PING ZHENG
Go Out into Nature

October 12 -November 18

The gallery is thrilled to announce its fifth solo exhibition of paintings on paper by Ping Zheng.  The exhibition includes sixteen new works made with oil sticks, in a range of colors and textures.  The paintings expand upon the artist's iconic language of landscape imagery depicted through bold, geometric forms.  Always exploring new approaches to applying oil stick to paper, within this exhibition Zheng has also increased the scale of her works, with the addition of larger paintings in rectangular and elongated formats.  The artist's first solo museum presentation, Where Memories of Travels Go, curated by Amy-Smith Stewart, takes place simultaneously at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum as part of Aldrich Projects, a single artist series installed in the Museum's Leir Atrium, from September 7, 2023 to January 7, 2024.

Over the past year, Zheng created the lush new paintings on view.  Her works are a joyful celebration of her deep love of nature, female empowerment, and the ongoing search for a broad sense of spirituality beyond the earthly.  In her own words,

On the one hand, living in this fast-growing technology world, going out in nature, it heals the mind and soul, it enables individuals to communicate their thoughts, emotions and insights. To me, it's like a mother taking good care of a child.  On the other hand, reflection on nature appears in my art often.  I see nature and females as symbolic representations of the infinite universe and the cycles of life.


Triangular forms, which for Zheng also relate to the female anatomy, appear to extend into infinity.  They reflect upon each other as symmetrical mountains and pyramids, sailboats, and portals opening the way onto an unexplored dimension.  Curving bands of stylized colors join together in a constant loop, suggesting waterfalls and rainbows with an unending energy flow.  Her works visualize the artist's search for strength, calm, and freedom, both in nature and in art.

Works by Ping Zheng are included in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Cleveland Clinic Art Program, JP Morgan Chase Bank, and Fidelity Investments Corporate Art Collection, among others.  Her first solo museum presentation, Where Memories of Travels Go, curated by Amy Smith-Stewart, will be on view at The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut, from September 7, 2023 - January 7, 2024.  Recent solo exhibitions include, "Ping Zheng: Infinity," Kristen Lorello, New York, NY, 2022, and "Ping Zheng: The Voice of Water," McClain Gallery, Houston, Texas, 2021.  Recent group exhibitions include, "Katy Schimert + Ping Zheng," Geary, Millerton, NY, 2023, "Bellyache," Chart, New York, NY, 2023, and "Counting the Seconds Between Lightning and Thunder," Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY, 2023.  Ping Zheng was born in Zhejiang, China, in 1989 and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.  She received a BA from the University College of London, Slade School of Art in 2014 and an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2016.  Her solo exhibitions have been reviewed in Artforum, the Houston Chronicle, and The New Yorker.