Seeing Reality from a Different Perspective

Move an object, and something changes. Not in the object itself, but in the way we see it. This simple yet subtly unsettling idea lies at the heart of the paintings of Luochen Zhang, the remarkably young Chinese artist, born in 2004, whose work is presented in Real Presence at Beijing’s Hive Center for Contemporary Art. Zhang paints recognisable bodies, landscapes and objects, while subtly altering the relationships between them. He shifts a perspective, introduces an obstacle, compresses space or places a familiar element where it does not quite belong. The result is not surreal: it remains close enough to reality to make us question what we are seeing. Curated by Xia Xiaoyan, the exhibition brings together more than ten recent paintings and revolves around a compelling idea: space is not simply where we exist, but something that constantly shapes our gestures and our gaze.
The viewer, too, becomes part of the game. Where do we stand in relation to the image? What do we see, and what escapes us? Zhang offers no answers: he simply shifts the coordinates and leaves our gaze to search, each time, for a new point of view.