Wang Taocheng

In his paintings and drawings, Wang Taocheng (PR of China, 1981, lives and works in Shanghai) reflects autobiographical aspects, experiences and impressions of his everyday surroundings - but also dream images and things that shape him culturally, be it American action heroes or French film posters. He describes his works as reflections of how "the field of tension between individual and society ... shifts in both the subjective and objective world" and of reality vacillating between these inseparable poles, as atmosphere and illusion. The narrative character of his works, which mainly emerges in the picture sequences with additional textual elements, is frequently broken by the immobility of the gestures and the lack of faces; the works depict figurative and image compositions that in a dreamily morbid way prove not to be iconic and thus interpolate the pictorial results of a process-oriented dealing with the world surrounding him.

His style is characterised, on the one hand, by traditional Chinese painting and drawing, and on the other, by additional elements influenced by the West - in regard to the choice of both motifs and form. For example, a Superman character appears as a stand-in in "Superman Return (the land of might have been)" (2007), which, among other things, is shown at a picnic with a person whose appearance at first reminds one of a traditional geisha. When taking a closer look, however, one notices that the attire of the supposed geisha consists of the flags of various nationalities. Other works also deal with what is foreign, with being a stranger and with the Other. Yet his perspective is not limited to nationality and belonging to a certain place, but often focuses on the not easily comprehensible realm of interpersonal relations. Taocheng Wang succeeds in captivating the viewer with the aesthetic of his works, while at the same time irritating him/her with morbid elements, and thus lending his pictures a complexity consisting of darkness and deep fascination.

Taocheng Wang, "Been hunt by hunting job", 2005, 27 x 20 cm, acrylic on paper

Curriculum vitae

Taocheng Wang, "Film Live (blow-up)", 2007, 140 x 170 cm, indian ink and acrylic on canvas

Taocheng Wang, "Scene", 2005, 75 cm x 75 cm, indian ink and acrylic on paper

Taocheng Wang, "Superman Return (the land of might have been)", 2007
130 cm x 67 cm, indian ink and acrylic on paper

Exhibitions (Selection)

Awards and Scholarship