Zhou Hongbin
Zhou Hongbin investigates representation and reality, questioning what is real and what is fiction in her multi-disciplinary practice. Well known for her Habitat series, in which her digitally multiplied pet rabbit swims in a liminal body of water, Zhou Hongbin has become increasingly interested in abstraction, more recently depicting in photographs, geometric sculptures the artist made, documented, then destroyed. Born in Zhangzhou in Fujian Province, China, Zhou Hongbin completed a Bachelor of Arts at Art College of Xiamen University (2001) and a Master of Arts (in Digital Media) at China Central Academy of Fine Arts (2005). Her work was included in the landmark exhibition Minimalism: Space, Light, Object at the National Gallery Singapore in 2018 and she has exhibited regularly in China, USA and Singapore. 2020 marked the first solo exhibition of Zhou Hongbin’s work in Australia. Her work was added to the photographic collection of the Harn Museum of Art in 2022
Free From All Persistent Passion
The sudden epidemic in 2020 makes us all have to think about the unpredictable world and the fleeting life. The Beauty of the material world can be thrilling, but also a flash in the pan.
What we all want to pursue in our life and what can comfort our hearts, just as the Diamond Sutra says: “All actions are like dreams and illusions, like dew and electricity. This should be done.”
Habitat
In the "Habitat" series, Zhou Hongbin beloved pet rabbits are multiplied through digital magic, and shown swimming energetically through a mysterious watery world. It is an imaginary collage where the bunnies appear adorable in a safe, quiet, soft and clean environment “I choose to be represented by familiar pets like my own bunny to create a habitat, similar to a personal garden, utopian and self-centered, where different moments of my own life are fixed and combined in the same picture” The artist has said she intends to create “lovely and pure thoughts and avoid the conflict of reality.”
All Hard Things Will Fall
Away
The saying "all solid things will disappear eventually" comes from Marshall Berman's book "all solid things disappear", and Marx's vision of a good life in the Communist Manifesto: all levels and fixed things disappear, and all sacred things are desecrated. Nothing in this world is unchangeable. How can we break through the shackles of all material forms? Each of us has an island in our heart, and there must be a ship that will reach the other side of your heart. I hope that I can use this tiny world built by myself to "vanish" everything." Zhou Hongbin, 2018.
Still Life
“For this group of works I chose simply solid geometric figures. They solemnly standt here, forming a peaceful yet mysteriously turbulent tableau. These simple forms eepresent the most basic shape of everything, thus all things develop from these forms. Just as is stated in the Tao Te Ching: one begets two, two begets three, three begets all living things. This symbolize a cyclical process, unceasing and eternal. Then infinite possibilities for man and all things in the universe, both unique and complex. From this materialistic, exaggerated vision the artist wonders how can we return to life's most primal and original state.” Zhou Hongbin 2015
Sculptures
For this group of works, Zhou Hongbin chose simply solid geometric figures. They solemnly stand there, forming a peaceful yet mysteriously turbulent tableau. These simple forms represent the most basic shape of everything, thus all things develop from these forms. Just as is stated in the Tao Te Ching: one begets two, two begets three, three begets all living things. This symbolize a cyclical process, unceasing and eternal. The infinite possibilities for man and all things in the universe, both unique and complex. From this materialistic, exaggerated vision the artist wonders how can we return to life's most primal and original state.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
- 2023 Zhou Hongbin @ VOLTA NYC
- 2022 Zhou Hongbin, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
- 2020 Zhou Hongbin, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne Hidden Utopia: Zhou Hongbin and Miyuming, Art Museum of Xiamen University, Xiamen
- 2017 Zhou Hongbin: Habitat, Michele Mariaud Gallery, New York
- 2015 Zhou Hongbin, China Art Projects, Project Artspace, Hong Kong
- 2014 Zhou Hongbin: new work, AJC Gallery, Hong Kong
- 2011 Inward Event, OFOTO Gallery, Shanghai, China
- 2008 Aquarium, Lianhe Douzhen Art Space, Beijing, China
- 2007 Illusion, Hello Art Space, Xiamen, China
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
- 2023 AWE-some, Harn museum of Art, Gainsvelle, Florida USA
- 2019 Drinking tea on Flower Street, Xiamen, China
- 2018 Space. Light. Object, Art and Science Museum, Singapore
- 2017 Sovereign Asian Art Prize, Hong Kong
- Shanghai Photography Fair, Ofoto Gallery, Shanghai
- Journey, China Art Projects, Sagra Gallery, Australia
- 2016 Half the Sky, Red Gate Gallery, Beijing, Hong Kong
- Fire Within: A new generation of Chinese Women Artists,
- Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, Michigan, United States of America 2015 Paris Photo, Grand Palais, Paris, France
- Fotofever, Caroussel du Louvre, Paris, France
- Jimei X Arles International Photo Festival, Xiamen,
- China Neo-Perception: China’s New Generation of Women Artists, Pearl Lam Galleries, Shanghai 2014 Miami Art Fair, Miami, United States of America
- 2013 Open studio exhibition, Gwangju Art Museum Beijing Creation Centre, Beijing
- Pulse New York New York, United Sates of America
- 2012 Stepping In. Nature: MAM Collection of Chinese Conceptual Photography,
- Macao Museum of Art, Macau, China
AWARDS/GRANTS/RESIDENCIES
- 2018 Sovereign Asian Art Prize (finalist)
- 2013 Artist in Residence, Gwangju Museum of Art Beijing creation centre, Beijing
COLLECTIONS
- Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, FL USA
- Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong
- 10+ Collection, Edinburgh, Scotland
- Microsoft Collection, USA
- Han Art Museum, Florida, USA
- Villa Le Voile Cultural Institute, Saigon, Vietnam
- Private collection of curator Li Zhenghua, China & Switzerland
- Private collection of curator Liu Suyu, China
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Zhou Hongbin, digital catalogue, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, 2022
- Luise Guest, ‘10 Contemporary Chinese Women Artists You Should Know’, Culture Trip, 2017
- A Chinese Winter, Cathay Pacific Airlines Discovery Magazine, January 2017
- Luise Guest, Half the Sky, book essay on Zhou Hongbin
- Sheng Qi, essay, Somewhere Else – Zhou Hongbin’s World of Images, Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing China.
- Fan Lin, Intrasychic Events, essay, Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, China
- Luise Guest, Utopia + Aquarium Series, catalogue essay, Amelia Johnston Gallery, Hong Kong
- Zhou Hongbin in Hong Kong, catalogue essay, China Art Projects, Hong Kong
- Luise Guest, A Liminal Utopia, essay