Mind Set Art Center is launching “#loveme”, a painting project of up-and-coming Chinese painter Mo ZHANG. The series is inspired by the modern phenomenon of taking selfies. The painter recreates on canvas popular selfie moments such as traveling, partying and working out to showcase the modern trend of curating one’s life to accentuate beauty, wealth and lifestyle. As ZHANG portrays this social media-driven global phenomenon, his works reveal to us how the internet world, largely constructed on mobile phone imagery and social media platforms, has become the focus in every facet of our lives and is a constantly evolving universe by itself.
According to ZHANG, “#loveme” is his last attempt to show goodwill to contemporary art circle. The creation of the series has followed the unwritten rules of contemporary art in that it clearly states the subject matter and has its own way of presenting it. However, the painter said, the work must still be painting by nature. ZHANG considers the series an expression of “an internal war between painting and art”. He has also published a manifesto on the independence of painting with his peers, stating that painters no longer need to conform to the rules of contemporary art, and that they should showcase their works in a stand-alone category. Therefore, “#loveme” is also an expression of ZHANG’s belief.