PING ZHENG
Whispers of Light and Trees

January 14 - February 22
Opening reception: Saturday, January 25

She waited for the earth to move
and watched while the sun set
every day. In the middle of the

fourteenth night, when the moon
waxed to full, she held her breath,
closed her eyes and flew.

                             -Sally Van Doren

Kristen Lorello is thrilled to announce New York-based artist Ping Zheng's sixth solo exhibition at the gallery.  Included is an array of eighteen new works in the artist's signature medium of oil stick on paper.  Zheng's new paintings on paper bear witness to the artist's boundless energy and inquisitive approach to working hand-held oil sticks into lyrical visions of the natural and cosmic worlds.  A full color catalogue accompanies the exhibition and includes two new poems by celebrated American poet and artist Sally Van Doren.
 
Within the realm of nature, Zheng finds a sense of peace.   She transposes this feeling into scenes of day and night structured by bold geometric forms and repeated marks melded into joyful, textured patterns.  Mountainsides, tree trunks, and waterfalls lead to bright orbs that reflect onto glistening rivers.  Zheng paints intricate patterns through colorful marks pressed onto paper and lines carved into layers of colored paint.  With the experience of a rigid upbringing in China, and the confusion and noise of contemporary urban life, she turns to the natural world for spiritual fulfillment.  Her work follows in the footsteps of artistic visionaries such as Hilma af Klint and Georgia O’Keeffe, while carving a distinct voice through vibrant palettes and rhythmic structures. Indeed, the formal structures that organize her compositions repeat in her paintings, replicating the sense of meditation Zheng is familiar with in her daily practices of hiking, swimming, and Tai Chi.  As the artist writes, "Nature, in my work, becomes a space where all of these external pressures fall away.  Whether it’s political systems, technology, or societal expectations, my landscapes are a way to return to something pure and universal."
 
Ping Zheng was born in Zhejiang, China in 1989 and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.  She received a BFA from Slade School of Fine Art, London, UK, in 2014 and an MFA in 2016 from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI.  Recent solo exhibitions include 'Where Memories of Travels Go,' Zheng's first solo museum presentation, curated by Amy Smith-Stewart, at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT, 2023, and 'Ping Zheng: Go Out into Nature,' Kristen Lorello, 2023.  Her solo exhibition, 'Nature's Canopy,' took place in early 2024 at Seven Sisters, Houston, TX, which co-represents Zheng.  Zheng is currently included in 'Space City: Art in the Age of Artemis,' at the Asia Society Texas, Houston, TX, through March 2025.  Additional recent group exhibitions include 'Katy Schimert + Ping Zheng,' Geary, Millerton, NY, 'Bellyache,' Chart, New York, NY, and 'Sanctuaries,' Edji Gallery, Brussels, BE.  Zheng's exhibitions have been reviewed in Artforum, The Houston Chronicle, and The New Yorker.  Her works are included in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, JP Morgan Chase Bank, Cleveland Clinic Art Program, and Fidelity Investments Corporate Art Collection, among others.