TRIUMPH GALLERY is pleased to present artist Han Yong's latest solo exhibition Watching as An Infant from August 26th to September 18th, 2022. The exhibition is curated by Di Xiaowei, including more than 40 works of different materials created by the artist since 2000.
In Han Yong's early works, one can discern an extreme sense of self-consciousness towards the matter of painting, in which the painter commences by leaving leeway everywhere in the composition but ends with a seemingly crude but utter uncertainty — a good painter is always born with this kind of courage. If one assumes that painting requires talent, it's often evident in the very beginning.
Such innocent and effortless painterly expression is perhaps the painter's resistance to our time and his persistence towards the fond memories and imagination deep-down. This quality has always been there since the dawn of Han Yong's career.
In terms of color, content, and methodology, some would conclude that Han Yong is a good painter that fits perfectly into the definition of Modernism. However, Di Xiaowei believed that one could identify his paintings as something that parallels temporal categories such as "fashion," "trend," or "movement," or they rather exist as a poetic entity that doesn't govern by temporality.
Han Yong's living experience can even be described as "cloistered," both in terms of his work and lifestyle. Since 2002, Han Yong has been living in a remote mountain village in the suburbs of Beijing, far away from the city and his circle. He pays attention to the artistic expression of folk and outsider paintings and has been advocating and supporting local villagers' art-making for over a decade.
Han Yong's paintings are the maximum expression of his sensibility and even, his nature under the control of reason. Narratives are laid bare in the compositions with ease, lacking any "useless" tracks. He is always to leap out of our mundane timeline a few times, maybe just a few, but they are all encapsulated in his pictures.
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Curated by Di Xiaowei
