The Skin of Truth | Fly to Baku Art Weekend

JD Malat Gallery is pleased to present The Skin of Truth, in collaboration with Fly to Baku Art Weekend, at the iconic Heydar Aliyev Center.

The exhibition features Beijing based artist Zhang Ji, who's work merges ancient symbolism and a contemporary sensibility in a practice that reconsiders what painting can be. Begun in 2011, the series emerged from a childhood fascination with intricate decorative reliefs that he encountered, which later expanded into a sustained investigation of religious architecture across cultures. Sacred sites around the world become  points of departure for Zhang’s abstract compositions, carrying with them layers of history, ritual and collective memory.

Extensive travelling and documentation provide a foundation for his works, on which architectural details from mosques, temples, churches and other religious structures are extracted, and motifs are translated into painting.

At the centre of Zhang’s practice is a radical rethinking of the painting itself. Rather than employing the conventional brushstroke, he uses a syringe  to patiently apply paint onto canvas. From a distance, the works can appear atmospheric and weightless; up close, their density reveals the extraordinary labour embedded within them. The patterns retain echoes of sacred architecture and spirituality, while becoming detached from any singular religious or cultural meaning

Across the series, Zhang transforms historical memory into a contemporary visual experience. They invite a slower form of looking, in which the works become a meditation on how images endure, and how the past continues to inhabit the present.