Xie Qi, Peaches, 2015; Oil on canvas, 70x70cm
Pékin Fine Arts is pleased to host the second solo exhibit of artist Xie Qi, and her first in Hong Kong. Xie Qi’s work was most recently exhibited at Pékin Fine Arts in Beijing in the “Summer Group Exhibition” (Jun 13 – Aug 30, 2015). Her work is also featured in the just-published book, Half The Sky: Conversations With Women Artists in China (Piper Press 2016. ISBN 9780980834741), by Luis Guest, Director of Education and Research at White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney. Xie Qi graduated from Beijing’s Central Academy of Art and Design. She is a full time artist, living and working in Beijing. Her works are in the M+ Museum Collection in Hong Kong and the Sigg Collection in Switzerland. An exhibition catalogue will be published to accompany the Hong Kong exhibition.
Xie Qi, ¥ 20 (Twenty RMB Yuan), 2012; Oil on Canvas 180 x 210 cm
In her latest series of paintings, the artist continues her philosophical quest. A solitary painter, who is not part of any art movement, her search is a personal one, for greater meaning in day-to-day life. Exposing the intimacy of material life and the objects we choose to live with, she questions whether “Things” provide comfort or paradoxically end up tyrannizing our lives. In the anthropomorphic art of Xie Qi, “Things” are imbued with living breathing spirits. And these “Things” force us to accommodate their presence in our lives.
The artist relies on multi-colored, richly layered brushwork, to endow each painting-subject (whether still life, landscape or portrait) with the power to seduce. The artist wryly observes the painting-subject, as well as the painting itself, as she transforms it into a new “Art Object” for acquisition, a new “Thing” of the artist’s creation. Her painting strategy is to deliberately magnify, then obscure, and finally glaringly expose her carefully chosen subjects. Her technical prowess combines varied techniques in complex compositions, where layers of paint aim to engage viewers in long “conversations”.
Xie Qi, Walnut, 2015; Oil on Canvas, 75 x 150 cm
In an Artist’s Statement titled “Things Weigh Us Down, We Weigh Things Down”, Xie Qi tenderly watches over her painterly offspring, having produced yet more “Things” for which she alone is responsible. Not unlike a mother witnessing the growth of her children, she notes the irony, “…As our things accumulate, we begin to hear the incessant clamour of our things, in our most intimate spaces…. One-by-one, the personalities of our things emerge, to the point that soon they too will have souls. The desire a person imposes on things is reflected back onto him or herself.” Xie
Qi’s success as an artist is in gently and knowingly forcing the viewer to see the world – her world - through the prism of her paintings.
About the exhibition
Date: Mar 19 - May 21, 2016
Venue: Pékin Fine Arts, Hong Kong
Courtesy of the artist and Pékin Fine Arts, for further information please visit http://pekinfinearts.com.
