本次展览将展出艺术家张然在近年内创作的油画和素描绘画作品，意在呈现她通过对于身份转变的思考、对于角色适应过程中的阶段性审视来探寻自我的处境与定位。张然的艺术实践基于她对生活有意识的觉察，同时生活也在塑造她的创作方式，进而演化为个人艺术语言的蜕变。

The exhibition comprises oil paintings and sketches by Zhang Ran over the past few years, aiming to present the conditions and realities of the self through her reflection about the changes in her role and the phased examination while adapting to the altered role. Zhang Ran’s art comes from her observation of life, and life in its turn also shapes her way of doing art, leading to the transformation in his aesthetic practice.

“描摹”意为对特定的形象进行如实地摹写，又如柏拉图所说画家的摹仿是“影子的影子”。在真实与画面之间，由于艺术家的转化所构成的差异性即隐藏着造物者自身的感性张力。“练习”的复数性与过程性，意味着艺术家在实践中不断折返于真实与画面之间的行为与心理轨迹。

Representation means faithful rendering of given images, “shadow of the shadow”, in Plato’s words. Between reality and painting, the differences derived from the shift in the artist’s practice is actually an implication of the sentimental intensity on the part of the creator. “Practice”, plural and procedural, can also refer to the behavioral process an artist goes through between reality and painting, along with his psychological trajectory.

即将在展览中展出的自画像系列作品可被视为艺术家对于架上绘画的一次实践，虽然毕业于鲁迅美术学院油画系，但张然的前期创作媒介并非仅围绕绘画为中心展开，而是融合了装置、文本等多种综合性材料。由于经历女性生命角色转变所引发的感知方式和思维模式的改变，使艺术家逐渐摒弃了架上媒介的负担性，继而运用娴熟的绘画手法将时间性的沉淀巧妙而通顺的呈现在画面上，并以自画像为题材实现了自我状态与面貌的双重再现。

The self-portraits at the exhibition highlight the practice the artist made in easel painting. Though graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Luxun Academy of Fine Arts, she did not focus her early works on painting but chose mixed media like installation and text. Changes in her role as a women led to shift in her perception and thinking, thus releasing her from the burden of the easel and inspiring her to transfer in a skilful and natural way the passage of time onto the canvas. These self-portraits therefore become the dual representation of her state of mind and her image then.

此外，在被艺术家戏谑称为“妇女画派”的静物系列作品中，张然用精致的、细腻的笔触描绘了生活化的场景，凸显出视觉效果与图像素材构成的反差性，也印证着她在家庭生活与艺术实践中不同角色之间的转换。人像系列通过记录对身边朋友和家人的观察，影射出艺术家自身在“大他者”凝视下试图突破桎梏的状态。画面中的人物被定格在一种静谧、不安的氛围的笼罩之中，看似具象写实的绘画，却游离于失真的边缘。三个系列的绘画作品共同展示了艺术家以自我剖析的方式，将向内关注的情感体验流露出来。

Besides, we see delicate and fine treatment of everyday life scenes in the still life series dubbed “women’s school”, giving prominence to the contrast between the visual effect and the image material, echoing the changes in her role in family life and in art practice. These portraits, though observation of her friends and his family, mirror herself as an artist in an attempt to free herself from the constraints. With figures in a tranquil but disquieting atmosphere, these paintings seem to be figurative and true-to-life but in fact drift toward distortion. The three series work to present an artist who reveals her inner world by means of self analysis.

关于艺术家

张然
1980年 生于辽宁抚顺
2005年 毕业于鲁迅美术学院油画系
现工作生活于辽宁沈阳

展览经历：
制性造别，泰康空间，北京，2018
青策计划 2017 甜蜜的家，PSA 上海当代艺术博物馆，上海，2017
shift 0 号展览+事件，走调空间，沈阳，2017
进行日项目一、二，失败书店，沈阳，2016
马耳山艺术计划及文献展，沈阳，2015
丛林 II — 弥漫的形态，站台中国，北京，2013
十年，鲁迅美术学院美术馆，沈阳，2009

关于七木空间：

七木空间力求呈现艺术家及其作品在当今中国社会下的活跃的思想及鲜活生命力，擅于同艺术家就视觉艺术的多种可能进行探讨与实践，支持艺术家针对不同“空间”的分析与实验，并致力于扶持艺术家在社会与自然空间内进行视觉研究与创造。

七木空间对展览项目持公共开放的态度，接受来自艺术家、策展人以及各类研究机构的展览项目提案。自2016年11月开幕以来的展览中，呈现了艺术家、策展人和建筑团队的空间特别定制作品。

在完成了七木空间位于宋庄艺术区空间的第一阶段工作实践后，于2022年盛夏开启其位于751艺术区的新空间，力求扶持推广青年艺术家，并将持续致力于实践当代艺术在多领域的融合发展可能性。