ZHOU JIRONG

The work of talented print-maker Zhou Jirong is inspired by the urban landscape of Beijing and by his own experience of life in the city. In the 1990s, he created realistic prints that reflected the transformation of cities during China’s period of drastic modernization: street scenes, isolated facades of ancient buildings, hutongs and doorways being torn down to make way for modern development. Recently, however, his style has moved towards abstraction and a calmer mood. His beautiful, soft-coloured silkscreen prints depict the city at dusk. There is a suggestion of brightness and splendour in the distance, but in the immediate vicinity objects are difficult to identify in the hazy twilight. Only the street lamps are legible landmarks between earth and sky.

Zhou Jirong, a graduate of the prestigious Central Academy of Fine Arts’ Printmaking Department, of which he is now Deputy Director, has made a significant breakthrough in his experimentation with the language and form of printmaking. He has adopted silkscreen on canvas as his chosen medium, combining it with the composition of traditional Chinese scroll paintings which he admires. The resulting works resemble oil paintings with their subtle harmony of muted colours and well-ordered composition. Whereas his earlier realistic work conveyed a sense of loss and displacement in the urban environment, his present canvases are more serene and have a subtle dream-like quality.