Fictional Symbol marks the Nordic debut of the young Chinese artist Li Gang (b. 1986), who takes pre-existing raw elements and reworks them into wholly new forms and volumes. He is fasicnated with the process of combining disparate elements and invoking a dynamic of uncertainty between them. The inherent tension built into his art is born from contrasts between opposing materials: the synthetic and the organic, the mundane and the sublime.
The airy installations featured in the exhibition fuse together precious jade and industrial rebar used for reinforcing concrete. Featured alongside these sculptures is a selection of oil paintings on hand-made canvas. Li Gang is always looking for new ways of presenting familiar environments in a fresh, surprising light. By combining a variety of media, the artist keeps his work in a constant state of flux, which forms an overarching theme in his oeuvre.
Originally trained as an oil painter, Li Gang’s highly inventive works occupy a borderland somewhere between painting, sculpture and installation. Not wanting to define his place or role within any artistic legacy or existing tradition, Li Gang uses art as a vehicle for conveying his unique and personal responses to his environment.
Li Gang studied art in his hometown, Dali, and at the Peking Central Academy of Fine Arts. His work has been exhibited widely around the world at venues such as Art Basel Miami Beach, the Moscow Biennial and the Fondation Louis Vuitton Museum in Paris. The artist lives and works in Beijing.