January 8 — February 12, 2022
RECYCLED
C. Meng
Conduit Gallery is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of new work by Boston-based artist C. Meng.
Meng’s latest body of work comprises interpretational small-scale paintings and large mixed media pieces, a fusion of eastern and western artistic ideals. Prevented his usual stream of visual stimulus from travels and pre-pandemic rhythms, this work is the result of a delve into his repository of saved, found and captured photographs collected through daily life. Honoring the Impressionists as well as traditional folk imagery, Meng recreates these images through his own facile hand, delivering a new interpretation. Disassociating an image from its original context sparked Meng’s curiosity about the intrinsic meaning in imagery and how it will be received and interpreted once transformed. Not only are the images recycled, but quite literally his materials are as well. Hating to throw away the packaging from so many ordered pandemic supplies, he gave rebirth to cast aside materials, applying a painter’s approach to ‘building’ large scale works.
C. Meng has exhibited his paintings internationally as well as in the U.S., including: 420 W. Broadway Art Space, New York, NY; Davis Museum, Wellesley, MA; Longview Museum of Art, Longview, TX; Shanghai Normal University, A.R.T., Cambridge, MA; Shanghai, China; Eastlink Gallery, Beijing, China; Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; Fairfield University, Fairfield, CN and the Osaka Triennial, Public Exhibit Space, Osaka, Japan. After receiving a B.A. in Art from the Shanghai Teacher University, Shanghai, China he earned an M.F.A. in Painting from Miami University, Oxford, OH. From 1997 to 2015, Meng held the position of Senior Lecturer in Art at Wellesley College in Wellesley, MA. Meng now lives and works between China and the U.S. His work is included in several notable contemporary art collections including those of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA; Miami Art Museum, Miami University, Oxford, OH; and The Art Collection of the Federal Reserve, Dallas, TX.