Sentimental Childhood by Artist Huang Kai

Huang Kai's comic-panel color woodcut prints depict playing with his friends as a child. In these now-disappeared alleyways (he still remembers all the names, Wolong Xiang, Tongjia Xiang, Hongxing Xiang), the children brandish their wooden guns with gusto, imitating the soldiers and sentries of old black and white movies; another child tries to use a tattered umbrella he has pulled from the garbage bin¡­ In these woodcut prints, Huang Kai has carved the phone numbers of his long lost friends on the alley walls, and placed himself hiding bashfully in the corner. There are no pretty toys, no piano classes, and they are far from the organizing influence of the young pioneers. This eighties childhood was full of unstructured and meaningless joys, exiled in the alleys, a childhood whose memories were eventually wiped out by the chalk markings that designated the walls for demolition. These aimless, hectic youth and the chaotic street scenes seem like they are about to be swept away in the dust.

Huang Kai's works emit a simple air of sincerity. The prints on thick handmade paper are covered with thick texture lines that send out a special ink flavor, making childhood seem so close yet so far. The artist¡¯s innocent heart picks up on the land¡¯s quest for its roots, feeling a buried desire to turn back the clock and return to that lonely childhood. - By Curator Tony Chang

Huang Kai preferred a line-drawing illustration style popular in the early 20th century Chinese comic books to describe the social backdrop of the 80's, concentrated on his own story in his memory.

From Huang Kai's works, one can see the extensions of a "homeland", such as street blocks, neighborhoods, fellow townsmen and an imagination of the previous generations about the "neighborhood" relations; the works also embody a sense of soberness of an onlooker. However, the events and time frames in the paintings, the faulty juxtaposition and contradictions between memories and regions, rendering this "throwback" a combination of melancholy and sweet sentiments. Even though the narrator maintained his cynical stance against this misplaced longing, he did not measure up to Aristophanes's polemical satires. This was the inclination of "nostalgic narratives" in modern mainland culture.
-By Mrs. Xu Hong, Deputy Director, Curatorial & Research Department, National Art Museum of China

Artist: Huang Kai
Graduated from XiAn Academy of Fine Arts.

Exhibitions:
2006:
Here & Now, Netherlands;
The 6th Fine Art Print Exhibition, ShanXi Province;
Scream before Burned-Contemporary Printmakers Group Show, Amelie Gallery;
Triptych Art Exhibition "Time, Space & I" .UK-Germany-China, Chinese Base, Beijing;

2007:
Gathering Sandcastles, Chinese New Generation Artists Award Exhibition,YanHuang Art Museum;

2008:
New Year Fine Art Print Festival,Beijing;
Memory or Reality, Amelie Gallery;

2009:
No Fun without You, Amelie Gallery;
A New Mark in Chinese Print Art-Traversing the Labyrinth of the Contemporary Spirit, Hua Museum, ShenZhen;
Narration-2009 Contemporary Art from Mainland China & Taiwan Exhibition, May- July, China National Museum & Taiwan National Art Museum.

2010:
HuTong Play-Huang Kai Solo Show, Amelie Gallery.

HuangKai's works are collected by China National Museum and published on JiangSu Painters Journal & China Collection Magazine etc.