The Winds of Change

Wu Jun, Into the Future, 2016, oil on canvas, 90x120cm

The first time I wrote about the art of Kunming-based artist Wu Jun (b.1959, Yunnan, China) was in 2016. Now, amidst the growing impact of AI and the surreal political landscape, the reasons are different but the change is the same.

Wu Jun, Shadow Time II, 2016, oil on canvas, 120x168cm

Wu Jun's explores the relationship between change and state of mind. Withdrawn into their inner worlds, his figures are suspended between the present and the future.

He compares the effect of change to the migration of birds, conveying the feeling of weightlessness and roaming:

“Every winter Kunming welcomes seagulls flying from the north. Such migration for survival allows us to feel the significance of living in today’s environment…. In modern cities people’s internal world is often floating, roaming … rapid change fosters both beautiful dreams and terrible pitfalls.”

Wu Jun, Shadow Time I, 2016, oil on canvas, 120x168cm

Wu Jun's art captures the process of dealing with change in midstream. The bodies are floating, weightless and rootless, unsure of their direction. surrounded by cultural artifacts of the past amidst the technological advances of the present.

Wu Jun, Which Way Forward?, 2016, oil on canvas, 90 x 120cm

Wu Jun (b. 1959) was born in Maguan county, in the Yunnan Province of China, and raised in Kunming. A graduate of the prestigious Central Academy of Fine Art (CAFA) in Beijing, he is a Professor at the Yunnan Academy of Fine Art.

(Shadow Time I and II are available from the gallery)