Gao Xingjian 高行健 (born 1940 Jiangxi China, currently living in Paris), the 2000 Nobel laureate, learned to paint at the age of eight, and published his first novel at ten. He studied French at the Beijing Institute of Foreign Languages. In 1987 he moved to France, became a French citizen and has lived there ever since. Alisan Fine Arts has been representing Gao Xingjian since 1994, organising his first Hong Kong solo exhibition in 1996, and subsequently in 1998, and 2002, and in New York in 2004. The artist's fifth solo exhibition in May 2008 was a part of the French May 2008. His work was also shown at the Hong Kong International Antique & Art Fair in 2009. Recent years he has had many exhibitions in museums in Europe such as Ludwig Museum in Germany, Museum Wurth la Rioja in Spain.

Our new exhibition consists of 11 new works, including 4 pieces of Chinese ink on canvas which are finished in 2010. Beside that, we are also exhibiting 7 pieces Chinese ink on paper.

Gao reveals himself as both a scholar and painter whose work is deeply rooted in Eastern and Western traditions. Gao admits being steeped in two-dimensional traditional Chinese painting, and yet he is very attracted by the depth of Western painting. This explains his use of ink, and his powerful sensuous strokes in creating spatial depth pitching black against white, and stillness against movement.

As a painter, Gao uses a language that is deeper than words yet still reflects his inner vision. He describes those of his works that often recall landscapes and cosmic processes as shadows that have emerged from his deepest self that could not be rendered in anything but in ink. His aesthetics clearly reflect his historical and cultural provenance, and are undeniably carried over into his works.

Selected Collections: Artothèque de Nantes; Musée Guimet, Théâtre Molière, Paris; Maison de la Culture de Bourges; La Ville de Marseille, France; Nobel Foundation, Sweden; Krapperrus Konsthall, Malmö Museum of Modern Art, Ostasiatiska Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; Leibnitz Gesellschaft für Kulturellen Austausch, Berlin; Morat Institut für Kunst und Kunstwissenschaft, Freiburg, Germany; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA; National History Museum, Taipei; Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan; The Chinese University of Hong Kong; University Museum and Art Gallery, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; Singapore Art Museum, Singapore.