上海—《童年幻像》，李天兵在中国的首次绘画个展将于2010年9月4号到10月5在对比窗艺廊举行， 地址上海江西中路181号1楼。

李天兵的绘画萦绕于不同的时空，游离于往昔的记忆和对近期中国社会历史敏锐洞察之间。艺术家1974年出生在中国桂林，他的画面富于诗意。他说自己的创作就是“真实与幻象的融合”。

李天兵以老照片作为他创作的源泉，模仿它们的模糊褪色，细微的色调和画面上的黑色斑驳。然而他的作品并非写实主义照片，而是他对自己的孩提时代的呼唤，那个身为独生子女的他，以及现时中国正在经历着的巨大变化。李天兵的画面流畅，他把照片和更加明亮的单色系的图片或新的人物形象重叠，这一融合改变了原来的照片。在李天兵看来，油画是一种可以把“私人、亲密、 当下和回忆”等特征溶合在一起的理想媒材，通过“将物像逐渐呈现出来的过程...个人现象” 。

李天兵的作品既反映了他从过去中逐渐恢复，也折射了他的多元文化经历， 包括他在巴黎的求学，在那里，他持有一间工作室。尽管李天兵已经在纽约、法国、瑞士已广泛展出过他的作品，这次却是他首次在中国的画廊举办个展。

李天兵的过往作品，淋漓尽致的体现了文化的二元性和他作为独生子女在成长过程中所经历的孤单。他常常描绘自己与幻想中的兄弟。在这次展览中，李天兵将继续对他的记忆进行探索，在同一幅画面中展现当下和正在快速消逝的过去，即童年的幻像。    

这次展览中有几件作品讲述儿童的战争游戏。作品《大字报前的战斗》 Bataille devant la Propagande (Battle In Front of the Propaganda) 中一群青少年手里持着枪站在墙前，墙上布满不同时期商业促销广告和政治标语。作品体现了艺术家对媒体控制的关注。

无论是‘70年代’的大字报还是‘当今’的商业宣传。画面以战斗的形式表现儿童的反应。作品《田野上的绿色战斗》Bataille Verte sur le Champs (Green Battle on the Field)中， 一群幽灵般的儿童士兵，一些灰色，一些绿色，暗示征服社会压力和抵抗冲动相似动态。《广告看板前的自画像》 Autoportrait devant le Tableau d'affichage (Self-Portrait in Front of Bulletin Board) 是年幼的艺术家（七十年代) 站在当下的广告牌前，而广告牌上的内容已悄悄地被当下的社会争端议题所置换。

在展览中，李天兵将展出在不同年龄，不同背景下的自己： 《梦－工作室》 Rêve-Atelier (Dream-Studio) 和《画室里的绿色自画像》Autoportrait Vert dans L’atelier (Green Self-Portrait in the Studio) 两幅作品都展现了他在巴黎的工作室，也就是这两幅作品的诞生地。两幅作品都以孩童时的艺术家的透明脸庞为主，透过脸庞可以看见立于其上的房间。

《自画像－故乡》Autoportrait-Campagne(Self-Portrait-Countryside) 的创作灵感来自李天兵最近探访家乡桂林之旅—艺术家在中国的出生地。《梦－剧场》 Rêve-Théâtre(Dream-Theatre) 基于一个老剧院的回忆。《高音喇叭》 Haut-Parleurs(Loudspeakers) 是到处充斥着扩音器的一座红色城市和一个儿童巨大的绿色脸庞，画面中他捂着耳朵。它反映了一个被噪音和标语充斥另人窒息的社会。《生活在树上 》Vivre sur l'arbre (Living in a Tree)一个男孩被描绘成一位旧中国隐士， 因外面的世界排斥而选择了住在树上远离社会,这是他保护自己的唯一方式。《森林里的绿色自画像》Autoportrait Vert Avec La forêt (Green Self-portrait in Forest), 则是跨越时空， 童年的艺术家自己被置放在一西方常见的森林雪景之中。

关于李天兵

童年时便精于艺术的李天兵，在中国接受了传统技法和西方现实主义的训练。李天兵完成在北京国际关系学院的学习后，继续到巴黎国立高等美术学院学习油画，2002年毕业。李天兵的作品， 同其他当代中国画家一起，反映了当今中国存在的一系列二元性：东方与西方，共产主义和资本主义，古代文化与现代消费主义。

SHANGHAI–Childhood Fantasy, Li Tianbing’s first solo exhibition in China featuring his latest paintings, will be on view at Contrasts Gallery, No 181 Middle Jiangxi Road, G/F, Shanghai, China September 4-October 5, 2010.

Li Tianbing’s paintings are haunted by memory and an acute awareness of recent Chinese social history.  The artist, who was born in Guilin, China in 1974, creates poetic images where, in his words, “reality and fiction are mixed together.”

While Li uses old photographs as the source of his works, mimicking their blurred focus, subtle tonalities and surface blemishes, his work is not Photo-Realism.  The work evokes both Li’s own childhood, as an only child, and the great changes that China is currently undergoing.  He paints fluidly, allowing the evidence of his hand to show, and transforms photographs by melding them with other images or new figures, painted in brighter monochrome colors.  Oil painting, in the artist’s words, is the ideal medium to merge “privacy, intimacy, currency and memory all together, in the process of gradually visualizing...personal phenomenon.”

Li Tianbing’s paintings reflect both his recovery of the past and his cross-cultural experiences, including studying painting in Paris, where he maintains a studio.  Although Li has shown his paintings extensively in New York, France and Switzerland, this is his first gallery exhibition in China.

In the past, Li has created paintings that evoke cultural duality and the isolation he felt growing up due to China’s one-child policy.  He has often depicted himself with images of fictional brothers.  In this exhibition, Li continues his exploration of memories, layering the present and the rapidly disappearing past in a single image, a childhood fantasy.

The exhibition includes a number of works that depict war games played by children.  Bataille devant la Propagande (Battle in front of the Propaganda) depicts a group of children carrying guns, standing in front of a wall filled with commercial promotions mixed with political slogans from different times.  The work reflects the artist’s concern with

media control – both the propaganda of the ‘70s and today’s commercial promotions and publicity.  The painting embodies the children’s reaction in the form of war.  Bataille Verte sur les Champs (Green Battle on the Field) illustrates a group of ghostly child soldiers, some gray, some green, implying a similar dynamic of overwhelming societal pressures and the impulse to resist them.  Autoportrait devant le Tableau d'affichage (Self-Portrait in front of Bulletin Board) illustrates the young artist (from the ‘70s) standing in front of a contemporary bulletin board.  The bulletin board’s contents have been replaced by messages referring to various present-day heated social issues. 

In the exhibition, Li paints himself at different ages and in various backgrounds: Rêve-Atelier (Dream-Studio) and Autoportrait Vert dans L’atelier (Green Self-Portrait in the Studio) both feature his Paris studio where he created the two paintings.  Both works are dominated by the transparent face of the artist as a young boy, through which we can see the room beyond. 

Autoportrait-Campagne (Self-Portrait-Countryside) was inspired by Li’s recent trip to Guilin, his birthplace in China.  Rêve-Théátre (Dream-Theatre) is based on a memory of an old theater and Haut-Parleurs (Loudspeakers) is a vision of a red city with megaphones everywhere.  It reflects a society that has been suffocated by noise and propaganda.  Vivre sur l'arbre (Living in a Tree) depicts a boy as a Chinese anchorite, who has chosen to live away from society, protecting himself as an outcast from the world.  Autoportrait Vert avec la forêt (Green Self-Portrait in Forest) portrays a shift in space and time.  The young artist is placed in a snow-covered landscape of a typical western forest. 

About Li Tianbing

Excelling in art as a child, Li trained in China, both in traditional technique and Western realism.  Li completed his studies at the Institute in International Relations in Beijing before proceeding to study oil painting at the École Supérieure Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris, graduating in 2002.  Along with other contemporary Chinese painters, Li’s work reflects a series of defining dichotomies existing in China today: East and West, communism and capitalism, as well as ancient culture and modern consumerism.