From 06 November to 24 December 2009

Think.21 is pleased to present an exhibition of works by Zang Huan, Ryan McGinness, Julian Opie, Michael Ray Charles, Tom Wesselmann and Yukinori Yanagi.

Known primarily for his performances that demand physical and psychological endurance, acclaimed artist Zang Huan has subjected his body and mind to painful trials that he documents through video and photography. His performance pieces serve as strong social commentaries of the Chinese society as well as a platform for an existential and spiritual exploration.

Ryan McGinness has been characterised as an art star mixing pop iconography, abstract baroque compositions, corporate visual vocabulary and his own hallucinatory visions in his paintings, sculptures and installations that reflect on the infinite and ever changing universe. Enfant terrible of the contemporary New York art scene, McGinness has been christened by numerous art critics, as the Warhol of the 21st century.

Through his work, Julian Opie investigates the idea of representation and the means by which images are perceived and understood. His paintings, sculptures and projections all bear his landmark reductive formal language, which seeks to reflect on the way reality is represented.

Michael Ray Charles paintings, prints and sculptures investigate the legacy of historic stereotypes related to Americans of African decent. The artist uses characters such as Aunt Jemima and Uncle Tom to comment on contemporary racial attitudes.

One of the leading American Pop artists, Tom Wesselmann is known for his paintings and collages of landscapes, still life and most specifically nudes, a pictorial subject he never ceased to work on. Often incorporating in his assemblages, everyday objects and advertising ephemera, Wesselmann’s work evolved into large shaped canvases and drawings on metal, all bearing the flat forms and sharp colours that characterise his art.

Yukinori Yanagi is famous for his sand drawings of flags and currencies, symbols of power, politics and identity. The artist proceeds by releasing a number of ants in the sand paintings, the latter contained in Plexiglas boxes and often interconnected by plastic tubes. Free to travel in these systems, the ants transport food and colours through the underground mazes they dig, thus slowly degrading the pristine sand image into a sort of cross-cultural and multinational network.