New paintings by Jianwei Fong, Shanghai
and multimedia installation with Ruth Eckland, music by Matt DiFonzo

Meridian Gallery celebrates its 20th Anniversary this summer with Double Vision Happiness, an exhibition of three floors of paintings on billboard vinyl by painter Jianwei Fong of Shanghai, San Francisco's sister city. In keeping with the gallery's legacy of cross-cultural collaboration he will also team up with Bay Area video artist Ruth Eckland to create a site-specific installation, probing the language of advertising, landscape painting, and global exchange.

Jianwei Fong, born in 1968 in Guangzhou, China, received his BFA in painting from California College of the Arts in 1992. His paintings meld traditional landscape imagery of the Chinese tradition with abstract expressionism and media imagery to investigate psychological and aesthetic cross-pollination between cultures. The expansive works in Double Vision Happiness are painted on top of stretched billboard vinyl, literally ripped from Shanghai streets. After working as a designer Fong returned to painting and opened the Stir Art Gallery in Shanghai in 2006, the city where he currently resides.

Ruth Eckland's video work closely resembles poetry or music in structure and form. They are metaphoric, almost dreamlike in their associative narratives, so that their interpretation becomes a collaboration with the viewer. This approach enabled a dynamic exchange with Fong, leading to a collaborative multimedia installation which will occupy the third floor of the gallery. Her eclectic imagery flows across and around Fong's paintings highlighting, deepening, and expanding their imagery and concepts to a score by composer Matt DiFonzo. Eckland has exhibited extensively both internationally and in the Bay Area where she lives and works.

Opening recepetion:

The opening reception for Double Vision Happiness on June 13th from 6:00 - 9:00 PM will also be a celebratory event for Meridian's 20th Anniversary. Meridian Gallery has presented over 160 exhibitions in its 20 year history, featuring over 200 artists. All artists who have shown at the gallery have been invited to attend the opening.

The opening will also be a fundraising event for the non profit Meridian, featuring a silent auction of a painting by Jianwei Fong and of a work by Robert Kostka (1928-2005), a longtime supporter and previous board member of the gallery.