NEW YORK, NY.- Poly Gallery Hong Kong and Triumph Art Space opened a new exhibition, Intermediate State – Solo Exhibition of He Jie, which runs through 18 November. The Exhibition features the artist’s 21 oil paintings created from 2013 to 2016, with the series of “Forever Mark” as the highlight. Being one of the most outstanding emerging artists, He Jie demonstrates a unique artistic style and uncommon visual presentation in his paintings.

The frame within his paintings is one of the most impressive elements of He Jie’s artistic creations. In He’s paintings, which depict natural sceneries and human figures, frames are repeatedly appeared to invite the audience to a new dimensional space out of the paintings. The series of “Forever Mark” focuses on the significant political and social events; not only a mere documentation, it is also a record of the personal and collective memories and feelings towards the events.

For example, Forever mark - Moving Forward illustrates the image of the Soviet teenagers marching forward with the symbolic red scarf. Forever mark - Rent collection courtyard makes reference to the same-titled group of clay sculptures and recurs the social circumstances of peasants exploited by landlords at that time. In Forever mark - Gone with wind, He depicted a scene from the book to record the influence and impact of this literature masterpiece. The framing technique in these works reduces the visual area of the scene being presented, thus drawing the attentions of viewers toward the centre of the image. These frames also infer the presence of multiple spaces throughout the paintings, and therefore inspire the viewers in the reality to endow the depicted events and scenes with new interpretations.

The paintings of He Jie are composed of crude brushwork and heavy pigment, imposing a strong visual shock to their audience. The artworks are predominately painted with colour in grey instead of black and white to reveal his ideal intermediate state. Audience on one hand can relate familiar social or political incidences from the images, while on the other hand find the scenes and events unacquainted due to the unique visual creation methods applied by He Jie. The distance created by He enables viewers to get brand new interpretations between personal memories and grand narrative, artistic creations and real life experiences. Moreover, instead of sensing trace of adoration or cynicism, all people can find would solely be a record of the events, showing the eagerness of the artist towards the balance between art and reality. It also explains the name of the exhibition Intermediate State.

For instance, People’s Stage and People’s Speech depict objects like an orderly flight of rock steps, golden railing, and white granite fountain. Forever mark - Crown Dream and Looking for Our Utopian Memories also possess symbols like the Western crowns and angel statues. The images with metaphorical or symbolic meanings are transplanted into He Jie’s oil paintings, expressing the dolor and nostalgia towards history. Audience on one hand can relate familiar social or political incidences from the images, while on the other hand find the scenes and events unacquainted due to the unique visual creation methods applied by He Jie. The distance created by He enables viewers to get brand new interpretations between personal memories and grand narrative, artistic creations and real life experiences. Moreover, instead of sensing trace of adoration or cynicism, all people can find would solely be a record of the events, showing the eagerness of the artist towards the balance between art and reality. It also explains the name of the exhibition Intermediate State.

Born in Changde, Hunanin Province in 1976, He Jie obtained BFA and MFA in Painting from Luxun Academy of Fine Arts in 2000 and 2005 respectively. He has organised solo exhibitions in Zeit-Foto Salon in Tokyo, Japan, Jean Art Gallery in Seoul, South Korea and 798 Beijing Art Place in Beijing, China. He’s artworks have be enshrined by Seoul Museum of Art in Seoul, Korea, White Rabbit Contemporary Chinese Art Collection in Sydney, Australia, Uli Sigg Art Collection in Switzerland, Tang Contemporary Art in Beijing, China, Zenda Museum of Modern Art in Shanghai, China, etc.