Zhu Fadong rocked the art scene in the 1990’s with a series of performance pieces. He posted missing person fliers of himself and strolled the streets as a person for sale. In “Lifestyle,” he spent a hundred days contracted out to different employers, ranging from government to friends. He was interested in the artist as a public participant and work transcending commodity.

“Seeking Zhu Fadong” at F2 Gallery features large drawings on industrial sulfate paper. Zhu pairs mimeograph-blue images of busty beauties, celebrities and watches with red corporate logos. The drawings are comprised of millions of tiny marks, giving them the look of degraded Xerox images, and if that's not enough to impress, there are two gigantic drawings of Zhu's visas from his visits to Europe done in glorious multi-color with his obsessive hand.

Despite the meticulous crafting, the show is ultimately underwhelming. The images draw from commercial stock photos that are too familiar and companies like Nokia and Microsoft are so ubiquitous in China that their logos are nothing more than benign blips on the urban landscape. Zhu Fadong's presence comes through in the handwork but unlike his earlier works which were confrontational and provocative, these feel bleak. It's the vision of a world steeped in the culture of consumption and commodity, an interesting twist in the career of a performance artist like Zhu Fadong, who suddenly finds himself squirreled away in his studio translating ad imagery into miniscule markings to hang in a white cube gallery.

Amy Lin