作者介绍

菲利普-洛卡•迪科西亚
—透过光影描摹真实的摄影家

    在摄影当代艺术史中，菲利普-洛卡•迪科西亚始终占据着相当重要的位置。在他的作品中，处处存在着精心制造出来的“真实”，看似对生活场景的不经意抓拍，其实都是巧妙设计的摆拍。他对“摄影的瞬间”作出了全新的定义，利用光影虚构出生活场景，却又在细枝末节尽量还原生活常态，体现出其真实性，两厢虚实结合最终使他的作品呈现出一种微妙的间离感，为倡导领悟非凡的马爹利所推崇，从而成为2012年度“马爹利非凡艺术人物”。

    菲利普拥有鲜明的个人特色，他的所有作品都包含了后现代文学及纪录片这两种大相径庭的表现风格，通过戏剧化的光影处理，将平常人置于精心雕琢的舞台之上，讲述着他们生活中的喜怒哀乐。运用非现实的艺术手法，在观者与作品间搭建出屏障，迫使他们与真实生活产生一定距离并重新审视其本质。这也是菲利普一直秉持的生活与艺术态度，他作品中的每一处细节，都满溢着浓厚的生活质感，每一个人物，都表露着饱满的生活诉求，穿梭在各自的人间悲喜剧中。但他对硬光和侧逆光的精准运用，又营造出异于生活的凌烈氛围。正是这种带有强烈主观口吻却又客观审度的创作态度，使他的作品更加接近艺术与生活的本真。

    菲利普最为著名的作品有三个系列，一个是拍摄自己的家人和朋友的日常生活，第二个系列是在街头随机抓拍行人，他的第三套作品在好莱坞拍摄，将游走在边缘的小人物置于好莱坞大片的宏大氛围中。在他创作的摄影集《Thousand》中，所有照片都以抓拍的形态出现，实则是精心设计并摆拍而成的“制造真实”。在考究的戏剧化灯光下，现实中的人仿佛不经意闯入菲利普编织的舞台场景之中。现实和虚幻混沌地杂糅结合，在冲突的艺术美感包裹之下，《Thousand》表达着“一千个人一千种生活”的艺术概念，展现着发人深省的现实根基。

    菲利普不仅拥有敏锐的观察力，准确的捕捉力，更熟稔艺术创作与真实生活的微妙关系。他用一种看似间离的舞台效果，打破普通摄影对生活的单纯复制，于此基础上再尽量增添现实的原生态，最终透过虚实结合的口吻述说真实的艺术与生活本质，而这一系列复杂的创作过程仅存在于按下快门的弹指间。他不仅是一个记录者，更是一位创造者。
 
2012 Martell Artists of the Year

Philip-Lorca diCorcia
-A Photographer Who Uses Virtual Lighting to Create Reality

Philip-Lorca diCorcia has long held a significant position in the history of contemporary photography. When the photographer officially made a name for himself as an artist in the 1970s, he had a major influence on audiences in their acceptance of photography as an art form. His works are brimming with a meticulously created “reality”, and while it seems he is merely taking accidental snapshots of scenes from life, his photographic compositions are in fact exquisitely arranged. Utilizing shadow to fabricate scenes from life, he completely redefined what’s known in photography as the decisive moment; he also utilizes minor details to restore a sense of normalcy to life and give full expression to its realities, an approach that ultimately injects his work with a subtle sense of alienation. These are all outstanding artistic qualities advocated by Martell and earn Philip-Lorca diCorcia the “2012 Martell Artist of the Year”.

The art of Philip-Lorca diCorcia possesses distinct personal characteristics. His works embody two completely different expressive styles - one documentary, the other post-modern and literary. By means of a dramatic lighting process, Philip places ordinary people in elaborately constructed scenes and captures the full range of their emotional lives. Drawing on artificial means of artistic expression, Philip throws up an alienating barrier between the artwork and the audience, establishing a fixed distance between viewers and real life, and thus compelling them to reexamine life’s very essence. Moreover, this way of life and artistic attitude is something to which the artist has always adhered.  Every detail in his work brims with the rich tapestries of life, and as they dart back and forth through their own tragicomic worlds, each and every figure reveals life’s deepest attractions. Yet through nuanced applications of hard lighting and back lighting, the artist also builds an atmosphere of cool detachment. This intense subjectivity of tone along with the objective observations of his artistic mind is precisely why Philip’s work bridges the gap between art and life.

The artist’s most famous work is comprised of three series. In one series, he took shots of friends and family from his everyday life; in a second series, he featured in random snapshots of pedestrians in the street; in the third series, shot in Hollywood, Philip took unknown people from society’s margins and placed them in the grand atmosphere of the Hollywood blockbuster. In his photographic collection entitled Thousand, all the photos take the form of spontaneous snapshots but in fact serve as “fabricated realities” both meticulously arranged and photographed. Beneath exquisitely dramatic lighting, it’s as if people from everyday reality accidentally burst in to Philip’s fabricated stage settings. Meshing reality and illusion, juxtaposing conflicting senses of artistic beauty, Thousand expresses the concept that “for every thousand individuals, you have a thousand different kinds of lives,” an approach that provides the viewer with a real basis for reflection.
 
The artist not only possesses acute powers of observation and photographic accuracy, but he also has intimate knowledge of the subtle connections between artistic creativity and real life.  He uses what seems to be alienating stage effects in order to smash the simplistic duplications of life found in conventional photography, adding to the perceptual framework a more balanced and primal reality. Ultimately, through his tonal juxtapositions of the virtual and the real, the photographer narrates both the art of reality and the essence of life. What’s even more amazing is that all his complex creative processes are brought together in the single moment it takes to click the shutter. Philip-Lorca diCorcia is not only a documentary photographer but – fortunately for us - an imaginative one as well.

刘 韡
—颠覆秩序探求真实的艺术家

    作为中国最重要的观念艺术家之一，刘韡以其卓越的创造力和对艺术语言形式的广泛运用备受关注。通过绘画，雕塑、装置、等叙述媒介，刘韡的作品力图突破固有的限定，不仅止于质疑、思考、讽刺和结论，甚至连同观者在内的整个过程都得到了多层次的立体展现。在对艺术的手段、符号、实践的探索背后，隐含着艺术家对艺术的实质，对外部世界秩序的冷静审度和深刻反省，为倡导领悟非凡的马爹利所推崇，从而成为2012年度“马爹利非凡艺术人物”。

    刘韡作品的表现形式多种多样，但主题却恒久而深刻，反思物质内部的真实秩序，聚焦社会环境对人的异化。物的秩序是刘韡始终探讨的命题，在其作品中我们可以直观而深刻地体会到他对秩序的思考与颠覆。他认为所见未必其实，表层的排列并不代表真实的美，而真正的驱动来自内部或不可见的另一侧面，于是他决定颠覆人们已认知的既定秩序，并为他们展现最真实的艺术之美。同时，他还特别注重探讨艺术视觉样式与观者参与间的互动性，通过对观众感官与心理的交替作用而促使其重新审视身处的空间。

    在中国众多当代艺术家中，刘韡以其对各种矛盾关系与不和谐秩序的深刻探索独树一帜，他选择的叙述角度独特且精准，表现方式内敛而节制。通过对无数物质内部秩序的重新架构，审视与反省个体、群体、社会甚至自然间的多重关系，这一特色在他最著名的作品《仅仅是个错误II》中尤为鲜明，不同颜色，木制旧建筑材料堆积交错，复杂而古怪，却展现出张力十足的和谐美感。

刘韡通过直接的视觉化呈现，将他心中对秩序之美难以言表的理解传达给观者。他认为只有秩序才能展现物质真实的美，透过深刻的思想观念与严谨的思考和创作，他将物质内部，甚至社会内的秩序梳理归纳，打破重建并引导观者融入其中，从另一个维度探求真实的物质存在。

2012 Martell Artists of the Year

Liu Wei
-- A Conceptual Artist Who Subverts Order in Search for Authenticity

As one of China’s most important conceptual artists, Liu Wei has drawn major attention for his outstanding creativity and broad use of artistic languages and forms. Through narrative media such as paintings, sculptures and installations, he seeks to break through existing boundaries. His work does not stop at posing questions, contemplating answers, satirizing or drawing conclusions, but becomes a multi-layered and multi-dimensional expression of the entire creative process which even includes viewers. Behind his exploration of artistic methods, symbols and practice, lies an artist’s cool-headed and profound reflection on the order of the external world, making him deserving the “2012 Martell Artists of the Year” award.

Liu Wei’s work takes a wide variety of expressive forms, but the underlying theme stays the same – reflecting on the real, inherent order of things and focusing on the alienating effect of the social environment on individuals. The order of things is a subject that Liu Wei consistently explores. His work gives us an intuitive and profound sense of his investigation and subversion of order. He believes that what we see is not necessarily what is real, that surface arrangements do not represent true beauty, and that the one true driving force comes from within ourselves or, rather, from some un-seeable place. Thus, he has resolved to subvert the established order that people already accept in order to see the truest possible artistic beauty. He is also especially attentive to the interaction that arises as the viewers participate in the visual environment of his art, inducing them to reexamine the space they inhabit through a combination of sensory and psychological stimulation. 

Of the many Chinese contemporary artists we see today, Liu Wei is unique in his deep exploration of conflicting relationships and disorder. His choice of narrative angle is unique and accurate, while his method of expression is contained and disciplined. By restructuring the internal order of a myriad of objects, his work examines the multiple relationships between individuals and group, society or even nature. This is most apparent in his signature piece Merely a Mistake II, which juxtaposes old building materials of different colors and wood textures to a complex and odd effect, but somehow emanates a dynamic and harmonious kind of beauty.

Through direct visual representation, Liu Wei conveys to the viewers his otherwise inexpressible understanding of the beauty of order. He considers order as the only way through which the true beauty of things can be demonstrated. Through a process of disciplined thinking and creation, a process anchored deep in his conceptual ideas, Liu Wei is able to reconfigure the order within objects or even society in a manner of creative destruction, and guide the viewers to step inside and explore the true sense of being from another dimension.

（范西拍摄）

向 京
—以细腻的肢体语言对话世界的雕塑家

    作为当代备受瞩目的雕塑艺术家，向京透过独特的视角，为其雕塑作品创造了敏锐、微妙而丰富的艺术特性，又通过对原材料进行复杂加工这一古典艺术创作手法，使她的作品返璞归真，回归“自然”。在极具多元化且一味追求视觉冲击的当代艺术界，向京利用新锐与传统结合的艺术手法，表现出细腻敏感与真实自然，追溯人类本真的纯净，并反思现实环境给予人性的复杂影响，透露出浓烈的人本关怀色彩。为倡导领悟非凡的马爹利所推崇，从而成为2012年度“马爹利非凡艺术人物”。

    出于对“人”的高度关注和超乎寻常的敏锐，向京选择通过自然的形体来探究艺术的本质，实现对美的追求。向京的作品关注人在当下的感受，精确捕捉自然形体处于不同情绪的微妙状态，并将艺术家丰富的个人体验倾注其中，这赋予了作品生动的灵魂和直抵观者心灵深处的影响力。 由于艺术家对“当下”的自然形体进行了纯粹而真实地还原，作品具有的感官震慑，让观者与产生强烈的同感，促使他们反观自己所处的环境。

    从《你的身体》到《这个世界会好吗？》，向京对经验的体察从个体延伸到群体，唯一不变的是对自然和真实的探求，对美的深切表达。在《你的身体》《全裸》等系列作品中，艺术家将个人视角下的大世界进行了微妙而丰富的展现，纯粹而真实的身体成为艺术家手中富于力量的语言。而在最近的《这个世界会好吗？》系列作品中，艺术家在个体的关注之外，增加了对群体以及处境的关注，对生命的内在进行更为多样的透视。这一包含了“杂技”“动物”等不同系列的作品淡化了当下社会处境的具体内容，却对生命本质的体验进一步深化，内中包含了艺术家的深切关怀。

    “审美在我看来意味着去看一个人真正心灵的东西”，这是向京对于美的独到认识。正如其所言，她的作品揭示了人性更深处的东西，回归了纯粹的真实，并对影响人性的复杂环境进行细致的探索与反思，推动身处其中的我们在被作品打动之后，对个体和群体、处境与人性进行更深刻的思考。
 
2012 Martell Artists of the Year

Xiang Jing
-- A Sculptor Whose Exquisite Body Language Speaks to the World

As a sculptor who enjoys major attention, Xiang Jing’s independent perspective injects her work with edge, subtlety and artistic richness. Through her sophisticated handling of materials, her relatively conventional artistic technique returns her works to an original purity and brings them back to “nature”. As her diversified approach and relentless pursuit makes a visual impact on the world of contemporary art, Xiang Jing draws on a combination of both cutting-edge and traditional artistic techniques. With subtle sensitivity and true nature, the artist rediscovers an original human purity, reflects on the complicated impact that the environment places on human beings and reveals the intense colors of human affection. These outstanding qualities are all advocated by Martell and earn Xiang Jing the “2012 Martell Artist of the Year”.

Grounded in extraordinary “human” tenderness and razor-sharp perception, Xiang Jing takes natural forms to investigate issues so essential to the world and humanity. Doing so, she explores possibilities in the unique artistic language of the moment. Xiang Jing’s works focus on people’s direct experience. Through meticulous observation and emotional rendering of humanity, she pours in her own personal experience as an artist –injecting her work with an animated liveliness and leaving a profound impression in viewers’ minds. Not only does the artist restore natural forms of “the moment” to reality, but the sensory shock that characterizes her work produces profound sympathy in viewers’ hearts.

From Your Body to Will Things Ever Get Better? , Xiang Jing extends her observations of experience from the individual to the group, the only constants being her insight and affection for humanity. In series such as Your Body and Naked Beyond Skin, the artist’s individual perspective of the world emerges with refined subtlety as she transforms pure and authentic bodies into a richly powerful visual language. In her most recent series of works, entitled Will Things Ever Get Better?, the artist turns her attentive eye toward the current affairs and future concerns of humanity, providing a more diverse perspective on people’s inner lives. This group of art works, including such series as Acrobats and Animals, downplays the specifics in current social conditions. The work also contains her reflections and deep concerns for human destiny.

“Aesthetics is not my concern. What’s more important is how to see the things of one’s own true heart, and to endeavor to build on that.” This is the knowledge that Xiang Jing adheres to. Just as she says herself, her works reveals the deepest substance of humanity, returning us to pure truth. Her works serve as delicate explorations and reflections on how a complex environment can impact human life, pushing us who are inside it all – once we have been moved by her work – to search for more fulfilling responses to questions on the individual, the group and human nature.

叶永青
—用简单笔触描绘生活本质的油画家

    叶永青是中国备受瞩目的当代艺术家。他完美地用西方艺术语言诠释了东方的古典审美。其作品风格独特，在诙谐、荒诞、随意的表面之下，是严密的艺术逻辑和深厚的创作积淀。他深谙现代创作手法的精髓，以极为简单的笔触，深刻摹画了生活的本真，为倡导领悟非凡的马爹利所推崇，从而成为2012年度“马爹利非凡艺术人物”。

    在创作上，叶永青竭力保持天真的艺术态度，追求艺术的本源。在东方式闲适与超然中诠释艺术和生活、逻辑与审美之间的天然联系。那些简单到极致的线条，由一个个极小的三角形墨块精致组合而成，对简单与复杂、表面与本质、随意与严肃等看似对立的概念进行了极端的解读。这正是叶永青对艺术，对生活的深刻思考，他用戏虐打趣的方式，打破陈旧的绘画方式，祛除传统意识带给“艺术”的枷锁，追求个体心灵的自由诉求。

    叶永青的艺术创作轨迹是返璞归真的历程。在他的作品中，随处可见兴致所致的讲述，自由闲散的表达。从《一只忧伤的鸟》，《伤痕》到《飞》，艺术家一直保持关注从误读、忽视到错位所构成的共同人性的特征。他成功的透过理性的方法进行逆向性的工作，并通过这一过程使人对绘画的既定模式和风格边界产生质疑和思索。

    “画画不是要让别人明白，而是要面对自己的内心。”这是叶永青对他作品的一系列表面的误读与错位所做出的回应。他恬淡的创作心态，单纯的艺术语言，展现出个体对生活的透彻理解。而更重要的是，叶永青面对生活时的超然态度，让他的艺术更加真实与纯粹。
 
2012 Martell Artists of the Year

Ye Yongqing
-- An Oil Painter Whose Brushwork Captures the Essence of Life

Ye Yongqing is a Chinese contemporary artist who enjoys a high profile.  He makes exquisite use of a Western artistic language to interpret classic Eastern concepts of beauty.  Using humor, absurdity and spontaneity, his work possesses a unique style as tight in artistic logic as it is profound in creative intelligence. Well versed in the essence of modern creative technique while using deceptively simple brushwork, he depicts life’s truths with rare profundity. As a brand that understands what it means to be outstanding, Martell names Ye Yongqing as the “2012 Martell Artist of the Year”.

When creating his work, Ye Yongqing endeavors to maintain a naïve artistic mindset and to pursue the original essence of art. With a particularly Eastern sense of detachment and ease, he proceeds to interpret art and life as well as the natural connections between logic and aesthetics. His perfectly simple use of line, through delicate combinations of minute triangular ink-blots, ultimately deciphers what appears to be opposite concepts – things like simplicity and complexity, surface and essence, spontaneity and rigidness. This deciphering act perfectly embodies Ye Yongqing’s deep reflections on art and on life. He smashes obsolete methods of painting, dispels the conventional thinking that shackles “art” and sticks to his own individual path of a spiritual freedom.

Ye Yongqing’s artistic path aims to return to an original purity. His art works relate an energetic visible narrative even as they are clearly marked with a sense of disengagement. From A Wounded Bird to Scar to Fly, the artist consistently focuses on the qualities of misinterpretation, neglection and displacement that form our common humanity. He has successfully worked backwards using a rational method, and going through that process presents the audience with new questions on fixed patterns and stylistic boundaries in painting.

“You don’t paint so that people are going to get it. You paint so that you come face to face with the elements of your own heart.” This is Ye Yongqing’s response to the superficial misinterpretations and dislocations that sometimes emerge when viewing his work.  His sheer creative indifference and his pure artistic vocabulary reveal his own penetrating attitude towards life.  More importantly, Ye Yongqing’s detached approach to life ultimately lends to his art higher degrees of purity and truth.