开幕式艺术家与嘉宾合影
自左至右：艺术家韦蓉、艺术家金锋、艺术家李辰
“观·注——李辰、韦蓉双展览”于2016年10月14日周五下午3点在北京798艺术区久画廊开幕。本次展览展出了李辰、韦蓉两位艺术家近年来创作的三十余件新作，两位艺术家不同时期的作品也将同时在中央美术学院展厅开展。展览由久画廊、中央美术学院主办，中央美术学院壁画系协办。策展人李捷。
著名批评家王端廷从艺术家李辰、韦蓉作为中央美术学院附中的同学一路走来，其间的情谊是两位艺术家展览的底色。
展览开幕式现场
对于此次展览艺术家李辰说：“韦蓉和我曾在少年时一起接受完整并严格的学院式基本功训练，时至今日，我们的作品都依赖于使用自己拍摄的图片，用一种具象的方式在表达，但态度与方式完全不同。
韦蓉几乎十几年如一日的刻意用拍摄的不刻意的日常瞬间照片为绘画素材和“模特”，以此获得一个“日常的”心态去对待艺术，画画过程也就随之成为一种自然而然的日常工作状态，在她那里时间仿佛是停顿的。
而我更渴望艺术中的“仪式感”和非日常状态，我在制作作品过程中不拘于使用什么样的材料和方式，满足我有态度有角度的选择对象，她们是我注视世界的眼睛，这样的过程使得我的态度与时间一起停留在作品里。
这些年，我们都各自沉淀在生活里，实在而且具体，韦蓉用冷眼旁观的状态注视着这个嘈杂世界，而我则从一个注视者的角度，表达着对这个世界的关切与关注。”
<p>策展人李捷在展览现场说：“我在李辰、韦蓉的作品中看到伟大的单纯与质朴。如果说，人类学家采用视觉艺术手段，是为了更好地完成客观的记录;那么李辰和韦蓉则在与照片面的对话中构建自我。她们是在书写‘他者’，也是在此过程中寻找自己精神的家园，寻找自我身份的认同。”
展览现场
著名艺术家陈文骥对两位艺术家作品讲道：“韦蓉和李辰最早成就于九十年代初那个在艺术界曾引起大家关注的《女画家的世界》画展上，当时她们还年轻，但艺术才华已彰显无遗。时光流逝二十多年过去，她们在艺术的途程中时明时暗，但至今依然保持在自己的作画状态中，始终不懈。”
韦蓉、李辰于20世纪70年代末同时就读于中央美术学院附中，90年代初开始在艺术界崭露头角，时至今日成为中国具象绘画的代表人物之一二。两位艺术家既是生活中的好友，也是艺术中的好友。从两位艺术家互画的作品中观众可以感受到两位艺术家相互间的无关地域、时间距离的深切关注。(李辰和韦蓉同时于1987年开始艺术教学，韦蓉自2008年作为自由艺术家旅居香港，李辰仍然在中央美院壁画系教学至今)
李辰的画面形象从容、细腻中透露着极简，配以对于材料得当的处理与不断尝试，使她的作品有了一种更为开放性的表达。运用材料而不拘泥于材料，忠于作品真实的内容与情感，通过画面中人物、对象的状态表达着艺术家观注世界的方式。
韦蓉则一向坚持她照相写实主义的创作手法，在这种理性，客观的创作方式中融入女性细腻的观察方式与情感，使画面在形象写实的同时，更记录着情感与经历的信息。看似纯客观的“书写”，却使得观者不由得窥见艺术家感性的内心世界。
两位艺术家绘画语言与风格的相似与非似，生活经历的异同，几十年如一日的对于创作的执着与真诚，对客观对象看似绝对客观的真实主观流露，造就了此次双展览的产生，也是对中国现当代具象绘画的代表性梳理。
据悉，798久画廊将于9月26号开始预展，10月14日15:00正式开幕，展览持续至11月15日。中央美院展厅将于10月14日开展，展览持续至10月23。
Li,Chen and Wei,Rong are the representatives of Chinese female artists, who carry out realistic paintings by taking photos as the media (hereinafter refer to as the photo painting). With the emergence of a large number of "contemporaries" or even "outdated" concepts, installation, and performance art, the painting language is more placed in the context of "being questioned" than ever before.
A common misconception about photo painting is that it is only such a work that is finished by an artist, which can be, or even be done better with a camera. On the contrary, "mechanical" reproduction is not to reproduce it again with a machine. As Walter Benjamin revealed in The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, there is a boundary between the photo and painting that we cannot cross. Here is not what I want to emphasize: Compared with the painting, the photo is completed in a moment, which can be mechanically copied through a film. Both photo and painting need the spark between mind and object. However, because of hours, days, or even years of intervention by the artists’ hands, the completion of a photo painting can never be done by a photo. The photos are chosen to describe in detail by the artist. It seems that they are only "copying" an object, but this kind of description has no any emotion. As shown in the narrative of "zero degree writing", it has a profound insight. Through the heart - hand description, their eyes have already exceeded the chemical deposition or photosensitive pixels shown by the camera.
Restore the people and objects of photos to their own structure, or create a deliberate tone to make it presented in the picture more clearly. As Wei,Rong said, the reason why I choose photos as the materials lies in the fact that deliberate moment shows the truth, which is different from the perfect subjective reality created by the artists in the traditional art. Even it is a purely objective sketch, objects will be unnatural and unreal because of the long-term observe. Therefore, this kind of creation is the best way for my aesthetic, which is also comfortable and convenient. The way of my creation is not ended with photo, but taking a long time to reproduce photo, because I love painting language. I shall not choose such photos that just look like photography. My work is so-called "anti traditional painting aesthetic and anti traditional photography aesthetic."
It is destined that the "authenticity" of the photo painting makes it have power in itself. Moreover, in this era of “abstract” and “concept”, we have forgotten the "aesthetic" and how to present the "aesthetic" for a long time. In the ancient Greek legend, the grape painted by Zeuxis was so vivid that the birds came to peck it. It seems like Arabian Nights in our eyes, but it is the legend of origin that belongs to the art of painting, and it is the foundation. The return to concretization is also the return to the origin of painting. After all, it is also the return to the call of life and the return to the original heart. "When I try to stand elsewhere to observe the academy of fine arts, I often see my own passiveness and stiffness. The cave paintings of Chinese Buddhism and the early arts of European Medieval and Renaissance have become my spiritual homeland -- they extremely restrain introversion in the spirit, while the purpose and function are purely simple, and the vision and form are simple and direct. The realistic art that is for the purpose of reproducing cannot be compared. However, the difference of region, nation, and civilization forms the ultimate goal and the attitude of two religions that are seemingly close but have the huge difference. Who am I, what to do, why, and how to do? Human civilization is just like the river that flows through the hearts and bodies of each of us, and we are no longer the original ourselves, nor the river is the original river until....... In this process, we pick up and put down constantly, and then put down again. This is my attitude and position at the moment, which is always filled with all kinds of confusion." The self-narration of Li, Chen. Li,Chen has experienced the replacement of work themes after being graduated in 1987, which was from the "flowers" to "people", as well as the replacement of painting materials. We can see that she pays more and more attention to the use of contour and line, which can clearly define the boundaries of shape and color. She does not use the unreal light to make from three-dimensional effects, and she also tends to use contour and lines in the aspects of styles. The simple Chinese face seeks the spiritual sense from material poverty. Li, Chen persistently improves her pursuit to the art in the surging tide of western contemporary art.
Li,Chen’s and Wei,Rong's works seem to reproduce the objects fully at a first sight, but we can see the author's subjective will if we look more in detail. To be more exact, it is subjective understanding and imagination of each observer with different life experiences. We have to say that classical realism has exerted great influence on them, and different people have the different understanding of the "aesthetic". If we recognize the aesthetic of portrait painting of Francesca and Ming dynasty of China, Li,Chen’s and Wei,Rong's works are above the traditional subjective "aesthetic" and more accurately convey the objective "aesthetic". If the anthropologists use the visual arts to better complete the objective notice, then the two artists construct themselves in the dialogue with photos. Through such a photo painting between the objective and subjective way of painting, the restraint and introvert in the spirit and the function of the objectives lie in the visual form of the original simplicity. They are traveling between the different lives of others. In the constant self-image and reflection and in such a perplexing optical transformation like a camera, city noise seems to become a new Buddha cave and shrine. The prolonged depiction for the moment of the flow life makes their works appear to be scriveners of scripture in the twenty-first century. They are “writing” "others", finding their own spiritual homes in this process, and looking for their self-identity.
The aesthetic of the language in the photo painting is not defined by the "likeness" and "unlikeness". No matter it is Wei, Rong’s works that reveal the solemn and objective features, or Li,Chen’s works that are the minimalism of concrete, the use of cold grey tone in their works expresses the fact that even the two artists and friends live in different places and have different experiences in the past few decades, they all face the world from the objective "cold detachment" of bystanders. Some people think that what Li, Chen’s and Wei, Rong’s photo paintings fight against is the author’s subjective passion in the traditional realistic painting. They use the mechanical method to create cold and aloof style and reflect the lack of human kindness as well as the human alienation. There are comments that Li, Chen’s and Wei,Rong's works describe the surrounding people and things, and reveal another extreme emotion in a simple, concrete and solemn painting language.
The observer knows.
Observe and gaze: Li,Chen, Wei,Rong.