Maleonn opens on October 16 at Ogilvy New York

(September 29, 2008)

P R E S S R E L E A S E

Maleonn opens on October 16 at Ogilvy New York;

Rising Chinese art star has first solo show in America

ABOUT OGILVY GALLERY

Ogilvy New York has always been a strong supporter of the Arts, and over the course of a year, has focused on a growing list of curated shows within the agency itself. With a consistent rotation of top artistic talent, working closely with galleries and museums, the agency ensures an interesting and at times provocative line-up of work that aims to inspire thought and infuse discussion.

Works on display on the walls of the agency's 12 floors include Thunderdog Studios, Mint & Serf, Friends with You, Cannonball Press, Bilderklub, Mark Dean Veca, Chris Scarborough with The Foley Gallery, Yee Haw Industries, Henrik Krundsen, Moshe Brakha, Kenji Aoki, The Art Student's League of New York, Yo! What Happened to Peace Collective, Kareem Black, James Rieck and Maleonn.

THE MALEONN EXHIBITION

Jun Lee, Art Curator at Ogilvy New York, presents a range of works by Maleonn (nom d'artiste for Ma Liang) from several series created between 2005 and 2008. The show opens October 16 and runs for three months.

As Peter Goddard, the visual arts critic for the Toronto Star (the largest-circulation newspaper in Canada), has written, Maleonn is the "reigning fabulist among today's new crop of photographers with an almost child-like imagination producing lyrical digital fantasies." Maleonn's photography - alternately (and often simultaneously) playful and edged with the macabre - juxtaposes with singular artistic power widespread feelings of dislocation and unease at the pace of change in today's China, on the one hand, and the welcoming of new horizons of self-expression and cultural vitality, on the other. Many of the works in the show explore the evolution of Chinese identity. His works narrate the intersection of multiple contemporary influences (from various globalizations to China's frenetic capitalism) and deep historical currents (from traditional culture to the Mao period). For his most recent show at CraigScottGallery in Toronto, Maleonn commented on his theatrical and painterly photographic world by saying that it "cannot be completely classified." He turns to aesthetic expressionism "to demonstrate the labyrinth of our spirits," preferring his work "to be the same as my spiritual world: complex and profound, kind and wicked, naïve and cruel, suspicious and trustful, painful and happy, all existing at the same time and becoming more real by virtue of their interaction."

ABOUT MALEONN

Born in 1972, Maleonn resides and works in Shanghai. After graduating from the Fine Arts College of Shanghai University in 1995, he went on to become a director of short films including television advertisements. His artistic and unique style made him a well-known figure, and even a sort of cultural icon, in the creative community in Shanghai and to some extent to the wider populace to whom his commercials appealed. In 2004, Maleonn turned to photography-based art and mixed-media works (photography and painting). He has appeared in numerous group exhibitions worldwide as well as solo exhibitions in China, Singapore, Canada, Thailand and the United States. Work has been featured in group exhibitions in important museums such as, in 2008, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville. Between the Ogilvy New York show and the end of 2008, Maleonn has a solo exhibition at the Shanghai Art Museum in November and a feature appearance in the Craig Scott Gallery exhibit at the photoMIAMI art fair in early December.

Biography has clearly played a shaping role in Maleonn's art. Maleonn's father was Shanghai's leading opera director at the time of his and his family's banishment to a re-education camp during China's Cultural Revolution, and his mother was a well-known screen actress. Both the theatrical and the filmic are clear influences in his work. But so is a resolute independence of mind and freedom of spirit that must partly stem from being separated from his interned parents while being raised by extended family. From the intersection of these influences and propelled by sheer innate artistic creativity and technical talent, Maleonn has emerged as a major artist and cultural figure in 21st Century Shanghai.

ABOUT CRAIG SCOTT GALLERY

Craig Scott Gallery has represented Maleonn since late 2005, the first gallery to represent him (soon followed by Aura Gallery in Shanghai). The gallery is located in downtown eastside Toronto. A regular schedule of exhibitions sees eight to ten solo or two-person shows per year. Works in a broad range of media and styles are exhibited. Apart from promoting top-drawer emerging and under-recognized Canadian talent, Craig Scot Gallery introduces exceptional artists from around the world to North America. In 2006, the gallery gave Maleonn his first solo exhibition outside Asia. Artists such as Uttaporn Nimmalaikaew (at age 28, already two-time recipient of Thailand's National Art Prize in Painting) and Gianni Pennisi ("the greatest collagist in the world": Joseph Beuys, 1979, to the media and critics at Beuys' retrospective show at the Guggenheim New York) have also been introduced or re-introduced to North America by the gallery.

To see images of Maleonn's work, please click here.