ArtDepot is delighted to collaborate with River City Bangkok to present Zhang Zhanzhan’s inaugural solo exhibition “Beyond the Last Miles” in Bangkok. The exhibition will feature a selection of easel works and sculptural installations created by Zhang Zhanzhan between 2022 and 2024.

Preface：

In this world, everyone may need to be healed, while individuals make their own choices, we often relinquish the option of healing. It's not the heart that's incurable, but rather the obsession. Those you desperately hold onto will eventually depart. At times, what we yearn for isn't necessarily the answers but a glimpse of ourselves. Even the fervent obsession and passion seem scarcely noteworthy now. It's only later that we realize nonchalance might be the most fitting response.

Each of Zhan Zhan's paintings is not so much about healing people's hearts as it is about using his past and scars to give the gentlest and most genuine replies. Though these solutions may not be perfect for him, it matters not since the presumed correct answer vanished in the time he cherished – an eternal period, secured in a realm exclusively of his own.

Comparing Zhanzhan's works from a decade ago to the present may astonish you as if he's a different person. Yet, in my view, he remains unchanged. His sincerity and delicacy, passion and sorrow, innocence and timidity, beauty and lightness persist unaltered. He relinquished the ostensibly intricate, melancholic, and painful facades, opting for a simpler, more direct, and empathetic approach to convey the profound emotions he wishes to articulate – emotions not everyone can discern.

Zhanzhan, thank you for being here, your softness, your gaze, your breath, your sincerity. Thank you for every bit of truthfulness in the past, present, and future.

Zhanzhan, let's make a pact in 2024 and embark on a journey of healing together.

                                                                           Uncle Mao in Beijing January 20, 2024

The journey of life, often solitary and long, stretches endlessly before us. As we walk alone, we learn to find contentment in our solitude, our exterior hardening, yet our hearts becoming increasingly soft and sincere. Through his art, Zhang Zhanzhan captures fleeting moments within the river of time, encapsulating warmth, longing, hope, and resilience into a single flicker of candlelight in the darkness, guiding us back to past times and allowing us to quietly meet our former selves.

Zhang Zhanzhan has always pondered the strength of expression, and in this exhibition, he boldly removes unnecessary decorative details, using a simple and concise artistic language to portray emotionally rich images. We cannot penetrate the serene expressions of the protagonists in his paintings to speculate on their stories, but their solitude is not lonely, subtly conveying warmth and happiness to the audience.