Art Plural Gallery presents the solo exhibition of Chinese artist Nan Qi in collaboration with China Art Foundation.

Born in China in 1960, Nan Qi was trained in traditional Chinese painting. The artist graduated in 1986 from the People’s Liberation Army Fine Arts Academy (Beijing). After travelling to England and France in the 1990s to study European art, he moved to Hong Kong before returning to China where he currently lives.

"Museums, galleries and foundations have organized major retrospectives dedicated to contemporary Chinese ink painting in the recent past. Nan Qi’s work is poised for success and international recognition. We are delighted to jointly present with China Art Foundation his most recent paintings in Singapore.” Frédéric de Senarclens, founder of Art Plural Gallery.

The aim of this exhibition is to revisit traditional Chinese ink painting and engage our global audience in broader dialogues. It will be featuring 30 of his recent art works.

Working with ink on Xuan paper alternating black and white, Nan Qi’s work is deeply rooted in the technique of traditional ink painting. From this strong personal attachment to ink, the artist keeps incorporating new elements to his work and injecting an innovative dimension to the traditional medium. These various components are all part of his unique artistic language and stand out in his latest works.

Nan Qi, recognised as “the master of ink dots”, replaces lines with juxtapositions of dots forming an actual image when seen from a distance. This pointillist style renews the Chinese traditional freehand technique (xieyi), literally “writing an idea”: calligraphy characters are turned into dots. Each dot is thus a sign locking up its own meaning. The actual form of what is being perceived is conveyed by an infinity of independent dots. As a result, it is not enough to observe the overall image, one literally needs to “read” the image to understand it.

Image: © Nan Qi, Art Plural Gallery