Peng Zhang | WARP #3

About

Zhang's memories are his treasures that offer opportunities to reconnect to the past that cannot be experienced anymore, but that can be recalled via his artworks. They are the mementos of times when our activities were dictated by the rhythm of nature, when we relied on our own abilities and the strength of community, and shared the knowledge from generation to generation. Peng Zhang is the third artist to present his work in WARP, the new program with regional artists in the showcase of the SEA Foundation in Tilburg.

Re-growing the memories

Contemporary artist Peng Zhang uses the fields or an allotment Paradise Garden NO.28 (2019) as his artist studio, working with natural low-tech materials and the garden space to reveal his memories. Zhang calls himself a farmer artist – to him the land is just another kind of canvas. Working materials or pigments originate from nature and his inspiration is grounded in rural life, which reflects the simplicity and earthness into his artworks. Peng Zhang does not consider himself an environmental artist, although we might find similar aesthetics in the works of those who place great importance to Ecology. His process comes from thinking through doing. Via collection of his childhood memories, Zhang digs in the soil and regrows what is becoming forgotten. 

Peng Zhang

Peng Zhang is a Chinese artist based in ’s-Hertogenbosch. In 2018, Peng Zhang obtained a Master in Fine Arts from AKV/St-Joost Art Academy in ’s-Hertogenbosch. Prior to coming to the Netherlands, he was trained as a painter at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, China. Zhang’s work brings the viewer into the rural village Shijian Cun where Zhang spent his childhood. His memories are his treasures that offer opportunities to reconnect to the past that cannot be experienced anymore, but that can be recalled via Zhang’s artworks. His most recent works relate to land art and earthworks.

WARP

WARP is a curated project that exhibits works of art in the restricted space of SEA Foundation’s vitrine. The aim of WARP is to establish a portfolio of regional and national artists and interlink the project with the successful international artist in residence program. WARP is borrowing its name from a term that is widely used in the textile tradition. Warp is setting the direction of the threads when weaving. Warp threads run vertically and provide structure to the woof; the weft threads that are being wrapped around the warp. Organizations like SEA Foundation resemble the warp: a collection of threads being stretched in place presenting a frame and a given direction. For WARP we invite artists to produce new works and to draw their practice over and under like the weft threads. The result is a fabric made through collaboration, experiment, skills, and trust. Other artists presented in WARP in 2020 are Sabine de Graaf, Lisette de Greeuw and Risja Steeghs.

Exhibition dates: 16.10.2020 - 15.11.2020

Artist: Peng Zhang

Venue: SEA Foundation, Tivolistraat 22, 5017HP Tilburg

Opening Hours: open 24/7

SEA Foundation

SEA Foundation (SEA) is an institution for contemporary fine art, based in Tilburg, with an international approach. SEA focuses on the development of the practice and network of professional artists, curators and writers aged from 25 and over. In the collaboration with these professionals, SEA Foundation acts in service to their practices that are under the radar of institutional and commercial frameworks, where the focus is on creating new content. 

The Foundation is a provider of residencies, as well as a presentation space. However, the residenties are the core activity.  Furthermore, SEA initiates and coordinates a discursive year program, which consists of events like talks, film screenings, book presentations and lectures. SEA Foundation is distinguished by it’s big international network, homely framing and artists-focused approach.