面对魏青吉、钟飚和张小涛三位艺术家的作品，我需要时刻切换频道，因为这三位艺术家的创作风格、艺术语言和方法论都十分迥异，这意味着我必须既保持一种既疏离，同时又尽量客观的方式去观看和阅读他们的作品，这对于我来说无疑是一种挑战。

一个艺术家的艺术表达方式通常跟他的生存经验有关，所以魏青吉的水墨创作基本上是跟他的日常记忆和生活经验是是发生关系的，并且他希望能够通过艺术创作的方式去讨论它们之间的一种关系。过去的经验在今天和当代的社会、当下的生活会发生一种什么样的变化，它们之间有一种什么样的关系，这是魏青吉所感兴趣的。他的画面，常常选择人们最容易忽掉到的记忆，或日常图景、或文化符号，将其组合成全新的陌生化场景，而这种方式就像艺术家在画面上制造的一个个悬念，等待观众去阅读和理解。也许，对于魏青吉来说，他的作品作品绝不仅仅是为了审美，或者说审美不是他的最终目的，而是在别人觉得没有意义的地方去发现问题和意义。

钟飙早期的架上作品与传统写实绘画首先选定主题，然后再以写生来获得图像不同，他的艺术创作从来不预先设定主题，而且在创作时常常将来自现实与大众文化的图像加以并置。不过，艺术家在选择具体图像的时候，并不是将不相关的符号随意组合，而是将他自身的记忆即兴地拼在一起，并打破具象与抽象的界限，这不仅使画面有明显超现实的意味，也造成了某种“戏剧性”的对比。于是，具有鲜明时代特点或时代跨度的人物、物品、建筑及环境，被错位地交错在一起。虽然这种艺术呈现是非逻辑性的，但正好反映出当下信息和图像泛滥的一个事实。钟飙近期的新作，比如《当下》《中国梦》《物演2号》，这些作品一方面延续了他早期作品中的超现实元素，同时又有一种极强的神秘、混沌和矛盾感，作品显示了艺术家对于宇宙、时空、存在等命题的关注，在钟飙的画面里，现实世界与未知世界，过去与未来，隐形力量与显性力量，都被艺术家揉合在画面里，并创造了一个超越了直觉感官的多维世界。

新媒体艺术作为当代艺术中最前沿的活跃领域，无疑是最具当代性、综合性和实验性的，同时它也在科技手段和思想理念的最前沿领域探索推进着。新媒体艺术在跨学科领域研究审美的问题，远远超越了视觉本身和我们所触及的视觉美学范畴，它向着更深奥的在人类进化论支撑下的美学进行着探索。张小涛是国内十分活跃的新媒体艺术家，他的作品试图用“微观叙事”的图像方法去编码关于世界与个人的悖论关系，或者在作品借一些虚构的自我或他我的躯壳来观察世界，人为地建立并呈现一种“他”与周围世界的复杂关系，而更为难能可贵的是他的作品常常可以让人感受到一种中国传统文化的意蕴。

最后，祝贺展览成功举办，祝贺三位艺术家！

仇海波

2016年5月1日于野芷湖畔

Zhang Xiaotao 

Zhang Xiaotao is one of the most active and outstanding cross-media artists in neo-painting and new media experimental animation in China’s contemporary art scene. His artworks are concerned with the paradox between social change and personal spiritual history, attempting to convert the personal experiences into public experiences. His subject matter always revolve around the torment and struggle of our souls that lie beneath China’s legendary modernization. As a spectator of his paintings with his somewhat use of moody colors and brushworks, one would find herself put in a unique perspective in order to step into the space of the artist’s vision, which evokes strong emotions. Such emotions are rarely pleasant, but lead to deep thoughts that are often closely tied with Chinese social issues.

Zhong Biao

Zhong Biao’s figures in his paintings are not individuals but entities of various cultural and historical symbols. They are often put in a delicately designed environment which appear to contrast the figures themselves in a chronological or ideological way. By creating this new, controversial visual language and pictorial construction, Zhong Biao manages to conduct a parallel exploration into both the past and the future. The barrier among different times and space are broken down through the artist’s imagination, and idealized versions of “the here and now.” His adoption of realistic style bathe the images in a sharp and crisp light, making the audience unable to avoid the visual and intertwined messages.

Wei Qingji

The consistent and unique artistic style of Wei Qingji is physically impossible to ignore. He is renowned for his experiments of highly innovative representation of Chinese ink paintings. The strong and almost imposing presence of black ink with a stark outline is completely different from the spirit of traditional Chinese ink paintings, likewise as the cultural icons it constructs—it’s a clash and integration between Chinese artistic form and Western ideology. Logos of western brands such as Puma and Ferrari, iconic silhouettes of Western views such as the Hollywood mountain all fall into Wei Qingji’s frame. The precise use of shape and color leaves no mysteries to the spectators, laying out the issue of multiple dimensions of a cultural text in different environments right in our faces.