Meredith Sands and Ziyang Wu Exhibition

Nancy Margolis Gallery

[Image: Meredith Sands "Hands On Learning I" (2016) Oil on canvas, 72 x 72 in.]

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Nancy Margolis Gallery presents an exhibition of works by two talented young artists, Meredith Sands and Ziyang Wu.

Meredith Sands who graduated this year from Columbia’s MFA program, will be exhibiting her newest seventy-two square inch paintings. Her most recent paintings, contrasting her complex and dense paintings she created in the earlier years, are much bolder and simpler in composition. The cartoonish, peculiar hand is found in each of her painting. This not only tenderly envelops viewers with curiosity but also gives a clue to her inspiration behind each painting.

Her work explores themes related to the human body, obscenity, innocence, violence, games, toys, and absurd humor. An adult hand in a child’s world, her work takes hues and aesthetics associated with youth and juxtaposes them with not so tongue-in-cheek imagery. Unbridled hands playfully slap, poke, pinch, and grab in her colorful, cartoon world of opposing elements.

Meredith Sands received a MFA at Columbia University, New York, this year, a BFA at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois and previously had studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art. She has also attended residencies at Ox-Bow, Saugatuck, Michigan and at Giorgio Upiglio, Milan, Italy. She has participated in numerous exhibitions, including solo exhibitions at Thomas Masters Gallery, Chicago and University Club, Chicago and group exhibitions at Stairway Studios, Chicago, Thomas Masters Gallery, Chicago and Judith Charles Gallery, New York.

Ziyang Wu, who grew up China, received his MFA in 2016 from the Rhode Island School of Design. Trained as a painter, Wu gradually realized that painting as his primary means of expression was too limiting. “I’m always dissatisfied by a single visual form and seek to include different elements in my work such as technology, drama, and influences from other cultures.” Wu’s search for a medium that would allow more opportunity for diverse expression, led him to video which he discovered was a natural form for him.

Focusing on contemporary China, its political and social world, Wu created stories replete with ridicule of its leaders, subtly embedded below the surface. Themes of oppression, corruption, absurd behavior make sharp contrasts with the visual beauty of the animation and its power to magically, and magnetically draw you in. Adding to the theater of these videos is deep mesmerizing atonal humming that moves up and down in cascading volumes, reinforcing the somber mood and ambiance. The audience noticeably caught up by the story and eerie music could be heard humming along with the music from the video.

Ziyang Wu, originally from Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China, received a MFA at Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island, this year, a BFA at the Florence Academy of Fine Art in Italy. Since he graduated from college, his art practice has been focused on what Henri LeFebvre termed micro-alienation within contemporary Chinese society through a combination of video, painting, installation and performance. Wu has shown his work internationally in China, USA, and Europe including exhibitions at the Milan Design Week, at the Medici Palace, and at the Academy Art Museum in Maryland. In July 2016, Nancy Margolis Gallery featured his work in the RISD Thesis exhibition. This past year he was invited by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation to gather archival materials from his exhibitions and art events in China during the 1980s.