Beyond Representation

Contemporary by Angela Li is pleased to present Beyond Representation, the first Hong Kong solo exhibition of Chinese artist Yuan Daxi. In this exhibition, Yuan presents a new series of oil paintings created intuitively from the depths of his inner self, each brushstroke is guided by his impulse in the purest way to express his emotions and philosophical thoughts without recognizable imagery and artistic discourse. Beyond Representation is on view from April 23 – May 30, 2020.

Yuan’s oil paintings in this exhibition are composed in an abstract style, with traces of harmonious curves resembling gracious strokes of Chinese calligraphy. He Guiyan, professor of Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, art critic and curator, acknowledges that the brushworks in Yuan’s paintings show oriental connotation and are in certain ways similar to Chinese calligraphy. “Perhaps it was the artist’s passion for calligraphy since a young age, the emotion and ideology imbued in each line and stroke are correlated to the artist’s personal experience in looking at aesthetics.… In Yuan Daxi’s works, the notion and motion in his calligraphy and strokes in the painting are interdependent and interrelated in both practices; not only do the movements carry the expression of the artist’s emotions, the derivative of the lines also creates an endless artistic language of the work.” Heavy textures scattered around the canvases unfold the artist’s mind, shifting from awareness to a spiritual state. Both sculptural and painterly, these paintings serve as mirrors that reflect the artist’s transcendent journeys at the time of creation.

About the Artist-
Yuan was born in Fujian in 1973 and graduated from the History Department at Fujian Normal University. He began his training in calligraphy, Chinese ink art, Western painting and classical music since a young age. His previous important exhibitions include: The Way of Ink (USA, 2019), Parallel and Interweaving – Fujian & Chongqing Contemporary Art Invitational Exhibition (China, 2019) and Character Cultivation Cannot be Taught by the Teacher (Today Art Museum, China, 2018)