Tokyo Gallery+BTAP present the second solo exhibition by Wu Qiang, a traditional Chinese painter, from March 10th to April 22th, 2012.

Wu Qiang, also known as Runsong, was born In Changting, Fujian Province, in 1977. Upon graduation in 2000 from the China Academy of Art's Traditional Chinese Painting Department with a Bachelor degree in Landscape Painting, Wu's work Cloudy Cliffs won the Award for Excellence. This painting has been added to the school’s permanent collection, and also won for the artist a Congli scholarship. In 2003, his work entitled Empty Mountain after the Rain featured in the second National Exhibition for Traditional Chinese Paintings, and again won an Excellence Award. In 2005, Wu graduated with a Masters degree in Landscape Painting, and is currently a lecturer at the Arts College of Zhejiang University.

This exhibition features 45 works from the last three years. Following his first solo exhibition, the artist has devoted himself to expanding the expressive potential of Chinese ink painting. While maintaining a focus on creating an atmosphere of isolation in the pictures, he also makes exquisite and subtle use of colour; this enables viewers to obtain insight into the artistic concept of perceiving the great through what is small as conveyed by his works. The artist has developed and refined in his daily life the combination of various art forms, including traditional Chinese painting, Sado and the traditional Japanese garden art of “dry landscape”. In so doing, and in order to develop depth of understanding of ink painting in the context of contemporary art, Wu's perspective is one of self-consciousness and personal insight. He intends to base his works on a notion found in Tang Dai’s A Biographical Sketch: "the brush is put to paper according to old rules, while perfection is achieved in new ways." Wu further applies his unique creative language to attempt to elaborate Tang's deep reflection on the artistic expression of Chinese paintings, in tandem with a calm attitude towards life.
As the artist has said, between every breath there exists vitality, but there remain hidden depths which provoke thought and insight. Through a small opening may be perceived the vastness of sky and earth; through the changing of the seasons - the blooming of flowers and falling of leaves - we sense the majestic, eternal cycle of life and death from which none are exempt. The Ancients said that to use implements to scan the sky or measure the depth of the earth marks Man's foolish attempt to grasp a higher form of knowledge, a supreme truth. Never deign to differentiate between artistic creations, then, based on their size. Through subtle means, universal truth may be revealed, and from a fleeting glimpse may greatness be perceived.