This early spring, Vanguard Gallery's Showtime invites Dai Chenlian, Xiao Jiang and Yang Yixing to make their own personal theatres by means of painting. The word 'theatre' means a place to see. Wherever there are people, there will be performances to be seen. We are living in a performative society where the performer and the spectator constantly exchange their roles.

Dai Chenlian is a wizard who never plays by the rules. in his works, the world is a comedy theatre full of absurdities and eccentricities. He has the humour that intrigues you. Painting is what he masters for the message he wants to convey, and things and scenes in his paintings that appear not only familiar but strange bring you a sense of substitution as well alienation. The artist attempts to provoke us by switching between the roles he plays, the player or actor, and the spectator. From which he corners you to ask"what is it?" Context transposition and replacement are the techniques Dai adopts to create his vocabulary, while he finds his way by incessantly making mistakes and seeking the pivotal question concerning what is painting.

As a spectator, Xiao Jiang observes this world with a sober yet not rational perspective. There is no "him" in his paintings but things distant to his daily life such as still photos he borrows from films. He sees as exposed under this indirect depiction of what he sees. He sheds his light on things we neglect in life and the visibility embarrasses us.

Yang Yixing is a new name. We are delighted to introduce this talented young artist. He learns to paint all by himself without any training in any art school. It is rare that in his works efforts have been made to approach the essence of painting. As a lonely wolf hunting in the art realm for years. Yang finally finds his own language. It is the language about extraordinary and inexplanable energy since he knows how to put himself passionately and completely in the work and sometimes stay away from it with an outsider's attitude.  Yet his focus never leaves the mystery of some spiritual world, where it is from and what it is .