Still Sensations

24 November - 19 December 2007
Overview

Still Sensations is an exhibition with oil paintings by Xiao Kegang and Luo Yinglong. Behind their paintings, ever changing manifestations of life lie hidden. They conceal a rich content incomparable to other forms of life and containing endless possibilities. In reality, the unconscious behaviour of the artist hides in the shadow of his extreme feelings. This unconscious attitude is to a large extent the artist’s direct reaction to his environment. Their paintings question a broader topic only devoted to the essentials, namely the body and its significance

However, their paintings bear some striking differences. Luo Yinglong’s paintings possess a strong physical feeling. His series Running Red embodies a hypersensitive dispersing power that decomposes personal emotional expressions to every corner of his paintings. The red dotted forms in his paintings are often associated with an extreme form of insolence that penetrates people’s visual senses. In the series Body, Fish and Flower by Xiao Kegang, the body is rather viewed as a natural symbol. Just as all objects symbolize the body, so does the body function as a symbol for all objects. It is as if the surface of the painting has become a fierce battlefield where human beings trade, fight and compete with the outer world. It conveys a meaningful system produced by the tense relationship of the body with ‘the self’ and ‘the society’.