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Thursday 6 February

Ren Zhe: The Alchemist of Steel and Spirit

Listen to me carefully, you bunch of snobs: Contemporary Chinese art is not just about markets or speculation. Ren Zhe, born in 1983 in Beijing, perfectly embodies this new generation of artists who transcend the Orientalist clichés that some Western collectors, particularly those living in the posh neighborhoods of Paris, stubbornly perpetuate with barely veiled condescension.

Trained at Tsinghua University, this prodigious sculptor has developed a unique approach that combines stainless steel with a sensitivity deeply rooted in Chinese tradition. But make no mistake: his warriors are not mere decorative figures meant to adorn the lobbies of Hong Kong investment banks or Shanghai penthouses.

The first characteristic of his work is his radical reinterpretation of the heroic body. Unlike the Western approach to sculptural bodies, inherited from the Greeks and magnified by Michelangelo, Ren Zhe offers a corporeality that defies mere materiality. His warriors, like those in his emblematic work Lei, are not defined by their musculature but by what Walter Benjamin would have called their “aura”. This aura is captured by Ren Zhe in polished, mirror-like steel, creating surfaces that simultaneously absorb and reflect light, transforming each sculpture into a constant dialogue between presence and absence.

This approach is reminiscent of Deleuze and Guattari’s theory of the “body without organs”, where the body is no longer a simple anatomical organization but a field of intensities. Ren Zhe’s warriors, frozen in dynamic poses that seem to defy gravity, represent not physical bodies but manifestations of what Taoist philosophers call qi, the vital force that transcends mere materiality.

When Johnny Depp visited his studio in 2014, he probably didn’t grasp the full philosophical depth of these works, but he certainly felt their magnetic power. And this is precisely the second characteristic of Ren Zhe’s work: his ability to transcend cultural boundaries while remaining deeply rooted in Chinese tradition.

Take his Genesis installation in Shenzhen. In this monumental work, Ren Zhe doesn’t merely fuse East and West—that would be too simplistic, too predictable. No, he creates what Homi Bhabha would call a “third space”, where traditional dichotomies between East and West dissolve to give rise to something new, something that belongs to neither yet encompasses both.

His work with stainless steel is not merely an aesthetic choice. It is a bold statement about modern Chinese identity itself. Steel, the emblematic material of industrialization, becomes in his hands a medium to explore what philosopher François Jullien calls the “silent transformations” of Chinese culture. The mirrored surfaces of his sculptures do not merely reflect their surroundings; they create a constant dialogue between tradition and modernity, between past and present.

His series The Four Heavenly Guardians for the Parkview Group in Beijing—Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise—is particularly revealing. These traditional mythological figures are reimagined in a contemporary sculptural language that resonates with the concerns of our time. The way he treats the polished surfaces to achieve a jewel-like quality recalls what Roland Barthes said of Japan in The Empire of Signs: the surface itself becomes depth.

What is fascinating about Ren Zhe’s work is his ability to create what Jacques Rancière would call a unique “distribution of the sensible”. His warriors are not mere representations of historical or mythological figures; they are manifestations of what it means to be human in a world in constant flux. Each fold in the steel, each twist of the metal, becomes a meditation on the human condition.

His 2019 exhibition at the Palace Museum—the first large-scale solo sculpture exhibition in the Forbidden City—was not just a personal triumph. It was a resounding demonstration of how contemporary art can engage with tradition without resorting to pastiche or servile reverence. His warriors, standing proudly in this historical epicenter of Chinese history, created a dizzying temporal bridge between past and present.

The sale of his work Infinite Spirit of Allegiance for HKD 2.52 million at Sotheby’s in 2021 is merely a superficial validation of his importance. What truly matters is how he succeeds in creating art that speaks simultaneously to Silicon Valley collectors and monks from the Shuanglin Temple, where he spent a month studying ancient sculptures that profoundly influenced his work.

Critics who compare him to Henry Moore or Lynn Chadwick completely miss the point. Ren Zhe is not an artist seeking to align himself with a Western lineage of modern sculpture. Instead, he creates what philosopher François Jullien would call an écart, a space of thought and creation that allows both East and West to be seen in a new light.

His latest series, based on characters from novelist Jin Yong, shows that he continues to explore new territories while remaining true to his fundamental artistic vision. These works are not mere three-dimensional illustrations of literary characters but profound meditations on what it means to be a hero in a world desperately in need of moral exemplars.

Ren Zhe creates art that transcends easy categories. His sculptures are neither traditional nor contemporary, neither Eastern nor Western—they are simply necessary. In a world obsessed with divisions and categories, his work reminds us that true artistic greatness lies in the ability to build bridges rather than walls. And if some snobs of contemporary art fail to grasp this, that’s their problem, not his.

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