elisabethdebrabant.com/newsletter/lujun/index.html Lu Jun, "Academic Lineage", 2011, C-print LU JUN "Darkness Visible" Solo Exhibition Elisabeth de Brabant Art Center November 17 -December 2011 FOREWORD Lu Jun’s ethereal images create illusory landscapes, which are at once historical references to centuries of shui mo hua and dynamic, abstract works. His conceptual use of space is calm, each of his works holding a sense of suspended balance. Threads of traced movement create entirely new compositions that are worlds unto themselves. Calligraphies bloom and pour through the centuries of this latest abstract series. Lu Jun is a contemporary artist working with digital photographic techniques His new works revisit Chinese history and painting through the use of abstract composition. Elisabeth de Brabant BIOGRAPHY Lu Jun was born in Hubei province in 1962 and graduated from Wuhan University of Technology in 1983. He has exhibited at the Pingyao International Festival since 2005 and has also shown at the Shenzhen Art Museum, Thailand National Art Gallery, Zhuhai Museum and Macao Art Museum. SELECTED PERMANENT COLLECTIONS Thailand National Art Gallery Macao Museum Of Art Shenzhen Art Museum Zhuhai Museum Shenzhen Art Institute HSBC AWARDS 2009 Named one of the World's Top 100 Artists by Masters of Today Limited London in England 2009 First Prize for Photography at the Florence Biennial International Contemporary Art Exhibition in Italy 2006, 2009 Awarded for Excellence in Photography by the China Pingyao International Photography Festival in Shanxi, China 2005 Nominated for Best Original Photographer at the Donggang Photo Festival in Korea ARTIST STATEMENT "Water is indispensable to life, and primitive life originated from water. Water is also the source of the spiritual and cultural life of China. The Chinese people have been inspired by the classical wisdom of philosophers like Lao Zi, whose beliefs were different from Western theories. One philosophy, for example, was shàng shàn ruò shuǐ, “the highest good is like that of water”. As water is believed to be the most popular and most dynamic symbolic image of the Chinese culture, water has become the basic language of traditional Chinese art of ink and water paintings. I had never thought so deeply about the source of life until a few years ago, when I started to engross myself in ink and water techniques. I began thinking about the nature of water. When I observed drops of ink slipping into pools, my eyes were transfixed by the ever-changing shapes becoming mountains, animals, plants, people. I could hardly ignore the notion behind the infinite possibilities created by water encompassing and dissolving into such miniscule molecules of substance. In front of my camera, life comes into being. Water makes anything possible. I realized that this was the living art that I was striving to create. I was actually making art by using nature. I was encompassing, dissolving, transforming and combining Eastern and Western cultures into one. I was piecing the halves of traditional and contemporary cultures together to make a whole. I was breaking through the symbols and signs we have taken for granted by redefining traditional style and modern fashion. By seeking a new, living art, I was able to make works with life and soul. I think of this also as applicable to China as a nation: only by opening up to the outside world, through assimilation, transformation, and innovation can we begin to seriously contribute to the world as a creative entity." -Lu Jun, 2011 EXHIBITION DATES November 17 – December 2011 RSVP Miss Cindy Wu cindy@elisabethdebrabant.com +86 21 6466 7428 / 13816567376 Elisabeth de Brabant Art Center 299 Fuxing West Road, Shanghai 200031 Tues-Fri, 10am – 6:30pm; Sat & Sun, 1:30 – 6:30pm Mondays by appointment www.elisabethdebrabant.com 
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