Galerie du Monde is delighted to announce Mo Xiang, a solo exhibition by Chinese ink artist Li Hao, taking place from 2 – 30 June 2016. Following a series of successful joint and solo exhibitions at Galerie du Monde over the last three years, this solo exhibition will showcase Li Hao’s talent as a contemporary ink artist with completely 17 new works to be internationally premiered at this exhibition. The works further demonstrate the artist’s move from figurative painting to conceptual ink art and abstract imagery. In addition, the artist’s practice has been affected by his relocation to Dusseldorf, Germany in 2015 where he has been inspired by the change in his personal environment and circumstance.
Li Hao graduated from the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts and the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, where he specialised in traditional ink painting. The meticulous and rigorous training that Li Hao received and the talent he displayed in his subsequent work led to him being selected for The Second Modeling Art Exhibition of New Artists at the National Art Museum of China in 2012 and included in the Fifth Beijing International Art Biennale at the National Art Museum of China in the same year.
Since 2013, however, the artist has moved away from a traditional and figurative approach to his work, commenting that: ‘I found that these things are not what I want to draw. In fact, I do not know how I transitioned to ‘contemporary’, but I can confirm one thing, which is that I want to create work in my own way.’
Li Hao breaks the rules of traditional ink painting, interested in the ‘idea’ of ink painting, as opposed to the practice itself. Each work is carefully planned, but the nature of each piece seems to be completely fluid, as if completed in a single motion. The texture, layers and space within each work are in unison, demonstrative of a unique aesthetic the artist has created. The works on display form part of the artist’s continued series ‘Guaxiang’ and ‘Moxiang’, many of which are vast: several measure over a metre in height, either as single pieces or consisting of a number of individual panels that assemble to form works between two to three metres in length.
Li Hao is part of a new generation of ink artists in China using the medium to negotiate the transformation of modern society in China, with works that are evocative because while distinctly contemporary, they make use of ink as a traditional medium through which the past can be incorporated. In addition to this, the artist’s relocation to Germany has allowed him a new perspective on the environment of other countries compared with that of China, something that has lent him a great deal of inspiration when creating the works which will be on display at Galerie du Monde.