Hou Yong, originally from Beijing, graduated from the second painting studio of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1999. His practice consistently seeks to discover the best possible method for expressing the self through painting. For the last three years, Hou Yong has devoted his efforts to the series entitled Water. It is a group of almost colorless paintings of waves so devoid of features that they are almost dizzying. Through these images, Hou Yong expresses his search for form; that which appears in these paintings is the time-consuming and unknown nature of the artistic project itself. Standing against the large-format canvas, the artist becomes subject to optical illusions, himself seemingly falling into the picture plane—such is the anxiety of creation.