Zhao Gang’s second solo presentation with Lisson Gallery The Basterd Gentry, curated by independent curator Evonne Jiawei Yuan, extends his ongoing depiction of landscape, portraiture and still life into an elaborate, performative triad. Coinciding with Shanghai’s art season, the project is structured as an ongoing enactment of exhibitions and conversations across multiple locations in Shanghai, including ASE Foundation and 185 Space of the Bund Art Center.
The Basterd Gentry stands as Zhao’s most autobiographical project to date, rooted in the complex negotiation of self-positioning and identity formation over the past four decades—a period during which he has built parallel careers in art and finance across Beijing and New York. Situated at the intersection of reality, representation, and projection, the project interrogates the three roles Zhao embodies—the painter, the butcher, and the banker—within a post-global, multipolar framework, foregrounding the dialectical tensions and entanglements among them. Staged across three symbolically resonant venues, The Basterd Gentry reveals how Zhao, cloaked in the guise of a ‘gentleman,’ conducts an unflinching examination of identity construction, power dynamics, and the very nature of existence from a deliberately detached standpoint.
Act One: Shadow | Lisson Gallery Shanghai | 12 November 2025 – Spring 2026
Read moreThe first act, ‘Shadow,’ is presented at Lisson Shanghai, housed within the former Central Bank Warehouse Building—a site emblematic of East–West confluence that resonates with the cross-cultural perspective central to Zhao’s practice. The eight new works, all created in 2025, exemplify a deconstructive and defamiliarizing approach through which the artist reconfigures portraiture—often rendered as expressionless, signification-void silhouettes, sublime landscapes, and their underlying archetypes. These social-realist compositions are marked by romanticised, imagined topographies and spontaneous brushwork, informed by what may be termed Zhao’s retrospective capitalist consciousness. Beneath a veneer of genteel refinement lies a profound skepticism toward belonging and alienation. Here, painting moves beyond formal self-reference to become a generative site where subjectivity dissolves into a state of ‘non-self’—an act of othering that turns inward, gesturing toward a void of fixed meaning or destination.
Act Two: Flesh | ASE Foundation | 9 November 2025 – 27 March 2026
The second act, ‘Flesh,’ on display at the ASE Foundation, occupies a viewing room in a space located in the former French Concession, a neighborhood imbued with historical resonance. Zhao’s monumental ‘meatscapes’ function as visceral tableaux vivants. Adopting the persona of the ‘butcher’—a figure channeling a Tarantinoesque ethos in which violence serves as brutal rationality and revenge becomes a dark ritual—the artist reconceives the canvas as an abattoir and the brush as a scalpel. This dissective methodology enacts what might be called a ‘gastronomic critique’: flesh, positioned at the crossroads of the memento mori tradition and biopolitical discourse, becomes a medium through which systems of exploitation are laid bare. Much like Tarantino’s revisionist histories, which rework trauma through cinematic catharsis, Zhao’s work stages a parallel intervention—bodies are systematised, disciplined, ‘seasoned’ for consumption, and ultimately resurrected as forensic evidence.
Act Three: Debt (Artist talk) | Space 185 of the Bund Art Center | 1:30 – 2:15pm, 12 November 2025
The third act, ‘Debt,’ takes shape as a dialogue between Zhao and scholar Lu Mingjun, moderated by the curator, on on 12 November at Space 185 of the Bund Art Center. The conversation responds to the architectural presence of the building—formerly the Shanghai office of Mitsui & Co., a site deeply embedded in the city’s cosmopolitan history—to reflect on themes of global circulation and ethical responsibility. Focusing on Zhao’s experience as an investment banker in New York during the late 1990s and early 2000s, the discussion traces the intellectual dilemmas that arose from his navigation of both the financial and art worlds. Together with Zhao, both Lu and Yuan—longtime collaborators of the artist—examine how the gestures and subjects in his paintings ‘devour’ notions of individualism, compassion, and humanity. This dialogue aims to illuminate a visual economy in which what is depicted and what is owed become inextricably intertwined, evoking the Deleuzian notion that every surface is, ultimately, a body without organs—a site of perpetual conversion and debt.
赵刚在里森画廊的第二次个展题为「赤裸绅士」(The Basterd Gentry)。独立策展人袁佳维经过特别构思，将赵刚对风景、肖像与静物题材的执拗探索开拓为一场三部曲式的连续展演，与上海艺术季同步呈现。里森上海展出第一幕“背影”(Shadow)，第二幕“肉躯”(Flesh) 则于ASE基金会上演，第三幕“未尝”(Debt) 为对话活动，于外滩艺术中心185空间举行。
「赤裸绅士」标记着赵刚在四十年来穿梭于北京与纽约两地、游走于艺术与金融领域的丰硕生涯中自我定位与人格塑造的复杂性，其自传性渊源较之近年任何个展都更为直接。通过模糊真实、再现与 (情感) 投射的边界，此次展演聚焦赵刚在后全球化与多极化语境中践行的三重角色：画家、“屠夫”与银行家，并深入阐释其间辩证统一的关系。换言之，这场在三个象征意涵深厚的场域中进行的展演精心编配出一种间离效果，揭示赵刚如何在“绅士”的文明外衣之下，不懈地对身份建构、权力动态以及存在本质作出“赤裸”的质询。
第一幕：背影 ｜ 里森画廊上海空间 ｜ 2025年11月12日至2026年春季
此次展演的第一幕“背影”呈现于里森上海，画廊空间位于原中央银行仓库大楼——这座象征东西方交汇的建筑，与赵刚绘画实践中核心的跨文化凝视形成共鸣。本章集结了今年完成的八件新作，艺术家以解构主义与陌生化手法重构肖像 (多为无表情、无意义的背影)、崇高的景观及其底层原型。他将浪漫化的地理想象与充满“迟至”资本主义意识的即兴笔触，交织于社会主义现实主义框架的构图之中。绅士风范的表象之下，潜藏着赵刚对归属感与疏离感的根本性质疑。绘画由此超越形式自指的局限，成为主体性消融于“非我”状态的构成场域——这种对自我进行他者化处理的循环运动，最终指向意义与栖所皆成虚空的境地。
第二幕：肉躯 ｜ ASE基金会 ｜ 2025年11月9日至2026年3月27日
第二幕“肉躯”呈现于地处原法租界的ASE基金会——这片街区的历史在建筑的不断重写中层层积淀，其审美化的城市肌理与该机构同期举办的群展「肉身迷航」形成了观念上的延续。在此，赵刚描绘的巨型肉块景观以震撼人心的生动之姿赫然呈现。艺术家化身为“屠夫”：这一角色呼应了塔伦蒂诺式的精神气质——暴力作为残酷的理性运作、复仇则蜕变为黑暗仪式——画布被看成是屠宰场、笔刷被运用为手术刀。这种解剖主义的方法论实践着一种或可被称为“享乐批判”(gastronomic critique，针对选择、烹饪和赏味美好食物的艺术) 的行动：肉躯，被置于“死亡象征” (memento mori) 的经典类型与生命政治话语的交汇处，成为揭露剥削秩序的媒介。诚如昆汀通过宣泄重写创伤的修正主义历史，赵刚的作品实现了一场平行介入——被系统规训的身体经过“调味”以供消费，最终作为法证得以重生。
第三幕：未尝 (艺术家对谈) ｜ 外滩艺术中心185空间｜ 2025年11月12日下午1:30 – 2:15
第三幕“未尝”以对话形式呈现，于2025年11月12日在外滩艺术中心185空间举行，由策展人袁佳维主持，艺术家赵刚与学者鲁明军共同展开对话。本次对话以在地性为切入点——其前身为日本三井物产上海办事处，承载着这座城市深厚的世界主义传统——进而审视全球流动与伦理承担等命题。围绕赵刚1990年代末至2000年代初在纽约担任投资银行家的经历，对话回顾其在金融界与艺术界双边斡旋时产生的智识困境。两位与艺术家长期合作的对话者深入剖析其绘画中的手势与对象如何逐步“吞噬”个体主义、关怀与人本主义。此次对话旨在揭示一种视觉经济，被描绘的与被亏欠的在此紧密交织：恰如德勒兹所言——一切表面终将成为无器官的身体，一个永不停歇的转换与债务之所。
