Group Therapy by Jon Burgerman: Beijing

21 July - 30 September 2022

WOAW Gallery is pleased to present New York based artist Jon Burgerman solo exhibition Group Therapy in Beijing. The exhibition is on view from July 21 to September 30, in Blanc International Contemporary Art Space (3F, Building D7, Yard No.3, East Jinhang Road, Shunyi District, Beijing, China).

 

Burgerman presents an exploration of communal consciousness in his busy, radiant canvases, which hum with a lyrical harmony and yet contrast with feelings of disconnect and dissonance. Characters huddle together displaying a spectrum of emotions, mirroring an innate joy of being connected whilst carrying an underlying 21st century anxiety.

 

Single characters break out from the amorphous masses and inhabit the gallery as unique shaped wood panels. These distinctively Burgerman silhouettes carry deep associated memories, recalling with fondness witty abstractions of animals, pets, cartoons and childhood toys.

 

The artist invites the audience to allow their mind to wonder with curiosity and play across the paintings.  In the words of Jon Burgerman, ‘colours dance and create memorable visual melodies, a continuum of Miró and Kandinsky, albeit to a rhythm often informed by contemporary electronic music’. These paintings pop and fizz with energy that entices the viewer into its world. In this way the experience of the audience becomes participatory, and one with the joyful phantasmagoria.