13854C
Zheng Haozhong
郑皓中
Production date
2016
Object Detail
Media
oil paint, spray paint and watercolour on canvas
Measurements
200 x 150 cm
Notes
Zheng Haozhong’s paintings have described as ‘audaciously bare-boned’ – they verge on pure abstraction and then we are pulled back into a sense of real space and time with just the barest hint of a figure or a landscape. The frail, insubstantial female subjects of paintings such as ‘13854C’ represent the artist’s sense of social alienation and the fragility of human connections. His technique of representing human figures with fluid, coloured outlines or areas of spray paint against a blank background represents a form of societal blankness, an absence or even a vacuum. Here, the sleeping figure, with bare feet outlined in red and discarded boots outlined in black, is a ghostly presence: he or she may be a real individual, or they may be a figment of the artist’s imagination. Zheng works quickly and spontaneously in the studio, painting multiple canvases simultaneously. He cites British painters Lucien Freud and David Hockney, and the Irish Francis Bacon, as among the artists he most admires; their influence is evident, yet Zheng Haozhong has created a visual syntax that is entirely his own.
Accession number
2019.066