Leaving the Muse of Helicon Mountain
Artist:Wangcong
Exhibition:Wang Fang
Curator:Lin Zhu
Exhibition coordination:Zhao Xinyu
Exhibition Period：2025/03.02-2025/04.08
Opening Time：2025.03.02 PM2:30
Sponsored by:DCA·Exit V Art Museum
DCA·Exit V Museum,No.122-1,Zhuzhou Road,Laoshan District,Qingdao City
-- Foreword --
Body Narratives and Social Reflections in Wang Cong’s Paintings
By Lin Zhu
Wang Cong is a representative female artist I have been following since launching my online art project Future·Tathāgata – A Sampling Plan of Chinese Artists in 2016. I say so because, in my impression, she stands as a truly distinctive figure in China’s art circle for employing bodily language as a narrative device to reflect social phenomena and personal emotional consciousness. The unmediated sensibility and emotional authenticity embodied in her works compel viewers to contemplate issues surrounding “womanhood” and “social conditions”—specifically, the actual existence and circumstances of the female body in contemporary society. Here, I would like to quote a passage I wrote eight or nine years ago when I first encountered Wang Cong’s works; it captures my immediate response as a viewer upon perceiving the essence of her art. For I believe this instinctive reaction to her creations resonates with many who experience her work.
“Wang Cong’s art unsettles me. Even though we have never met, nor even exchanged a single word, this sense of unease stems entirely from viewing her Spirit·Realm series—a restlessness stirred by primal hormonal energy. Her works teeter on the threshold of animalistic instinct, capable of revealing either a Buddha-like compassion or a demonic ferocity. In this regard, they echo Marina Abramović’s performance piece Rhythm 0, which relinquishes power to the audience, challenging their capacity for self-determination and restraint.”
As a female artist, Wang Cong rejects the constraints of traditional moral paradigms that confine women to expressing mere sentimental lamentations of personal melancholy. Instead, her works exude a bold, assertive vitality akin to masculine vigor. She magnifies human figures marked by distinct sexual characteristics, placing them front and center on the canvas with unflinching directness. The result is a visually arresting power that reverberates in the soul—a raw intensity of emotional expression that evokes Edvard Munch’s The Scream. Yet unlike Munch’s work, which confronts the abject despair of mortality, Wang Cong’s art adopts a perspective that blends personal experience with detached observation. In her portrayal of the relationship between women and societal realities, she conveys a formidable strength—a genuine, visceral experience that surges forth from the depths of the heart. Her works are imbued with a rich tapestry of contradictions and metaphors: dominance and submission, resistance and compliance, delirium and joy, maternity, the nurturing earth, and the original sin of life. Ultimately, they lay bare the myriad challenges faced by women stepping into the spotlight in today’s Chinese society.
Years later, my perception of Wang Cong and the consistency of her artistic vision remain unchanged. Nevertheless, the cumulative weight of life experiences and insights has inevitably shaped the thematic expressions of her recent works. Compared to her early pieces, which brimmed with unbridled wildness and emotional catharsis, her newer creations increasingly embrace the inherent beauty of life itself. They evoke the innate grace and dynamism of the “Spartan youth”—a vitality that emanates from within, much like a dancer’s movements weaving through the theater of society. Her art now balances immersive engagement with life’s scenarios and a vigilant, objective detachment. From the fierce defiance of her early works to the current embrace of understanding and acceptance of fate, this shift reflects Wang Cong’s evolving perception of life, infusing her art with a warm undercurrent of “the unity of all living beings.”
When the Muse, the goddess of art, descends upon the mortal world, it is never a sign of exhausted inspiration. She may continue to sing the praises of heroes, but she will undoubtedly also heed the joys and sufferings of human existence, chanting tales of the mortal experience. All love and hatred, all sorrow and joy, converge to compose a hymn of life that celebrates both the spiritual and the corporeal. Such is the essence of Wang Cong’s art—and such is the essence of every one of us. This may be no more than the fantasy of ordinary mortals, yet it is also a testament to life’s longing for transcendence. In the face of truth, there is love, and there is hope.
Lin Zhu
Director, Dechang Art & Culture Institution and V-Exit Art Museum
Co-founder and Chief Curator, Qingdao International Art Biennale
-- Selected Works --
Spirit·Realm Series, 80×100CM, Acrylic on Canvas
Spirit·Realm Series, 80×80CM, Oil on Canvas
Spirit·Realm Series, 100×130CM, Acrylic on Canvas
Spirit·Realm Series, 130×100CM, Oil on Canvas
Spirit·Realm Series, 100×130CM, Oil on Canvas
Spirit·Realm Series, 125×125CM, Oil on Canvas
Spirit·Realm Series, 125×125CM, Oil on Canvas
Spirit·Realm Series, 80×100CM, Oil on Canvas
Spirit·Realm Series, 80×100CM, Oil on Canvas
Landscape Series, 80×100CM, Oil on Canvas
-- Artist --
Wang Cong
Currently based in Wenzhou
2014 13th Zhejiang Provincial Fine Arts Exhibition
2014 Nanjing International Fine Arts Exhibition
2015 14th Zhejiang Provincial Watercolor and Gouache Exhibition
2015 Zhejiang Provincial Fine Arts Exhibition with the Theme of Five-water Co-governance
2015 6th Zhejiang Provincial Young Artists Fine Arts Exhibition
2015 Gazing China Contemporary Female Art Biennale (Merit Award)
2015 National Oil Painting Exhibition at Wu Guanzhong Art Museum
2015 Zhejiang Provincial Rural Auditorium Visual Arts Exhibition (Bronze Award)
2015 Integration · Expansion Zhejiang Provincial Oil Painting Exhibition
2017 4th West Meets East Chinese-American Excellent Works Exhibition
2019 Power – The 1st China Expressionism Touring Exhibition (Gold Award)
2020 Existence · International Female Art Online Exhibition
2020 International Feminist Art Practice Online Solo Exhibition Series
2022 Northern Abstract Art Exhibition for the Opening of Jinshihuai Art Space
2022 Solo Exhibition in Paris, France
2022 China-Europe International Young Artists Exchange Exhibition, Qingdao
2023 Solo Exhibition at Longxi Art Museum
2024 Qingdao International Art Biennale
-- Exhibition Venue --
