Hou Zichao Light Breaks Where No Sun Shines

Exhibition Dates : 2019.12.14 - 1.19 The Boers-Li Gallery is honored to present artist Hou Zichao's first solo exhibition "Light breaks where no sun shines" on December 14th, 2019. For this exhibition the artist has set up a foreseeable antecedent: the color tangerine functions as the starting point for each painting, buried throughout the series of depicted of landscapes it becomes a visual clue, attempting to incite the exploration of the everyday visual experience—behind the ubiquitous, images of majestic rivers and mountains—what’s reflected is the pursuit for desires of the secular world; and the perceived power that lie latent behind the landscape. Hou Zichao’s recent work has mainly revolved around the exploration of landscape painting. Without having ever abounded the traces of artificiality, the focal point has been placed within the realm of the implicitly manmade landscape—A scenic spot, a stone sliced in half, a trickling fountain, a campfire dying in the forest… They arise because of man, but the cause of their existence remains absent, the forces of man and nature are hence solidified harmoniously. In his recent paintings, the artist sees the landscape not as a symbol of transcendence, but as a totem evoking worldly desires, pointing to a grander, more intense, heroic style of portraying the landscape. "Oasis" occupies the entire wall on the left side of the space and becomes the initial focal point. The fiery red sun splices through the smooth, LED screen-like blue, and the lofty snow-capped mountains in the foreground call for conquest. The iconic fountain and the setting sun intertwine, making for a provocative spectacle. The paintings on the first floor of the exhibition hall continue the focus on "light, water, and stone", but in a more dramatic, symbolic way. On the second floor of the exhibition hall, more painterly works will be exhibited, which are created in the same context. The works are done in a more obscure way, retracing the interior of the painting, and dismantling its semantic connotations, so that the possible truth may lie hidden under the flat picture.