previous hire - Zhao Yizhou

press releaseartworksbiographyexhibitionartist's website

Mischa Altmann presents at Eleven Howland

'Chasing the Unseen II'

6th March – 14th March 2008 at Eleven Howlland

press release

Zhao Yizhou was born in the Anhui Province of China in 1959. He graduated from the Foreign Language Department (English)
of the Normal College, Henan, China in 1983 and the same year in calligraphy from Zhengzhou Artist Training College, Henan, China.
His first artistic influence was his grand father who was a seal cutter. Zhao was instructed by a variety of
eminent Chinese calligraphy masters but chose to go his own way and moved from Nanjing to London in 1997.
Since 1998 he has been teaching Chinese Calligraphy at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.
He has been practising Chinese calligraphy for over 40 years.

Zhao Yizhou is widely regarded as the finest contemporary Chinese calligrapher in the UK. His unusual combination of tradition
and innovation creates a unique vitality and originality which lays bare the principles of shufa (Chinese calligraphy).
Viewed in China as one of the most important art forms, shufa combines scholarly tradition, painterly technique and emotional insight.
Considered more than mere decoration or ornamentation of words, it expresses the internal and 'unseen' life of the artist.

Deeply concerned with the psychological and philosophical potential of shufa, many pieces by Zhao Yizhou challenge
the viewer's perception of what they are seeing. He reveals how words and the way they are written can be a vehicle for meaning
and feeling.
With his bold forms of expression and dramatic brush-strokes he continues the shufa tradition, but at the same time uses
a variety of media including ink, oil, watercolor, acrylic, polystyrene and recently wax in an art imbued with a modern consciousness.
Zhao Yizhou is very much a contemporary artist, not content simply with following tradition.

He follows, but also challenges, the very essence of the tradition of shufa, forming a belief that although he would like
to rebel against it, as tradition never remains in a fixed place at a fixed time, he has no alternative but to be part of it.
His calligraphy is therefore a reflection of his practice of shufa as well as the anxiety of tradition and its contradictions.

Recent exhibitions include the much acclaimed, 'Chasing the Unseen' at the Museum of East Asian Art in 2007.
In addition to his many exhibitions,Zhao's works have also appeared in a variety of other media including opera and film.
He has received many awards in China for his calligraphy. In 2008 he created the calligraphy on the naming stone of
the "China Landscape - Kew at the British Museum" as part of a long standing relationship with the British Museum.

Zhao Yizhou's current exhibition is shaped by the exploration of new media, in particular wax, as a means to expose the complexity and
interconnectedness of the world in times marked by major crisis: the earthquake in the Sichuan province, China and more
recently the financial crisis.
Rather than despairing, the works explore the multiplicity of disaster through the roots of calligraphy -- the Chinese character
for crisis is a combination of the two characters for danger and opportunity -- executed in contemporary form.

For more information and samples of artwork please visit http://zhaoyizhou.co.uk
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Mischa Altmann (agent)
+44 7729 841 648

Zhao Yizhou
Chinese Calligrapher
http://zhaoyizhou.co.uk