Elfi TURPIN, independent curator and critic about Ren Han:
Ren Han is developing a drawing praxis. He works almost solely with lead pencil-a technique whose visual properties he is methodically exploring. So his wall drawings involve huge panoramas wavering between abstract landscape and cartography. Made on the basis of photographs, these drawings usually borrow an assemblage of liquid expanses: lakes, rivers, waterfalls. The line work here refers to the idea of movement and fluidity, while the reflections of the metallic rendering of the graphite conjure up an aquatic surface. If the spectator’s movements alter the drawing’s reflections, the loss of the notion of scale emphasized by the size of the void, and thus of the negative space, renders our reading more complex. The marks which we think we are looking at possibly form an archipelago, which might be just an estuary, depending on whether we are looking at the metalized appearance of the drawing, or its absence. These different issues are incidentally at work in smaller formats, like a series of baroque mirrors where Han Ren keeps just the reflecting surface, opting, this time, for a covering that results from the application of a repetitive gesture; a concentric line lending a sort of introspective dynamic to the form.
Ren Han CV:
1984 Born in Tianjin, China,
Currently lives and works in Tianjin
Ren Han: Untitled 13a01:
Ren Han: Labyrinth
Ren Han: Mirror
Ren Han: Snow Mountain
Ren Han: Soft Impact
Ren Han: Water Landscape
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2014
– Emulating Nature, C-Space, Beijing, China
2012
– Studiolo #2, Less Is More Projects, Paris, France
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2015
– Beyond Background – Art Approaching Architecture, Xiannong Pop-Up Gallery, Tianjin, China
– New Beginnings, Waldorf Astoria, Beijing, China
– 24 Art Project – Naissance, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
2014
– Daily Uneasy – Jinan International Photography Biennial Experimental Section, Art Museum of Shandong University of Art & Design, Jinan, China
– Ruins 2012/2014 – Space Regeneration Projects, Melchiorstraße 10,Frankfurt, Germany
– Look Into the Far Horizon – New Voices of Chinese Contemporary Art, Musée des Arts Asiatiques, Nice, France
– Enclave – Space Regeneration Projects #7, Former Fire Station, Beijing, China
– New Horizon, 798 Art Center, Beijing, China
– To The Lighthouse, EGG Space, Dalian, China
– Discovery Through Making: The Process in Art #1, BTTI International Art Exchange Center, Tianjin, China
– Paper·Being, Tianjin Art Museum, Tianjin, China
2013
– Christmas Stories, Less Is More Projects, Paris, France
– Not There, Space Regeneration Project, Site of PAE, Beijing, China
– ART021 – Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair, C-Space, NIB Rockbund, Shanghai, China
– Unboundedness, China Cultural Center in Berlin, Berlin, Germany
– ABC, Austrian Embassy in China, Beijing, China
– Consciousness – Exhibition of Tianjin Contemporary Artists, Tianjin Art Museum, Tianjin, China
– Contemporary Spirituality, Eglise Saint-Louis de l’hôpital de la Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris, France
– A Cook Is Not A Good Painter If He Cannot Paint, Save 42 Space, Tianjin, China
– DDessin[13], Atelier Richelieu, Paris, France
– Zero Gravity, Less Is More Projects, Paris, France
– Pass, Back Yard + Space Regeneration Project (SRP), Some, Zibo, China
– Are You OK, Space Regeneration Project (SRP), Jiangshan pharmaceutical factory, Tianjin, China
2012
– We Love You, Less Is More Projects, Paris, France
– New Directions: Young Chinese Contemporary Artists, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, Russia
– Apartement # Special – FIAC, Apartement – Gallery Dakota, Paris, France
– Boom!, Exhibition of China Young Artists Project（CYAP), Beijing Guanghua5 Art Exhibition Space, Beijing, China
– Chic Drawing, Atelier Richelieu, Paris, France
– Lightness, Less is More Projects, Paris, France
2011
– Jeune Création 2011, CENTQUATRE, Paris, France
– Art protects, Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris, France
– Tomorrow is far, Galerie de la Marine and Villa Arson, Nice, France
– FID 2011 – the 3rd edition International Fair of Drawing, International City of Arts, Paris, France
2005
– Beijing Documenta – Pleasure Production, Suojiacun Art Zone, Beijing, China
2004
– Independent Film Festival – Scarification, Beijing/ Tianjin/ Chongqing/ Hangzhou/ Suzhou/ Xi’an, China
– Juji – Exhibition of Young Artists, Today Art Museum and Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
Formations
2008 – 2011
DNSEP (MFA) With Honors
National Superior School of Art at the Villa Arson, Nice,
France
2002 – 2006
BFA
Department of Oil Painting, Academy of Fine Arts Tianjin,
China