Birds, Harmony of the forest

This exhibition, Birds – Harmony of the Forest, has been accomplished through many years of creating and keeping aside his bird sculptures to be shown for the first time together. This group of works remains very special to the artist, allowing him to work with such simple shapes, almost a swirl of movement creating an undefined formation within space. Endearing somehow with tenderness they urge to be caressed. Wang says, “My birds are not really birds,” a notion that is not hard to grasp as they are somewhere in between reality and otherness. We are reminded of Brancusi when we think of bird sculptures. Brancusi is indeed one of Wang Keping’s inspirations. He admires his simplicity. The thread that ties them has long past. Wang’s work has evolved over the last 40 years to incorporate a lifetime of his collaboration with wood, nature and his simplified creatural sculptures. His bird sculptures are yet another way to express his meaning. His truth is somewhere in the core of our humanity and it is there inside the wood waiting for him to bring it out. The strength is the way he pulls all of these aspects together and Wang Keping does it with such poignancy and honesty that we are drawn to his works because they exude the joy of what art can give to all of us, truth and beauty.