QIMU Space will launch the dual artist exhibition "Drawing at Random Places" featuring artists Yang Xu and Yao Lan. The two painters of this exhibition do not belong to the "visible" art system, nor are they "amateur" painters. Born and raised in Beijing, they have different backgrounds in fine arts education, and the subsequent society has provided them with their respective careers. Until today, painting remains a simple yet firm passion for them, like intimate and enduring emotions, growing into a "hobby" and free state, detached from the identity of professional painters.
Similar to many people's childhood love for drawing, Yang Xu began by imitating small people's books and calendars, gradually starting to practice sketching and watercolors on his own. At around eight years old, he studied watercolor with a female teacher in her fifties, a graduate of the Oil Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, who had very strict requirements for him, laying a good foundation. During high school, he started a "free" tutoring at home, studying under teachers Zhong Shuheng and Liu Jude, which strengthened Yang Xu's confidence in painting. After studying at the "Oil Painting Studio" of Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts for his undergraduate degree and at the Oil Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts for his master's degree, the research and practice of realistic painting are deeply rooted in Yang Xu's thoughts and body.
Yao Lan's acquaintance came from his "main job" as the lead guitarist of the Second-hand Rose band. I remember a long time ago, hearing Yao Lan sing softly on the internet a song called "Bitter Love Song", a few lyrics of which left a deep impression: "Don't linger too much in the spring in the painting / Quickly release the tightly held hands / Let yourself sing for yourself". Because of the opportunity of the exhibition, I got to know him. During the first contact, he, slender and silent. In the work group, he communicated modestly and politely, his words seemed to maintain a smile. Yao Lan introduced himself like this: "Painting when young, abandoned halfway, possessed by Lennon, switched to playing guitar." In 1992, Yao Lan began to study basic painting for the entrance examination. In 1995, he was admitted to the Beijing Arts and Crafts School and dropped out in 1996. In 2011, Yao Lan, who had been in contact with oil painting, rediscovered the feeling of liking painting and couldn't stop. This is a state of achieving freedom and self, forgetting oneself in the duel between the brush and the canvas, enjoying another time and space independent of reality.
"Painting of Any Size" describes actions in a space with possibilities, consciously selecting objects and projecting them onto the canvas. The source of such actions is based on the working methods of the two artists' sketching, following people, objects, and scenes, turning spatial locations into temporal moments, and the process of brushes and colors wandering. At the same time, the small volume of the paintings provides a quicker response and path for in-depth research and exploration of the possibilities of realism, such as breaking through the normal logic of perspective, returning to the "starting" state of painting, and the respect of the brush bringing sincerity to the picture.
In a few days, the paintings of any size will stretch their muscles in the exhibition hall, bringing the human fireworks brought by painting, which will pervade the space of Seven Wood. Those realistic objects, buns, conch shells, crabs, and shells, oranges, carrots, pears, and breakfast, exude the original taste of life, entangled between portraits and flowers, creating a small but densely populated human landscape. At the end of the lyrics of Yao Lan's singing "Bitter Love Song": "Record every day with living images / Traverse that year with dead time / The wind and moon leave me a message".
