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 (b. 1963, Handan, Hebei) graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Printmaking Department in 1989. In July of the same year, he resided in the Yuanmingyuan area, becoming a key advocate of the "Yuanmingyuan Artists' Village." In 1993, he established the Songzhuang studio, contributing to the formation of the "Songzhuang Artists' Village." In 2014, he founded the "Archive of Contemporary Art of China," systematically organizing the development of Chinese contemporary art. Since 2004, Fang Lijun has been appointed as a guest professor and graduate mentor at more than twenty institutions, including the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, Jingdezhen Ceramic University, Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts, Wuhan University, and Hubei Academy of Fine Arts.

Fang Lijun’s solo exhibitions have been held in major art institutions worldwide, including the Ashmolean Museum Oxford, Ludwig Museum, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, The Japan Foundation, Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, and Musée Ariana, et cetera. Domestic retrospectives have been mounted at the Shanghai Art Museum, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Macau Museum of Art, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Hunan Provincial Museum, United Art Museum, Minsheng Art Museum, and He Art Museum, among other significant venues. Additionally, he has been consistently invited by mainstream international exhibitions, such as the Venice Biennale, Gwangju Biennale, São Paulo Art Biennial, and Shanghai Biennale.

Fang's works are permanently collected by international museums, in particular the Museum of Modern Art, Centre Pompidou, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Seattle Art Museum, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Queensland Art Gallery, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, and Fukuoka Asian Art Museum. Within China, his works are held by the National Art Museum of China, Contemporary Academy of Fine Arts Art Museum, He Xiangning Art Museum, and Guangdong Museum of Art.

Furthermore, through his artistic career, Fang Lijun has published over 50 monographs, including Fang Lijun: Chronological Notes, Fang Lijun: Works Catalogue, Fang Lijun: Cliff in the Clouds, Fang Lijun: Forbidden Zone, Fang Lijun Prints, and Surviving Like a Stray Dog. In 1993, his work Series Two No. 2 appeared on the cover of The New York Times.

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