Fang Lijun's NFT works are on sale on the encrypted art platform Outland

Gallery Dynamic

2022.02.22

In the past year, the NFT craze has continued to ferment in the art world, and the correlation between blockchain technology and art has become increasingly close. On February 22, 2022, Fang Lijun released his NFT work Elemental on the emerging encrypted art platform Outland (www.outland.art) as an exploration of new creative possibilities by artists who have long been known to the global art world. Fire and Water"). The work consists of 2022 digital pottery NFT blind boxes, including 200 still pictures, 10 versions in total, and 22 single-version animations. It condenses the artist's thinking on the relationship between the material and the virtual world. In this regard, Mr. Jason Li and Ms. Xue Mei, founders of Outland platform, said: "We are honored to invite Mr. Fang Lijun to join us at the first meeting of Outland platform. As one of the most important contemporary artists today, Fang Lijun Teacher's creations have milestone significance in the history of contemporary art in China and around the world. Teacher Fang Lijun's exploration in the field of NFT also shows that as a mature artist, he continues to grow and think in his creation. This continuous exploration and practice of the possibilities of the unknown world coincides with the original intention of our establishment of the Outland platform." Public Sale Time: 2022/2/23 9:22am（Beijing） Official platform: Outland（www.outland.art） Stimulate new thinking in art with self-consistent creative logic Elemental conveys the intense collision, fission and possibility when the material elements come together, and how it activates human perception and the unknown. It combines the bald figures commonly seen in the artist's paintings with representations of earth, water, fire and air. The composition of each image conveys the impact of a strong collision. Elemental is inspired by Fang Lijun's ceramic works, which the artist has always regarded as a medium for exploring materiality and touch, as well as an art form developed through technological innovation. In each NFT, a ceramic plate model with a portrait floats in an abstract environment reminiscent of environmental chaos, presenting the paradox between chance and necessity, eternity and fragility, creation and disappearance. For the painting and firing textures presented in the Elemental series, the creation process is a combination of complex craftsmanship, and the artist is even more addicted to it. "Any piece of mud, any piece of pigment, any kind of tool is unique." Different from the high-purity colors and pixelated image styles in mainstream NFT works, the images of pottery pieces are completely hand-painted. The combination of the subject and the background in the image is similar to the color overlay of prints. Such a combination is a non-digital native artist. Provides space for the creation mechanism of NFT projects. The final NFT work is also the result of the artist's fusion of the symbolic value of all elements of gold, wood, water, fire, and soil. From learning ceramics in his early years, to graduating from the Printmaking Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, to becoming one of the first batch of contemporary Chinese artists recognized by the world, Fang Lijun's career in art responds to the development of the productive forces of the times. He is a very representative sample, transitioning from the original creation methodology to the NFT work form, depicting a logical and self-consistent clue. In the documentary filmed by Outland, Fang Lijun looks back on the unforgettable moments in his creative career. The tension of human nature in the context of the times gave the artist born in the 1960s a unique life experience. And today, in the countless OpenSea NFT works, it may not be just the pleasing images that retain the audience. In this regard, Fang Lijun has already given the answer: "I hope that the viewer can still recall the work after leaving the screen. This is the standard of good art." At its root, the value of NFT is still the artist's creative concept and its construction. consensus, which is in line with Fang Lijun's thinking on the essence of art.

Artists

Fang Lijun

Fang Lijun was born in 1963 in Handan, Hebei, China. He graduated from the Printmaking Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1989. On July 1st of the same year, Fang Lijun moved to Yuanmingyuan, the Old Summer Palace, and later the Yunamingyuan Artists' Village was gradually formed. In 1993, Fang Lijun established his studio in Songzhuang. The Songzhuang Artists' Village has steadily developed for the last two decades. In 2014, Fang Lijun established the Archive of Chinese Contemporary Art.

Fang Lijun has held exhibitions in major art institutions and galleries, including Ashmolean Museum Oxford, Ludwig Museum Koblenz, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Japan Foundation, Ariana Museum in Geneva, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Turin, Macaw Museum of Art, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Shanghai Art Museum, Hunan Museum, Beijing Minsheng Art Museum, Hubei Art Museum, United Art Museum and the etc. His participation includes the Venice Biennale, Sǎo Paulo Biennial, Kwangju Art Biennial, and Shanghai Biennial. His works are collected by The Museum of Modern Art (USA), Seattle Art Museum(USA), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (USA), Centre de G. Pompidou (France), Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst (Germany), Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam(Holland), The National Gallery of Australia (Australia), Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (Japan), Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo(Japan), Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art(Japan), National Art Museum of China(China), Shanghai Art Museum (China), Guangdong Art Museum (China), He Xiangning Art Museum (China), Hunan Museum（China）, CAFA Art Museum(China). He is one of the Chinese contemporary artists with the most extensive collection by major art institutions worldwide.

He has published more than 50 personal albums and related publications, including Fang Lijun: Chronicles, Fang Lijun: Criticism, Fang Lijun: Works of Art, FANG LIJUN, Fang Lijun: The Precipice Over the Clouds, Fang Lijun: Espaces Interdits Forbidden Areas, Fang Lijun: Woodcuts, Live Like A Wild Dog, Etc. Fang Lijun has been invited as a visiting professor and graduate supervisor at more than 20 universities and colleges, including the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, Jingdezhen Ceramic University, Xi 'an Academy of Fine Arts, etc. In 1993, his painting "Series 2, No. 2" appeared on the cover of the New York Times Magazine.

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