Zhou Fan

Shanghai, China

Zhou Fan is well known for his astonishingly detailed drawings and paintings that depict fantastical nature scenes. Often working without drafts, plans or pre-set ideas, Zhou Fan’s large works take from 8 months to 3 years to finish. Dreams, memory, hallucinations, and fantasy have all been the thread and substance of Zhou Fan’s practice throughout the last decade. His previous series of artworks brought his audiences into a realm of imagination with out-of-this-world scenes and a sumptuous and unusual color palette.

In his 2015 solo exhibition “Mute”, roadways, strong, artificial colors and illusory landscapes wavered between reality and fantasy, the foremost visual features in these previous works which took a look at life’s journey from a neutral almost nihilistic perspective. Meditating on the relationship between that which is manmade and things of natural world, between the city and the wild, these works were the artist’s attempt at making sense of the intricate eco system we inhabit. Captured in this group of work, the artist takes his audiences on an illusory and adventurous “road trip” where we know no beginning or ending.

Over the past two years, Zhou Fan has shifted his interest onto different subjects of investigation, moving from the external landscape to an internal geography, both physical and psychological. Looking back at his artistic practice for over a decade, Zhou Fan’s visual language has also become more abstract, with less figurative construction and subject, yet still embracing the vibrant palette and exquisite detail for which his work is fast becoming widely known and well admired as his career moves toward mid-career.