Participating Artists:Zhang Yong Zheng
Exhibition Venue: New Age Gallery（Beijing）
Exhibition Period: 2012.10.13——2012.11.12

Zhang Yongzheng’s Solo Exhibition Puzzlement and Awakening “His art is thoroughly rooted in Chinese tradition and thought patterns … It contains a whole universe– both the outer and the inner … When I’ve pondered on the question of which art could be seen as representing a different China on the multifaceted scene of Chinese contemporary art, one of the names that keep popping up in my head is Zhang Yongzheng,” commented Anders Gustafsson. Zhang Yongzheng, an artist of the new generation of the seventies, impressed the public with his clear and unique understanding of art and style at his solo exhibition Mysterious Rhythm in 2008. The works build up an artistic realm based on the cycle, movement and rhythm of Yin and Yang, the sky and earth and nature, the soul and the universe with calligraphic free expression, “Style of Five Elements” in coloring, and reflections in the framework of ancient Chinese philosophy. Thousands years today, we forget how our ancients followed the principle of the unity of time and space, unity of the universe and man and lived in harmony with nature. The artist, by trying to identify the connection between man and nature in traditional Chinese culture and its theory of “unity of the universe and man”, reflects on our world with his ultimate concern for human reality and harmony between man and nature. His solo exhibition Puzzlement and Awakening, to be held on Set. 4, 2010, is aimed to be a concrete exhibition of the artist’s progress made in the last three years. Belonging to Yin and Yang respectively, “puzzlement and awakening”, as is explained by the artist himself, are in opposition to each other, i.e., “puzzlement”, like night, darkness, and vagueness, corresponds to Yin, while “awakening”, like day, light, and clarity, corresponds to Yang. Then, “puzzlement and awakening” mean “perplexity and awakening”. When one gets perplexed, he/she is disoriented and loses his capacity of judgment. Moreover, from puzzlement to awakening one gets his soul purified, his goal in life cleared, and experiences the change from darkness to light, so the process is also a pilgrim’s progress.