Tang Contemporary Art presents Xu Qu’s solo exhibition “A Hit”. It is not only Xu Qu’s first large-scale solo exhibition since he his graduation in Germany and arrival back to China in 2010, but it is also the first and most substantial survey of his latest work in Beijing.

Whereas previously displaying his aesthetic intentions through social activities, Xu Qu dissociates his aesthetic conceptions into deconstruction of colour, abstract paintings or installations via a minimalist approach with this exhibition, and by extending the aesthetics that expand on his solo show “Mutable Forms and Immutable Consciousness” held in Bangkok in 2013.

Three different series of Xu Qu’s works will be exhibited in the “A Hit” solo exhibition: “The Research About the Time”, “Infinity” and “The Balance Series”. In the main exhibition hall, the installation “Infinity” will be displayed on a twelve-metre high wall space - its gradual change between two colours provide the hall with an extraordinary visual aesthetical experience. The series of “The Research about the Time” consists of 9 paintings and 4 sculptures, which will be displayed in the main hall and the small exhibition hall upstairs respectively. The subject of these works originated figurative images of sports and battle from ruins of ancient Rome. All figurative images are painted by dozens of three-centimetre long colour bars within the same colour scheme. Background and subjects are painted with a similar approach. Each piece in this series represents character relations that are mutually contradictory but also interdependent. Sculptural works in this series as a different medium express the same theme, bringing about the distinctive aesthetic taste through demonstrating the tension between the ancient Greek aesthetic models of the body and the very contemporary deconstruction of minimal colour. The four sets of installations in “The Balance Series” are all connected to the traditional Chinese architectural study of geomancy. The essence of traditional architectural geomantic theories is increasingly being applied, whereas the modern geomantic theory has established its unique aesthetic features. Xu Qu abstracts specific images from the aesthetic elements of geomancy such as “order”, “aura”, “number” and “shape” in order to discuss the relations between geomantic elements, the aura, and the structure inside space.

About the artist:

Xu Qu (b. 1978, Jiangsu Province) graduated with MFA in Fine Arts and Film at Braunschweig University of Art, and currently lives and works in Beijing. From the “51 m2 #11” at Taikang Space to the project “Xi Sha, South China Sea Projekt #1” and the “Upstream”, Xu Qu’s art practice has always been discussing the aesthetic considerations behind social connections through direct movements. However, although he adopts direct movements as before, he attempts to get rid of any unnecessary elements that distract the theme, using the minimalism to simplify the picture. The ultimate goal of the artist is to examine the ultimate target of anthropic aesthetics, and what kind of values and thoughts that the confrontation or mixture of different aesthetic experiences would bring us in different eras.

-Tang Contemporary Art

Image: © Xu Qu
Courtesy of the artist and Tang Contemporary Art