences, the exhibition, “Cloud 9”, pronounces his skepticism and endless quest about the system and its operation.
His experimental use of game engine is amplified by his current work in real-time video installations. The exhibition centerpiece Blind Field (2022–2024) is inspired by Zhou’s 20-minute inspection in an MRI scanner, where the audience can enter the staged site and disrupt the video imagery by compulsively stepping onto the interactive pedal. The work advances an anxiety of having a restricted vision; one’s inability to judge based on prior knowledge or experience under the given circumstances, or even further coerced into a remorseful contemplation.
Most works in the exhibition are snippets of Zhou’s life during the pandemic. The animation installation Trophy (2024) mimics the display of card collections when a video game has been won. Three short animations flash within, symbolizing the obliteration of the process—once the commands are delivered, the mission is completed. The process, however, is resurrected in Shortcut (2024), a commentary based on Zhou’s bouldering experiences. The vestiges of intense motions are scattered over the gallery space: we find two climbing holds while the finishing hold hangs in the air.
The golden sculpture Endless Waiting (2024) lies in a corner; the assemblage of outdoor functional fabric in Nothing (2024) drapes in the air; the lights in videowork Trap (2024) shimmer now and then: Zhou carefully collects scattering thoughts and memories, polishes them, and poses them as testimonies of causes and effects. He idolizes these “dull, unimportant, and negligible” scraps of modern life, and gives them immense care in his works.
The exhibition will remain on view until July 7, 2024.
周岩，《圈套》，2024，单频高清影像，彩色，立体声，8分钟｜Zhou Yan, Trap, 2024, single-channel HD video, color, stereo, 8′
关于艺术家
周岩，生于北京，本科毕业于中央美术学院设计学院，研究生就读于芝加哥艺术学院，获艺术硕士。
周岩在创作中通常探讨由个体与群体的共生状况所衍生的问题。他善于对事物的细枝末节进行观察，通过多种方式抵达事态因果之中被遗忘的领域，并对这些残留物进行编织。它们也许是碎片化的，线性的，偶然的，神秘的。他主要使用的媒介包含影像装置、交互游戏、艺术家书等。他参加的展览包括——
个展：“九霄云外”，马刺画廊，北京（2024）；“欹梅”，十点睡觉艺术空间，北京（2022）；“微暗的火”，马刺画廊，北京（2020）；“抵达褶皱”，线上展，实验影像中心（2020）；“竞技场”，掩体空间，北京（2019）；“太阳以西”，PPPP空间，北京（2019）。
部分群展：“动为行——中国媒体艺术35年”，天目里美术馆，杭州（2023）；“艺术的语言，艺术家的游戏”，OCAT深圳馆，深圳（2022）；伦敦弗里兹艺术博览会，伦敦（2021）；“梦饮酒者”，线上展，实验影像中心（2020）；“终端>_How Do We Begin?”，X 美术馆，北京（2020）；“时间的狂喜：重塑认知的媒介”，何香凝美术馆，深圳（2017）；第30届斯图加特冬季电影节多媒体单元，斯图加特（2017）；“E.M.B.C.L”，Flux Factory，纽约（2017）。
部分放映：第29届芝加哥地下电影节，Logan Theatre，芝加哥（2022）；“Shards from the Mirror of History”，Gene Siskel电影中心，芝加哥（2019）；“旧写真”，第65届奥伯豪森电影节，奥伯豪森（2019）；第14届希腊数字艺术节，雅典（2018）。
他的艺术家书收藏于芝加哥Joan Flash Artist Book Collection。
2023年周岩获得“燃冉”青年艺术家奖项“锐意探索奖”，2020年周岩入围第14届AAC艺术中国年度影响力青年艺术家。
Zhou Yan (b. Beijing) received his BFA in Visual Communication from the School of Design, Central Academy of Fine Arts, and his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Zhou Yan’s practice explores issues of interrelationality and codependency between individuals and collectives. He spots on the minutiae of things, approaching the forgotten realms of causality through various methods. Carefully weaving these remnants as they can be fragmented, linear, accidental and mystical. He works in a variety of media from video installations and gaming to artist books. His works have been exhibited at various international venues and programs, including
Solo exhibitions: “Cloud 9,” SPURS Gallery, Beijing, 2024; “Lazarus,” Click Ten Art Space, Beijing, 2022; “Pale Fire,” SPURS Gallery, Beijing, 2020; “Arriving the Fold,” an online exhibition, Centre for Experimental Film, 2020; “No Quarters,” the Bunker Space, Beijing, 2019; “West of the Sun,” PPPP Space, Beijing, 2019.
Group exhibitions: “Motion Is Action—35 Years of Chinese Media Art,” BY ART MATTERS, Hangzhou, 2023; “Art’s Language, Artists’ Game,” OCAT Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 2022; Frieze London, London, 2021; “Wake Up Crying,” an online exhibition, Centre for Experimental Film, 2020; “How Do We Begin?,” X Museum, Beijing, 2020; “The Ecstasy of Time: Reframing the Medium of Knowing,” He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen, 2017; the 30th Stuttgarter Filmwinter Expanded Media, Stuttgart, 2017; “E.M.B.C.L,” Flux Factory, New York, 2017.
Screenings: the 29th Chicago Underground Film Festival, Logan Theatre, Chicago, 2022; “Shards from the Mirror of History,” Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago, 2019; “Old Images,” the 65th International Film Festival Oberhausen, Oberhausen, 2019; the 14th Athens Digital Arts Festival, Athens, 2018.
He also has four artist books collected by the Joan Flash Artist Book Collection, Chicago.
Zhou Yan was awarded 2023 “RanRan” Young Artist Prize, “The Exploration Award,” and nominated for 2020 AAC Young Artist of the Year Award.
SPURS 即将展出
周岩：九霄云外
2024年5月25日—7月7日
Gallery I｜SPURS Gallery，北京市朝阳区酒仙桥北路二号院798艺术区D-06
