Pearl Lam Galleries will present Su Xiaobai’s first solo exhibition in Hong Kong, curated by David Chan, with over 20 new paintings installed in a manner that alludes to a Chinese literati setting including a traditional study, scholar’s chamber, and garden. Visitors will be able to gain a first-hand insight into the process behind Su Xiaobai’s impenetrable layered canvasses through the presentation of a work-in- progress and a series of paper cutouts used by the artist to conceive the artworks.
Su Xiaobai has been based in Germany for the past 20 years, but was born in China in 1949 and trained in classical oil painting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. He received a scholarship in 1987 to Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where he studied under artists including Gerhard Richter, Konrad Klapheck and Markus Lüpertz at a time when Su was striving to break away from his learnt expressive and traditional painting techniques and questioning the very structure and language of painting.
Upon Su return to China in 2002, he discovered a newfound appreciation of traditional Chinese lacquer. From this, he developed his extraordinary visual language incorporating multiple histories and traditions, creating arresting canvasses of layered lacquer and oil on linen and wood— modernist in form, traditional in medium and deeply poetic in nature.
Su’s new works exemplify his distinctive style and use of lacquer, but their subdued composition speaks of human ideals and achieving harmony with nature. Inspired by the literary titles of Su’s artworks, taken from China’s tumultuous history, this exhibition rejects the conventions of reading the artwork in the context of the Western cannon. With references to cartography, form, time, and materiality, the installation of Su’s artworks provoke associations with architecture, interior design, sculpture, furniture, calligraphy, nature and materiality. In this setting, Su’s artworks are not merely two dimensional objects hung on the wall but instead become highly evocative entities which are displayed in such a way to provoke deeper contemplation.
About the Artist:
Su Xiaobai (b. 1949, Hubei, China) studied oil painting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 1984, receiving a scholarship to study at the Dusseldorf National Art Academy in 1987 and subsequently moving to Germany in 1992 where he has been based ever since. Su’s solo exhibitions include Su Xiaobai (2011) at Another Gallery in Shanghai, Su Xiaobai Solo Exhibition (2010) at Raketenstation Hombroich in Germany, and The Dynasty of Colours (2009) at Lagen Art Gallery in Germany. He has also exhibited in museums and galleries across Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, Singapore, Berlin, Düsseldorf and Moscow.
Image: © Su Xiaobai, Pearl Lam Galleries
