Bay Area artist Zheng Chongbin’s site-specific installations use transparency and light to explore how ephemeral changes can alter our perception of place.
State of Oscillation, Osher Gallery: Through Monday, October 18 I Look for the Sky, Bogart Court: Ongoing
“Experiencing the world is a cognitive journey.” — Zheng Chongbin
How do artists think about space? That question animates a new two-part exhibition by Marin County–based artist Zheng Chongbin (b. 1961). In dialogue with the museum’s transformation project, I Look for the Sky explores how the manipulation of light can profoundly change our perception of architectural space.
As an artist trained in classical Chinese figurative painting at the China Academy of Art who went on to study performance, installation, and conceptual art at the San Francisco Art Institute, Zheng brings a singular approach to contemporary art.
His installation in Osher Gallery, State of Oscillation – comprising ink paintings, videos, and a chamber made of translucent material – heightens our awareness of our bodies moving through space. Navigating through an ephemeral chamber suffused with overlapping projected video imagery, we catch glimpses of Zheng’s paintings and other works mounted on the perimeter wall. State of Oscillation manipulates our perceptions of presence and absence, solid and void, immersion and circulation.
In Bogart Court, panels that vary in transparency and pattern are suspended below skylights, directing the flow of natural light and manipulating visual sightlines to create a novel spatial experience. For this installation, I Look for the Sky (which lends its name to the exhibition), Zheng was interested in engaging with ideas of transparency and the free flow of light that architect Gae Aulenti emphasized in her 2003 renovation of the museum building that once served as the city’s Main Library. Zheng’s exploration of transparency and light as mediums is also influenced by the Southern California Light and Space artists of the 1960s and 1970s.
I Look for the Sky invites you to bring a new awareness to your environment.
Installation of Zheng Chongbin: I Look for the Sky (2:54 min.)
Organizers & Sponsors
Curated by Abby Chen, Senior Associate Curator and Head of Contemporary Art.
Zheng Chongbin: I Look for the Sky is organized by the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Presentation is made possible with the generous support of East West Bank, Lucy Sun and Warren Felson, and an anonymous donor. This installation is a part of the Asian American Experience, which is made possible with the generous support of Glen S. and Sakie T. Fukushima, an anonymous donor in memory of Ambassador and Mrs. Sampson Shen, and Claudine Cheng.
Sustained support generously provided by the following endowed funds: Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang Endowment Fund for Exhibitions John S. and Sherry H. Chen Endowed Fund for Chinese Art and Programming Arlene Schnitzer Endowed Fund for Chinese Art Kao/Williams Contemporary Art Exhibitions Fund
