Zhou Hao New Prints Exhibition
April 7 (Sat) - 29 (Sun), 2012
10:00am-6:30pm
Closed: Tuesdays (by appointment), Wednesdays
Exhibits: 21 copperplate prints
ZHOU Hao
Biography, Selected Exhibitions and Public Collections
Biography
Zhou Hao was born in Shanghai, China, in 1960. From the age of six through his high school years, he spent approximately ten years living through the Cultural Revolution.
In 1983, he came to Japan as a privately funded international student. The following year, he entered the Department of Oil Painting at Musashino Art University. In his third year, he transferred to the newly established printmaking course, becoming a member of its first graduating class and studying lithography. During this period, his work gradually shifted toward abstraction.
At the same time, he encountered the Mingei philosophy of Yanagi Sōetsu, which made a profound impression on him. Through the writings of Suzuki Daisetsu on Zen, he also began to reconsider the classical culture of his native country. While reading works on Daoist thought, particularly Laozi and Zhuangzi, he developed a strong interest in contemporary art in both Japan and the West.
In 1987, he received a scholarship from the Koyama Keizo Foundation for the Promotion of Art and participated in the first Asian Art Student Residency Program, working in residence at the Shirakaba Museum of Art in Yamanashi Prefecture, with the support of Tokyo Gallery Yoshii.
In 1988, he graduated from the Printmaking Course, Department of Oil Painting, College of Art and Design, Musashino Art University. In 1989, he received a Japanese Government Scholarship from the Ministry of Education. In 1990, he completed the master’s program in printmaking at the Graduate School of Art and Design, Musashino Art University.
After completing graduate school, he joined MMG, a printmaking studio in Higashi-Azabu, Tokyo, directed by printmaker Yusaku Masuda. While working in plate preparation and printing, he continued to produce and exhibit his own prints. He left the studio in 2003 and thereafter devoted himself fully to his artistic practice.
In 2008 and again in 2010, through the introduction of Yusaku Masuda, he produced intaglio prints at Atelier Rémy Bucciali in France. In 2016, he participated in the LOVEART – Summer Artists Residence Project and worked in residence in Italy.
Based between Shanghai and Yokohama, Zhou Hao continued his artistic practice and presented solo exhibitions primarily in Japan and China, while also participating in international print exhibitions and art fairs in Japan and abroad.
He passed away in September 2023 at the age of 62.
Text: Thoughtful Painting Zhou Hao
Noh plays are even more expressive despite the muted expression of the masks, and even their slow movements evoke the rhythms of life. This wonder is sure to make anyone aware of the depths of the Far East's sense of beauty. The production of artwork acquires a mysterious vitality through the process of erasure and weakening. This seeming contradiction gives me, as an Oriental, a sense of relief and mystery.
Resurrection presupposes a single death. Ultimately, a painting is not the result of adding things, but only the result of erasing things. In order for a painting to truly be a painting, it must touch the core of how we perceive pictoriality.
In the case of ink painting and monotype, the hand moves swiftly, as if running between hand and head, because it is not overtaken by thoughts and images. With oil paintings, however, it is more appropriate to take time to finish the work, and to bring the work as close as possible to one's own aesthetics. It is like a studio recording as opposed to a live recording. Fatalistically, the work is only the result of the inevitability of the medium in which I encounter it.
When I paint in oil, I am always concerned with spatial, temporal, and emotional pause. I paint over each brushstroke with an awareness of this "pause. Life is also a "pause" between life and death. My recent works have turned into a kind of resting place for my eyes.
The Chinese concept of "nothingness," the Indian concept of "emptiness," and the Western concept of "existence..." There are many different ways of perceiving the world, but "nothingness" and "emptiness" seem to fit best. Being an oriental, I was gradually attracted to the depth of enlightenment and understanding, rather than the genius of creation.
I would like to see how the extremity of each artist's DNA, the influence of different cultures, and the influence of other cultures will be brought to fruition in his works.
