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Edutainment > Articles on Art > China Cynical Realism > Zhou Lu - born 1973

Zhou Lu 1973

Mr. Zhou Lu
copyright Zhou Lu

When you receive hundreds of art prints - new and old - every month you take a certain attitude of calm contemplation. But when we at artelino saw an art print by Mr. Zhou Lu for the first time, we became really excited. We saw it in the official catalog of the 17th National Print Exhibition of China, the most prestigious exhibition opportunity for contemporary Chinese artists.

We knew we wanted to present this artist in our auctions, and asked our Chinese art agent to try the impossible. And she made it. Several months later we held the first consignment of art prints by Mr. Zhou Lu in our hands. Fantastic!

Education and Career

Zhou Lu 1973

Waiting
copyright Zhou Lu

Mr. Zhou Lu was born in December 1973 in Guiyang city, Guizhou province in the south of China. He graduated in 1997 from Tianjin Art College, Printmaking Department. From 2001 to 2002 he studied in Germany. He is currently vice professor at Guizhou Art College and vice secretary of Guizhou Printmaking Art Association.

Cynical Realism

Zhou Lu 1973

Taking Off
copyright Zhou Lu

We at artelino received our first consignment of art prints created by Mr. Zhou Lu in January of 2007. We have been deeply impressed. His style reflects an art trend in today's China art scene that is described as cynical realism. Cynical realism is a reaction to the political events after 1989 and the impact of the massive Westernization and all the madness and spiritual emptiness that came with this new era. Artists use the methods of irony and satire.

Mr. Zhou Lu has found his own creative and mature style. He uses bald-headed characters that look like vicious, grown-up boys. He shows them in all kinds of outfits, roles and situations that deal with the craziness of today's Chinese society. Western attributes like "7Up" bottles are omnipresent and are mixed with symbols of the "old" People's Republic of China with statues of chairman Mao Zedong and symbols of the infamous Red Guards of the Cultural Revolution.

The compositions that we see on Mr. Zhou Lu's prints show a permanent conflict of collectivism and individualism. The values of the old communist society versus the ideal of Western society. This conflict dominates the images. The conflict is not resolved. The images are full of inner tensions. The faces are shown in a wide spectrum - from grimaces to vicious-looks that makes the viewer feel at unease.

Technique

Zhou Lu 1973

Taking Off, detail
copyright Zhou Lu

Mr. Zhou Lu uses his own mixed media technique. Edition sizes are 50. The prints are signed, numbered, titled and dated in Chinese characters by the artist. The prints were made between 2002 and 2005. The paper used is one of those Chinese mill papers that are of modest quality. But that does not matter. Chinese art prints should not be judged by the quality of the paper but by their artistic value and the small editions that are still typical for Chinese printmakers. And while China's nouveau-riches and some foreign collectors have driven prices for contemporary Chinese paintings and sculptures to record prices that bear all signs of a crazy bubble, the printmarket - a typical market of the urban middle class - has hardly developed yet.

Exhibitions

Zhou Lu 1973

Metamorphosis
copyright Zhou Lu

• 1996 - Guizhou Art College Art Exhibit, Sydney, Australia.
• 1997 - Sixth National Lithography, Silkscreen,and Etching Exhibition, Shenyang, China.
• 1998 - Fourth National Printmaking Exhibition of Teachers in Colleges, Xi'an, China.
• 1999 - First Guizhou Art College Invitation Exhibit, Guiyang, China.
• 2003 - Shanghai Spring Arts Salon "Primitive Place", Shanghai, China.
• 2003 - LuoDiKa "Footprints 12+1" Exhibition of Works, Kunming, China.
• 2003 - "Molecules" Digital Art Exhibition, Guiyang, China.
• 2004 - Deme Art Salon Exhibition, Guiyang, China.
• 2006 - 1st National Mixed Media Print Exhibition.
• 2006 - "The Outskirts" Visual Arts Exhibition, Guiyang, China.
• 2006 - Artworks Exhibition "Colourful", Harbin, China.

Awards

• 1998 - The print "Trickster" won the gold medal in Guizhou Young Artists' Print Exhibition.
• 1998 - The print "Game" won the outstanding prize in the 4th Chinese National Printmaking Exhibition of teachers in colleges.
• 1998 - The print "Mask" won the copper medal in Guizhou Contemporary Printmaking Exploring Exhibition.
• 1998 - The print "Flowing Process" won the copper medal in the 3rd Art Exhibition of Guizhou Young Artist's Work.
• 2005 - Mr. Zhou Lu was honored as an outstanding artist of Guizhou Province.
• 2005 - The print "Summer" won the copper medal in the 17th National Printmaking Exhibition.

Collections

• Art Gallery of Guangzhou art College.
• Guiyang Art Museum.
• Shenzhou Print Museum.

Comments by Qi Fengge

Zhou Lu 1973

In the Light
copyright Zhou Lu

Mr. Qi Fengge is Professor in the Department of Fine Arts at the Shenzhen University and author of many publications about fine arts in China. He described Mr. Zhou Lu's artworks with the following words:

"Artworks by Zhou Lu, are really very creative. They give us a lot of things to think about. Very simple compositions build a wild space and the sportive personalities build a familiar but different atmosphere. His artwoks are full of modern significance without using the western modernism techniques."

More about Zhou Lu

Zhou Lu - Biography
Zhou Lu - Statements
Zhou Lu - Biography
Zhou Lu - Children

Literature about Zhou Lu

• Zhou Lu, November 2007, ca. 120 pages, written in Chinese, ISBN 978-7-221-07908-4/J. 438.

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China Cynical Realism