"Crossing the Dry Sea" is a solo presentation of recent oil paintings by Furong Zhang addressing emotions and ideas revolving around being a first-generation Chinese American immigrant. Zhang’s paintings explore concepts of alienation and displacement, self-contradiction, power structures, industrialization, and historical erasure through allegorical figurative scenes juxtaposing mythologized memories and experiences of living in China and immigrating to America. The figures in the paintings are in the process of transformative journeys, and act as metaphors of how an immigrant’s utopian dreams collide and coexist in uneasy harmony with the reality of contemporary American society and notions of belonging. An aura of an aftermath permeates through the paintings, as the surroundings that the scenes take place in fluctuate between interior and exterior as if they are psychological landscapes.

The title of the exhibition asks: What does it look like journeying across the dry sea of the mind, a symbolic space of transformations, in-betweenness, and a search for meaning? How does one situate oneself in an absurd society?

Opening Reception & Artist Talk
Friday, October 14, 2022
5-6PM Opening Reception
6-7PM Artist Talk & Exhibition Walkthrough

展覽“穿越枯海”以張富榮的一系列油畫，探討了一個移民的生活和持有的烏托邦式的夢想及神話如何與當下美國社會的現實沖突，並在不安的和諧中共存。有些畫作被描繪成想象的自然場景，靈感來自于傳統的山水畫，以喚起一種曆史和地理上的距離感。 這些繪畫 包含了關于重生的自傳隱喻。面對著當下變化的社會環境和對身份的重新定義，重生是對曆史的一種消化過程。作品反思並诠釋了與生命周期相關的神話寓意，通過來自不同時期的人物，賦予一種荒誕的現實。這些畫作表現了一種渴望：即“逃離”到一個田園詩般的、伊甸園般的涅槃之地，在那裏，人們可以在意念中的自然裏重生，沒有沖突和混亂。這些作品同時質疑自己，人們如何在一個荒誕的社會中定位自己？我們能否穿越意念中的枯海，以達彼岸？

開幕酒會&藝術家座談
2022年10月14日
5-6時：開幕酒會
6-7時：藝術家座談&展覽介紹