Seeing Beyond Red: Interview with Wang Guangle
By Mimi Wong
Portrait of WANG GUANGLE. All images courtesy Pace Gallery, New York / London / Beijing / Hong Kong / Palo Alto / Seoul / Geneva.
Wang Guangle may be known for his colorful abstractions on canvas, but the element most fundamental to the Beijing-based artist’s work is time. A Fujianese burial tradition, in which an elderly person purchases a casket and adds a coat of lacquer every year until they finally pass, served as the inspiration for his “Coffin Paint” series (2004– ), where Wang paints layers of color to re-enact this commemoration of longevity, mortality and time.
