THE JAVA PROJECT
Mengfan Bai
Get Rid of Blue
July 20th - August 10th, 2019
Opening Reception: Saturday July 20th, 6-9PM
“The modern city hardly knows a pure darkness or true silence anymore, nor does it know the effect of asingle small light or that of a lonely distant shout.”
Bai’s artistic practice investigates the silent yet tenacious force of globalization and itshomogenization of urban landscapes. Her paintings stem from the growing difficulties inidentifying buildings and sites solely through form in contemporary cities, especially asthey are further “re-structured” by digital screens. In the series L.I.M.B.O 15:12, Bai’swork continuously magnifies and reexamines the uncertainty and indistinguishability,gently shifting people’s perceptions of reality. The artist aims to create an atmospherethat is quiet and enigmatic, she considered the ground and tennis balls as formalelements - spots, lines, and plane. Blue, is the storms behind the night sky andwhirlpools beneath the lake, it is an emotion in suspense.
In this exhibition, Bai continues her inquiry of graphic unintelligibility by experimentingspecifically with color. As the title “Get Rid of Blue” suggests, blue acts as a carrier ofsignificantly personalized meanings for Bai, ones that exceed the color’s commonassociation with melancholy. Using sports fields as a foundation for blurring the linesbetween artificial and natural spectacles, Bai attempts to map out the nuanced psychicinterplay between contemporary city-dwellers and the cityscapes that they inhabit.The artist wishes to be rid of blue by paradoxically submerging entirely into it.
Mengfan Bai (b.1994, China) received her MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York, and her BFAin oil painting from Sichuan Conservatory of Music, Chengdu, China. Her works have been shown widelyin the U.S. and China, including PULSE Art Fair(Miami, FL), Boers-Li Gallery(New York), BoothGallery(New York), plus81 Gallery(New York), carriage trade Gallery(New York), SVA ChelseaGallery(New York), Chengdu Art Academy(Chengdu, China), White night gallery(Chengdu, China), etc.Mengfan lives and works in New York City
252 Java Street, Brooklyn NY 11222
Open by appointment