策展人：盛葳
主办：
支持机构：德山艺术空间
开幕时间：2011年4月3日 15：00
研讨会: 2011年4月3日 16：00-18：00
展览时间：2011年4月4日-4月17日
开放时间：周一至周日，上午10：00-下午5:00
展览地点：今日美术馆1号馆3层展厅
地址：北京市朝阳区百子湾路32号

The Proof of Life: Solo Show of Ma Yongqiang

Curator：Sheng Wei
Organizer: Today Art Museum
Support: De Shan Art Space
Opening: 15:00, April 3rd, 2011
Round Table Discussion: 16:00-18:00, April 3rd, 2011
Duration: April 4th—April 17th, 2011
Opening Hours: 10:00am-5:00pm，Monday-Sunday
Venue: The 3rd floor exhibition hall of building No.1，Today Art Museum
Address: NO.32 Baiziwan Road,Chaoyang District,Beijing
Tel： 8610-58760600-100
Website：www.todayartmuseum.com

“生命的证据——马永强个人作品展”前言

策展人 盛葳

马永强是一个温和内敛的艺术家，但他的作品却具有强烈的、喷薄而出的力量。从严格的版画训练到今天的实验探索，马永强留下了两个较为成熟的系列作品。其一是“鸡冠花”系列油画作品，其二是“飞沙”系列综合材料作品。两个系列的作品前后承袭，在内在观念上保持着某种潜在的联系。

始于2006年的“鸡冠花”系列相较于马永强之前的水彩风景和石版画而言，显得张扬得多。最初的作品是通过色粉在纸上完成的，四联《恶之花》是这一时期的代表作，也是马永强在中央美院版画系的研究生毕业创作。这种微观的观察和表现方法一方面源于艺术家细腻的心理活动，另一方面也源于他长期版画训练的创作特色。马永强将鸡冠花艳丽、肥厚的花朵截取局部并放大，以略带表现主义的笔法描画出对象内在、向外挤压，却又尚未完全释放的张力。鸡冠花是一种日常生活中常见，但并不那么引人注目的植物，然而，马永强笔下的鸡冠花却显得极其陌生。尤其是它们那种疯狂生长的状态，隐喻出自然、生活、社会、心理等多方面的类似感受。偶尔一抹阳光的掠过又为其增加了某种纪念碑性。

在拓展“鸡冠花”系列的对象题材的同时，马永强又开始探索创作“飞沙”系列。“飞沙”系列是在艺术家回山东老家的一个偶然机会中迸发出来的灵感。马永强将沙子按照一定的方式在画布上造型，最初的实验包括很多鸡蛋壳、麻绳、小玩具等现成品，后来则更加简化，大多数作品通过沙子的叠加累积，模拟不同的运动轨迹与光影效果，表现一种处于运动中的特殊状态。还有一部分作品是以沙为材料塑造缠绕的抽象线形图像，与“鸡冠花”相似，纠缠、蔓延的“沙线”暗示出一种自内而外的生长张力。“飞沙”系列考虑了更多的“形式”问题，在点线面的穿插、灰度的渐变、光影的对比中寻求一种有机的平衡。

艺术家马永强两个系列的作品都明显地指向“生长”、“生命”的观念，然而他并没有采取那种无节制的庸俗表现主义，而是在其中体现出一种中国人，或者更具体的说，作为一个创作主体的“个人”的欲求——张扬但却隐忍。

Preface
Curator: Sheng Wei
Ma Yongqiang is a mild and introverted artist, but his works possess a strong and surging power. From strict engraving training to experimental exploration of today, Ma Yongqiang has created two series of comparatively mature works. One is “Cockscomb Flowers” oil painting series, the other is “Flying Sands” comprehensive material series. The latter has inherited from the former and between them maintains some underlying association in internal concepts.
Compared with the watercolor landscapes and lithographs Ma Yongqiang created previously, the “Cockscomb Flowers” series which was started to created in 2006 are much more expressive. The first works of the series were finished on paper with pastel. The “Flowers of Evil” quadriptych, his graduation creation in Printmaking Department of China Central Academy Of Fine Arts, is the representative work of Ma Yongqiang during that period. The method of micro observation and expression derives from, on one hand, exquisite mental activity of an artist and, on the other, his creative characteristics of long-term training on engraving. Ma Yongqiang intercepts and enlarges parts of the flamboyant and plump cockscomb flowers, and depicts object’s internal, externally compressing but not fully released vitality with slight expressionistic brushwork. The cockscomb flowers are a common and obtrusive plant in daily life, but they appear extremely strange in Ma Yongqiang’s works, especially their crazy growth which insinuates natural, life, social, psychological and other similar feelings. An occasional touch of sunshine has added certain monumental character to them.
While expanding the subjects of the “Cockscomb Flowers” series, Ma Yongqiang began to explore and create the “Flying Sands” series which is an inspiration sparked on a fortuitous occasion upon the artist’s return to hometown in Shandong. Ma Yongqiang laid out sands on canvas in a certain way. In his early experiments, he adopted many ready-mades such as eggshells, hemp ropes and small toys. His later experiments were more simplified, and most of the works, through the superimposition and accumulation of sands, simulated different trajectories and lighting effects, presenting a special status in motion. Other parts of the works are abstract images of entwined lines with sands as molding material. Similar to “cockscomb flowers”, the entwined and sprawling “sand lines” insinuated externally compressing growth vitality from inside. The “Flying Sands” series reflect more considerations on “form” issues and seek for an organic balance among interweaving of point, line and surface, gradients of grey color and contrast of light and shadow.
The two series of works of artist Ma Yongqiang share a clear reference to the concept of “growth” and “life”, however he did not adopt the unrestrained vulgar expressionism, but presented “individual” desire of a Chinese, or more specifically, a creative subject—assertive but restrained.