Oil on canvas
2010
120 x 90 cm
Following his solo exhibition Blue Room, a painting installation about the human cost of failed environmental policies, Yang Shaobin returns to UCCA to introduce Kong Lingnan, a young female painter whose minimalist, luminously beautiful landscapes further explore the dynamic between human beings and nature.
Originally trained as a graphic designer, Kong is a perfectionist both on canvas and with every detail of the exhibition space. Her first solo show, part of the UCCA Curated By… series, is entitled Only her body, and features “neon light paintings” of isolated landscapes, peculiar disasters and mysterious human activities. Kong’s paintings are meticulously executed: although she works with typical oil paint, her unique method makes each line appear to glow, as neon colors leap from stark black backgrounds.
In the midst of all these landscapes, Kong will “write” the title of the exhibition with a specially-designed light sculpture. The artificial glow of the light sculpture echoes the human – yet also artificial – neon lines in her paintings, creating an environment that amplifies the contours of this planet, the body of our Mother Earth.