Master Allegorist of our Time

 

Essay 41. MASTER ALLEGORIST OF OUR TIME

By Arnaldo Bernabe Mirasol

Wanderlust consumes ZHANG KEXIN. While most artists would feel contented to stay put on the spot where their studios are, Kexin always seeks new places, new faces, and new experiences. Kexin was born in Harbin, China in 1957. He completed his art education in 1982 at the Normal University of Harbin. From 1984 to 1989, he immersed himself in creative activities and joined several local art exhibits. After 1989 though, Kexin felt dried up, his source of creative inspiration depleted. What he longed to do to ignite his creative fire was to travel abroad, to become a nomadic artist.

In 1992, Kexin and two other artists were invited by the Ministry of Culture of the Soviet Union to visit Moscow to give lectures and hold an art exhibit there. It was while they were on their way aboard the Trans-Siberian Express that news of the break-up of the Soviet Union was announced. That news stunned Kexin and his two colleagues, as well as the Russian passengers of course. Although those were uncertain times, Kexin still managed to make their stay in Russia productive by befriending fellow artists there and studying Russian contemporary art, and later on, the art of Eastern Europe. It was during his stay In Russia that Kexin felt the urge to do a series of ink paintings that would combine what he calls western fine arts narratives with poetic oriental aesthetics. 

When Kexin was in Europe, he was invited to join the "Modern Chinese Painting Duo" exhibition in Thailand. He remembers well the event because his works made a big impression on Thailand's art-loving public who then began to acquire a large number of his works. The most notable painting he accomplished there was the mural, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". Kexin next sojourned in India to conduct research on religious as well as contemporary Indian art. He was kept busy during his stay there working on a long-term art project titled "Worshipping Red".

With travel experiences as comprehensive as that, it is no wonder that Kexin's iconography is so rich, drawing from eras as diverse as biblical, medieval, and contemporary. Kexin is the master allegorist of our turbulent times. His works feature a dizzying array of images ranging from Adam and Eve and the iconic apple tree to medieval quack doctors to puppet show dolls, etcetera, etcetera.... Beasts traipse all over his works. There is even one painting where a wild boar sits by the head table gorging on the dishes laid there. And as a concession perhaps to the current popular culture, I saw an image of what could only be a cosplayer flaunting her giant bat wings.

A particularly intriguing work depicts three naked woman suggestive of the three Graces gone wild. Why wild? Because instead of presenting them in a restful pose, like in a group hug for example, Kexin showed them drunk and posing seductively, while an amused King Kong-like character watch.

Now, this mish-mash of seemingly unrelated characters within a single painting could be perplexing. Well, it is perplexing. It looks as if it's difficult to place Kexin's style, except that there exist a term for works that combine fantasy and contemporary popular culture which Kexin's works do - Pop Surrealist. As for his theme, Kexin's inclusion of Adam and Eve and that girl cosplayer is clue enough. I see Kexin's body of works as products of an ambitious plan on his part to narrate the march of history from its primal beginnings to our disarrayed but interesting present.

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