ShanghART Gallery is pleased to present Zhang Enli Solo Exhibition with new paintings from 2007 and 2008.

The positioning and depiction of modest everyday objects in Zhang Enli’s work extend to an extremely perceptive take on presence: The artist points out and emphasizes the ubiquitous and immediate surroundings. Offering little in the way of narrative and solace, the works are fascinating but can be difficult to approach. These simple portraits of commonplace interiors refuse easy engagement. The works have intentionally been stripped off all explanatory contexts. What Zhang Enli shows us is the humble acknowledgment of ’things in themselves’ as the ultimate constituent of reality. However, following Kant’s famous doctrine, we can never perceive ’things in themselves’ directly. We can only perceive their appearance. The strength of his paintings is cumulative in effect; viewed together their meaning grows in comprehensibility. The artist focuses on singular objects that almost always seem to develop into entire series of closely observed common things like cardboard boxes, furniture pieces, lighting devices, lavatories, and buckets. The works are clearly analytical, as much in the way they are executed, as in the way they are perceived.

Zhang Enli portraits every detail and gesture of everyday objects that often seem down-played or neglected in conventional painting. His brushstrokes almost comes close to traditional Chinese ink painting where every stroke on the canvas articulates details that are significant to the whole. The transparent application of paint, and the immediacy of his gesture, are contrasted to the meticulously planning and inquiry that foregrounds every new series of paintings.

Zhang Enli was born in Jilin province in 1965. He graduated from Wuxi Technical University, Arts and Design Institute in 1989. Now he lives and works in Shanghai. Recent exhibitions include Zhang Enli Solo Exhibition, Hauser & Wirth Gallery, Zürich, Switzerland, 2007; London royal art exhibition, 2007; PRE-EMPTIVE, Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland; Solo Presentation on Armory Show 2006, Hauser & Wirth Gallery, New York, U.S.A.; Infinite Painting - Contemporary Painting and Global Realism, Villa Manin - Centre for Contemporary Art Passariano, Codroipo (Udine), Italy; ZHANG Enli Solo Exhibition, Buero Friedrich, Berlin, Germany(2005); Human, too Human, BizArt (Shanghai, 2004).