2023.7.9 - 2023.9.30

Venue: 2-2207 GuYun Chuanqi Plaza, Liangxi Dist, Wuxi, Jiangsu

Opening Time: Wed - Fri 12:00-18:00, Sat - Sun 10:30-17:30, Mon and Tue close.

Please make an appointment before visit. Please refer to more information below.

— Masaoka Shiki

Wang Xudong is almost obsessed with willow trees. Since entering the mural department of Central Academy of Fine Arts ten years ago, willow trees have always been the theme of his creation. From 2014 to 2017, Wang Xudong painted a willow leaf every day. Sometimes, this small leaf would take him five hours to depict, and this kind of creation was similar to meditation, lasting for a whole 1001 days without interruption. He regarded this creation as a way of seeking knowledge from nature.

In the past two years, Wang Xudong has shifted the study of willow leaf incisions from time to space. In this exhibition, he used Japanese kumohada paper for his creations. This hemp paper is a mixture of broussonetia papyrifera and WikstroemiasikokianaFr.et.Sav, with a thick body and dense fibers that are full of toughness. Wang Xudong dyed the hemp paper and the pigment penetrated into the tangled fibers, creating a flat base color in the picture. Seemingly only as a simple blank, it is not simply a flat coating for coloring, but has already become the paper itself through immersion dyeing, revealing the texture of the hemp paper itself like clouds.

Due to the unique nature of hemp paper, the painting process requires the artist to maintain a high level of concentration and repeatedly depict in a very light and detailed manner. When painting, Wang Xudong selectively polished the image, sometimes even polishing, coloring, and then polishing during the coloring process. After being polished, the small leaves present a completely different sense of brightness from the paper patterned cloud skin, just like the bright reflection of leaves under sunlight after rain. Sometimes, Wang Xudong will also polish small leaf veins on the leaves separately, dark lines seem like the real veins quietly buried in bright leaves. A flat piece of hemp paper is polished to remove different layers of fibers, resulting in a light and dark effect.

This is not formed by composition or depiction, but rather by presenting a physical light-and-dark relationship in a subtle but irreversible way. Wang Xudong's teacher, Wu Yi, once commented on his works: "There is a natural poetic flavor, but when refined, it seems that it is far more than that." Therefore, in the painting, the snow color is concise, and the willow wind is relaxed, but we also know that it is not just that.