To celebrate the 'Year of Horse', Alisan Fine Arts presents a solo exhibition by Shanghai artist Wang Dalin. Highlights include 4 oil paintings and 12 sketches--all of horses--including a series of 4 sketches in red ink that were produced especially for this festive occasion. The overall effect is powerful. The horse symbolizes freedom, strength and power. It can also symbolize nobility, grace and beauty. The horse has been a popular subject in traditional and modern art and both Chinese and Western artists love to paint the horse as a subject. Through this exhibition, Wang hopes to share his enthusiasm and passion for horses. In Wang's own words:

Wang Dalin took his first horse riding lesson at Xiahe Gannan Pairie in 1998, and fell in love with this majestic creature. Through his drawings and oil paintings, he hopes to share his love and appreciation for horses. As Wang explains, "I have always had a close infinity to horses ever since the first time I rode one. This body of work is created not only for the year of the horse but also represents for me a continuous exploration of this noble and impressive animal." In this exhibition, Wang captures different forms and postures of the horses, such as galloping, bending forward, and standing both in his sketches in monotone and his oil paintings in full colour. In fact he actually rode on the horse depicted in the large oil. Perhaps that is why he is able to capture the deep expression of the horse's gaze with so much feeling. As for his sketches, he uses a lot of short and vivid lines to illustrate the lively movements of the horses. These horses are not common horses, but Ferghana, a special species found in Mongolia, and Red Hare, a Chinese horse in ancient wartime. Wang is careful to make sure we know this point as he choses to include the name of these species in his titles.

Wang Dalin has obsessively explored the boundaries of his stretches and oil paintings for the past 25 years. He especially focuses on the use of colour in his works but rarely deviates from the true colour of his subject matter; they tend to bring out the characteristics of subjects and aim to enliven the inner life of them during the process of creation. Wang is gifted in many ways, from sketching, painting to sculpture. One of his sculptures "Square Apple" has been displayed at Grand Hyatt Beijing, China since 2000.

-Alisan Fine Arts

Image: © Wang Dalin
A Dashing Steed
2006
Ink on paper
42 x 59cm

Courtesy of Alisan Fine Arts