Dexter Dalwood | Van Hanos | Zhao Gang
Lisson Gallery Shanghai brings together three figurative artists – Dexter Dalwood, Van Hanos and Zhao Gang – whose works collapse and expand space and time, traversing the borders between hyperrealism, abstraction and imagined realities. Each creates object-worlds for viewers to travel through, using spatial ambiguity and surreal juxtaposition to imbue two-dimensional images with three-dimensional ambitions.
Taking its title from Leon Battista Alberti's original treatise on line and perspective in art De Pictura (On Painting) from 1450, this exhibition also marks a moment when the poles of flatness and depth shift — as it was in the transition from the Medieval to the Renaissance — and explores the possibilities that exist between two and three dimensions. To 'depict' is also to paint or document what is in front of the beholder, an act of looking and absorbing that nevertheless reveals different approaches in these three painters.
Read moreEach work in this selection of paintings portrays elements of visible or recognisable reality, but simultaneously combines these physical and painterly sensibilities with interruptions, whether symbolic gestures, innovative mark-making or imagistic collage. Each artist can also be said to embody or refer back to some of the key tenets of (Western) art history – employing the traditions of landscape, still-life and history painting, for example – while also breaking down these hierarchies and creating new literary, cinematic and political fields for experimentation.
In Dexter Dalwood’s practice, the medium of painting is not only examined and celebrated in terms of its history and legacy; he also demonstrates the enduring contemporary relevance of painting as a way of communicating how we experience the world in which we live. In Hard and Lux (both 2018), Dalwood harks back to the origin of post-Impressionist painting by constructing a space for contemplation and solitude in the image of natural phenomena. The act of looking becomes disrupted — the viewers are placed inside a vehicle, looking out through a rain-streaked windshield or a snow-filled backseat window. While in 2059 (knife) (2021), the artist scales this oil on canvas to Jean-Siméon Chardin’s The House of Cards (1737), offering a reflection on the medium today, and stretching his references across time to juxtapose classical still-life motifs with bright, futuristic planets and galaxies.
Van Hanos' approach to painting is best undefined, forsaking particular modes or methods. Ranging from landscape to portraiture, beyond categorisation as either figuration or abstraction, his work navigates perceptual shifts and thematic rupture. Hanos explores the tremendous range of possibilities within the human mind and experience, and his paintings can be created as meticulous oil renderings of images taken from photographs, with technical precision and photographic tendencies, or as sublime, abstracted amalgamations of past observations and ruminations, replete with internal references to other paintings or past subjects, and layered with meaning. Hanos’ work always beckons the viewer to look closer—as what one first experiences is undoubtedly bound to shift upon continued investigation.
In his work, Zhao Gang delves into the fluidity of individual identities, the clash of cultures, and the intricate interplay of fragmented historical events. In Chicken, Duck and Fish (2023), raw-cuts of meat, poultry and fish collectively serve as an alternative 'self-portrait' through which Zhao suggests identity is something ‘eaten’ and reassembled through desire, power, and the mythologies of East and West. Alongside this are a pair of collages drawn from Zhao’s personal resonance to Qingdao, where he first visited in 1978. Taking the style of montage to reflect the artist’s past and present memories of the coastal city in China's Shandong Province, the fragmented composition also evokes social media grids, inviting viewers to form their own interpretations and narratives.
里森画廊上海空间呈现三位具象艺术家的群展，包括德克斯特·达尔伍德 (Dexter Dalwood)、范·海诺斯 (Van Hanos) 和赵刚，他们的创作穿梭于超写实主义、抽象表现和想象的现实之间，解构并拓宽了时间的概念。通过模糊空间和超现实的并置手法，每位艺术家都构建出可供观者沉浸和穿越其中的客体世界，使得二维图像承载了三维空间与虚拟维度的能力。
展览外文标题“Depictura”源自文艺复兴时期著名意大利建筑家、作家、哲学家、人文主义者莱昂·巴蒂斯塔·阿尔伯蒂 (Leon Battista Alberti) 于1450年出版的关于绘画线条和透视法的经典论著《论绘画》(De Pictura/On Painting)。“描绘”意味着以绘画或记录的方式呈现观者所见之物，是一种观察与吸纳信息的行为。本次群展探讨平面和纵深两极之间发生的变化——正如中世纪和文艺复兴之间的过渡时期那般，并探索介于二维与三维之间的可能性，体现三位艺术家各不相同的表达手法。
展出的作品既呈现了可见或可辨识的现实元素，同时又将这些物理和绘画层面的感知与各种产生“干扰”效果的元素相结合，例如象征性的意象、新颖的笔触或图像拼接。三位艺术家都体现或承袭了西方艺术史核心的体系原则——采用了如风景画、静物画和历史绘画的传统，更通过打破这些既定的分类，开拓出融汇文学性、电影感和个人表达的全新实验场域。
德克斯特·达尔伍德的实践不仅从历史与传承的角度审视绘画这一经典媒介，他更通过创作证明了绘画作为一种表达人类经验的方式，在当代生活中始终保有经久不衰的意义。两件创作于2018年的作品回溯了后印象派绘画的风格，通过描绘自然景观营造一片沉思和独处的空间。它们都将观者置于车厢内，无论是透过《倾盆大雨》(Hard) 中被雨水敲打的挡风玻璃，还是《光》(Lux) 中一瞥漫天飞雪的后座车窗，向车外投射的视线于自然现象中折射、失焦。而《2059 (刀)》(2059 (knife), 2021) 则援引著名法国画家让·西蒙·夏尔丹 (Jean Siméon Chardin) 的《The House of Cards》(1737)，达尔伍德在创作时刻意采用与后者尺幅相同的画布，并将一把普通的小刀，与明亮且充满未来感的银河、行星并置，跨时空探讨静物画的体裁，及反思绘画媒介在当下的角色。
范·海诺斯的创作风格不拘一格，从超写实肖像到抽象，其作品在所构建的绘画世界与所栖身的物理现实之间，触发了一场不息的辩证对话。大型绘画《救护车》刻画了被车灯照亮的玻璃窗户内墙身上的图像；海诺斯在此之上添加了一层仿如滤镜的彩色点阵网格，覆绘的技法体现了艺术家对视觉文化中意义建构及感知世界途径的持续探索。小规模作品《凯拉的手》则通过造型手部特写与非写实背景空间的鲜明反差，突出现实与抽象之间微妙的相互作用。人物面部的缺失引导观众思考个别身体部位的再现在心理和象征层面的共鸣，这一手法令人联想到来自超现实主义摄影与二十世纪照相写实主义的作品。
赵刚关注个人身份的流动性、文化差异带来的冲击，及断裂历史事件的关联。《鸡鸭鱼肉》(2023) 中放大尺度的食材折射了艺术家的观点——他把“肉”视为一种另类的肖像，个体身份在欲望、权力，和东西方价值观的交织中被“吞噬”和重构。同时展出的两组来自《永恒的城市》(2025) 系列的作品将赵刚自身的丰富生命历程与青岛的发展变迁作对照。1978年，艺术家首次造访这座海滨城市；40余年内数次旧地重游，这些画作仿佛是一连串自我对话，在追忆历经变化的际遇与身份中寻找人生的坐标。这两组作品分别都由四件小型绘画拼接而成，剪接的蒙太奇式记忆拼图也如同社交媒体帖子的排列格式，为观众诠释组合画作间的叙事提供了空间。
