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Jia Aili

Combustion

March 7–April 13, 2019
West 21st Street, New York

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Installation video

Installation view Artwork © Jia Aili Studio. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Jia Aili Studio. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Jia Aili Studio. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Jia Aili Studio. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Jia Aili Studio. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Jia Aili Studio. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Jia Aili Studio. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Jia Aili Studio. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Jia Aili Studio. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Jia Aili Studio. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Jia Aili Studio. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Jia Aili Studio. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Jia Aili Studio. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Jia Aili Studio. Photo: Rob McKeever

Works Exhibited

Jia Aili’s studio, Beijing, 2016 Artwork © Jia Aili Studio. Photo: Jia Aili

Jia Aili’s studio, Beijing, 2016

Artwork © Jia Aili Studio. Photo: Jia Aili

About

Art is the light of the spirit. It enlightens the dust of the mind.
—Jia Aili

Gagosian is pleased to present Combustion, Jia Aili’s first exhibition in New York, and with the gallery.

A central figure in contemporary art in China, Jia creates dynamic compositions that both emerge from and challenge art historical assumptions in the context of a rapidly changing world. In his epic tableaux, which move between genre painting, portraiture, fantasy, and abstraction, he reflects on the dramatic modernization of society while probing the vulnerabilities of the existential human condition. New meaning emerges out of this interweaving of disparate narratives.

The exhibition includes twenty-nine paintings from the past ten years, grouped into four sections to trace the evolution of Jia’s oeuvre. In the four-panel Sonatine (2019), condensed polyhedrons move through the air, filled with autonomous scenes related to Jia’s earlier paintings. Like musical notes, colors are emancipated from their illusionistic and representational functions while multidimensional shapes tessellate into a cohesive whole—as the title suggests “small sonatas” visually unfolding. Jostling against each other, the abstract planes and anonymous figures seem to suggest a new internal realm where traditional perspective is fragmented and replaced with a timeless panoramic view: a future landscape of grafted, inchoate memories.

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News

Photo: Liiibing

Artist Spotlight

Jia Aili

May 26–June 1, 2021

A pioneering member of a new generation of Chinese artists, Jia Aili creates dynamic paintings that at once emerge from and challenge art historical conventions in the context of a rapidly changing world. In his wide-ranging practice, which incorporates abstraction, portraiture, fantastic imagery, and scenes from daily life, he reflects on the dramatic modernization of society while probing the vulnerabilities of the existential human condition. For Jia, new meaning emerges out of both this interweaving of disparate narratives and the reconsideration of complex knowledge systems.

Photo: Liiibing