　　夜是暧昧而绵延的，我们从来无法言之凿凿地说出夜之来临与离去的准确时间。夜也是确切而不可抗拒的，“太阳照常升起”，夜晚也从不缺席。夜是一种复合的时空状态，有些光线、温度、声音乃至心境只属于夜，也由此，夜与夜不同，海上的夜、林中的夜与城市的夜并不相同，而或许只有城市中的夜，才是大多数当代人所熟悉的夜：城市作为人之所处的物理空间，夜成为一段特定的心理时间。

　　夜的暧昧与确切也是王强绘画的暧昧与确切。王强的绘画往往处在抽象与具象之间，给人一种既熟悉，却也朦胧而疏离的感受。这样一种感受，来源于画面中不远不近的视角，一种观望的姿态，似乎画家与其对象总是保持着一段止于礼的距离；也来源于画家的罩染式绘画中所提供的某种几近“失焦”般的微妙视觉：在整体上可被辨析的具体形象唤起着观者切身的经验与记忆，而难以捕获的具体细节则赋予了画面更类似于梦境的质感。

　　《熟悉的夜》是与展览同名的系列绘画，王强在作品中描绘了一系列夜幕初降后，办公楼宇内外的情境——每一个都市人最熟悉不过的景象。天色虽已暗淡，但不至于漆黑。画面暗部的窗格冷峻且深邃，并潜藏着诸多变化而流动的细节，仿佛暗示了夜的蠢蠢欲动。与之相对应的，是办公楼窗格内大多昏黄而显温暖的内部空间，似乎给予了仍未停歇的都市人一丝温暖的慰藉。屋内的人们身处不同的房间，有的向外眺望，有的伏于案头，尽管模糊的面部让我们无法确知他们此刻的心情，但是或端拿着烟的手，或微微倾斜的身姿，让我们感到他们心事重重。几何线条形塑的框架、透视像是城市中无处不在的规则、限制，并于画面结构中给予了房屋内小局部的纵深感，更暗示了楼宇内未尽的故事和未明的心情。

　　而更进一步地，这种“熟悉的夜”的状态被画家凝练为某种超越了夜的特定时间段的存在，以来源于个体的经验以及集体无意识，整体性地弥漫在其绘画中。即便是那些描绘艳阳高照的午间（《白昼》），甚或是难以辨别时间的、由强烈闪光捕获的日常生活细节（《小办公室》、《等待》等）的作品中，观者同样能感受到静谧、克制、冷峻与不安等与“夜”同频的复杂体验。

　　王强，1971年出生于中国北京。1997年在中央美术学院版画系获得学士学位，2004年在杜塞尔多夫艺术学院获得Meisterschluele & Akademiebrief学位。近期的个展包括：熟悉的夜，空白空间，北京，中国（2021）；诗人的冬天，空白空间，北京，中国（2017）；陌生的城，空白空间，北京，中国（2015）。近期的群展包括：介入与再造——当代绘画的图像方式，广东美术馆，广州，中国（2020）；漫游者之歌，空白空间，北京，中国（2019）。王强现生活和工作于北京。

We are pleased to announce that Wang Qiang’s fifth solo exhi-bi-tion will open at WHITE SPACE (Caochang-di) on Novem-ber 27, 2021, and run through Jan-u-ary 16, 2022. This exhi-bi-tion will present Wang Qiang’s recent new paint-ings.

The night is ambigu-ous and pro-longed, and we can nev-er say with cer-tain-ty the exact time of its arrival and depar-ture. The night is also def-i-nite and irre-sistible, “the sun ris-es as usu-al,” and the night is nev-er absent. Night com-pounds time and space. Some light, tem-per-a-ture, sound, and even state of mind belong only to the night. Each night is unique. A night at sea, a night in the for-est and a night in the city are not the same. Per-haps only the one in the city is famil-iar to most con-tem-po-raries: the city as the phys-i-cal space where peo-ple live, night con-tains a spe-cif-ic psy-cho-log-i-cal time.

The ambi-gu-i-ty and exac-ti-tude of the night also char-ac-ter-ize Wang Qiang’s paint-ings. Wang Qiang’s works on can-vas, sit-u-at-ed between abstrac-tion and fig-u-ra-tion, ren-der a sense of famil-iar-i-ty and bewil-der-ing detach-ment. Such a sense comes from the not-too-dis-tant per-spec-tive in the pic-ture. It main-tains the ges-ture of look-ing, dic-tat-ed by the painter’s medi-at-ed dis-tance to his sub-ject, pre-serves cer-tain polite-ness. It also comes from the almost “out-of-focus” sub-tle vision pro-vid-ed by the painter’s homoge-nous tone, where the dis-cernible con-crete images as a whole while the blur-ry details offer the pic-tures a more dream-like qual-i-ty.

Wang Qiang depicts a series of scenes inside and out-side office build-ings after night-fall in Acquaint-ed with the Night, a series of works on can-vas with the epony-mous title as the exhi-bi-tion. In these most famil-iar scenes to every urban dweller, the sky is dim but not dark. The dark win-dow-panes seem uninvit-ing and pro-found, with many shift-ing and flow-ing details lurk-ing in the back-ground as if hint-ing at the dread-ful move-ment in the night. In con-trast, the inte-ri-or space of the office build-ing, which is gen-tly lit, seems to offer a touch of warmth and com-fort to the urban res-i-dents who have yet to repose. The fig-ures inside are in dif-fer-ent rooms, some look-ing out, some work-ing on their desks. How-ev-er, their faces may be indis-tinct for us to know what their exact feel-ings are at the moment, but the hands hold-ing the cig-a-rettes, or the slight-ly lean-ing pos-ture, led us in on their pre-oc-cu-pa-tion. The geo-met-ric lines shap-ing the frame and per-spec-tive remind one of the ubiq-ui-tous rules and restric-tions in the urban envi-ron-ment and add par-tial depth to the room’s inte-ri-or space, under-scor-ing the unfin-ished sto-ries and unex-plained moods inside the build-ing.

Fur-ther-more, the artist con-densed this state of Acquaint-ed with the Night into a tem-po-ral exis-tence beyond any spe-cif-ic moment in the night, which holis-ti-cal-ly per-vades his paint-ings, draw-ing on indi-vid-ual expe-ri-ences and the col-lec-tive uncon-scious. Even the works depict-ing sun-ny mid-day (Day-light), or an indis-tin-guish-able moment where details of dai-ly life are cap-tured by intense flash-es of light (Small Office, Wait-ing, etc.), the view-er would grasp the vibrat-ing res-o-nance of silence, restraint, cold-ness, and uneasi-ness one iden-ti-fies with the “night.”

Wang Qiang (b.1971, Bei-jing, Chi-na) received his BFA from the Print-mak-ing Depart-ment of the Cen-tral Acad-e-my of Fine Arts (CAFA) in 1997. In 2004, he obtained his Mas-ter’s degree (i.e. Meis-ter-schüler) at the Düs-sel-dorf Acad-e-my of Fine Arts. Recent solo exhi-bi-tions include Acquaint-ed with the Night, WHITE SPACE, Bei-jing, Chi-na (2021); The Poet-’s Win-ter, WHITE SPACE, Bei-jing, Chi-na (2017); Fremde Stadt, WHITE SPACE, Bei-jing, Chi-na (2015). Recent group exhi-bi-tion includes Inter-ven-tion and Rede-vel-op-ment: The Imagery Means of Con-tem-po-rary Art, Guang-dong Muse-um of Art, Guangzhou, Chi-na (2020); A White Space Odyssey, WHITE SPACE, Bei-jing, Chi-na (2019). Wang Qiang cur-rent-ly lives and works in Bei-jing.

艺术家介绍

王强

　　王强的绘画经过抽象和极简主义的提炼，理性地建构出具有个人独特风格的现代艺术理念。现实生活中的色彩被提亮提纯，压缩简化，其作品可信的现场感和清凉的通透感，使得画面中不可思议地流动着空气，呈现出比过去或未来更加扑朔迷离的感官体验。

　　王强，1971年出生于中国北京。1997年在中央美术学院版画系获得学士学位，2004年在杜塞尔多夫艺术学院获得Meisterschluele & Akademiebrief 学位。近期的个展包括：熟悉的夜，空白空间，北京，中国（2021）；诗人的冬天，空白空间，北京，中国（2017）；陌生的城，空白空间，北京，中国（2015）。近期的群展包括：介入与再造——当代绘画的图像方式，广东美术馆，广州，中国（2020）；漫游者之歌，空白空间，北京，中国（2019）。王强现生活和工作在北京。

WANG QIANG

Wang Qiang’s paint-ing skills were honed through abstrac-tion and min-i-mal-ism. He ratio-nal-ly con-structs mod-ern artis-tic notions with a unique indi-vid-ual style. In his works the col-ors of real life are bright-ened and puri-fied, com-pressed and sim-pli-fied. An cred-i-ble sense of live, on-the-spot pres-ence and a refresh-ing sense of trans-parence inject an incred-i-ble flow of air into the pic-ture, demon-strat-ing a sen-so-ry expe-ri-ence that’s even more bewil-der-ing than the past or the future.

Wang Qiang (b. 1971, Bei-jing, Chi-na) received his BFA from the Print-mak-ing Depart-ment of the Cen-tral Acad-e-my of Fine Arts (CAFA) in 1997. In 2004, he obtained his Mas-ter’s degree (i.e. Meis-ter-schüler) at the Düs-sel-dorf Acad-e-my of Fine Arts. Recent solo exhi-bi-tions include Acquaint-ed with the Night, WHITE SPACE, Bei-jing, Chi-na (2021); The Poet-’s Win-ter, WHITE SPACE, Bei-jing, Chi-na (2017); Fremde Stadt, WHITE SPACE, Bei-jing, Chi-na (2015). Recent group exhi-bi-tion includes Inter-ven-tion and Rede-vel-op-ment: The Imagery Means of Con-tem-po-rary Art, Guang-dong Muse-um of Art, Guangzhou, Chi-na (2020); A White Space Odyssey, WHITE SPACE, Bei-jing, Chi-na (2019). Wang Qiang cur-rent-ly lives and works in Bei-jing.

白昼 Daytime 2019 丙烯亚麻布 acrylic on canvas 179.5x270cm 图片由艺术家和空白空间提供 Courtesy the artist and WHITE SPACE

车站 Station 2021 丙烯亚麻布 acrylic on canvas 148x250cm 图片由艺术家和空白空间提供 Courtesy the artist and WHITE SPACE

等待 Waiting 2021 丙烯亚麻布 acrylic on canvas 60x53 cm 图片由艺术家和空白空间提供 Courtesy the artist and WHITE SPACE

东方明珠 Pearl of the Orient 2021 丙烯亚麻布 acrylic on canvas 186×180cm 图片由艺术家和空白空间提供 Courtesy the artist and WHITE SPACE

南方车站 Southern Station 2020 丙烯亚麻布 acrylic on canvas 109×190cm 图片由艺术家和空白空间提供 Courtesy the artist and WHITE SPACE

熟悉的夜| Acquainted with the Night 2019 丙烯亚麻布 acrylic on canvas 166×170cm 图片由艺术家和空白空间提供 Courtesy the artist and WHITE SPACE

斜阳 Sunset 2021 丙烯亚麻布 acrylic on canvas 100x69 cm 图片由艺术家和空白空间提供 Courtesy the artist and WHITE SPACE

北京