This abstract painting features soft, muted tones of peach, cream, and hints of red. The composition is minimalist, with two amorphous shapes creating a sense of balance and tension. The brushwork is loose and expressive, suggesting a meditative or introspective mood. The overall style is evocative of the color field painting movement, where the focus is on the sensorial experience of color rather than representational imagery. The artist's intention may have been to explore the emotive and visceral qualities of color and form, inviting the viewer to engage with the work on a purely aesthetic level. ...
Xiao Hanqiu (b.1986, Beijing, China) is a painter and a poet. Xiao’s paintings on canvas juxtapose objects in situations that conjure the ethereal magic and intensity of being. Her paintings operate like her poems: linear narrative is rejected in favour of open questions that reflect on the complexity, ineffability, and inconstancy of experience. Xiao received her MA Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art and Design in 2011, and BA Fine Art from Leeds University in 2008.
Highlight of her recent group exhibitions include NADA Miami 2023, presented by Tabula Rasa Gallery (Miami, 2023); Contemporary Myths and Artifacts (Stockholm, 2023); Tabula Rasa: Unveiled, No.9 Cork Street (London, 2023); Minor Attractions x Cornershop (London, 2023). Recent solo exhibitions include Love stories and horror stories, Lyles and King (solo, New York, 2022); LISTE Art Fair Basel 2021, Tabula Rasa Gallery (dual solo, Basel, 2021); Honey, Bee, Tabula Rasa Gallery, (solo, London, 2021); Skating Through the Gallery with Tricksy Snakes,Tabula Rasa Gallery, (solo, Beijing, 2018); That’s Quite Something, Canton Gallery, (solo, Guangzhou, 2018); and Self-portrait, Tabula Rasa Gallery (solo, Beijing, 2016).
She has published four poem collections: Losing Everything is Beautiful (2022), A Dream Comes True (2019), Three Minutes to Midnight Flower Thief (2018), and Four Hearts (2015). ...
Tabula Rasa Gallery is based in Beijing's 798 art district. Established in 2015, it aims to promote both Chinese and international contemporary artists through exhibitions, talks, research and publication. The gallery name is Latin for 'blank state'. In philosophical discourse, it refers to the idea that our knowledge comes from our experiences and education, all participants are born in a Tabula Rasa state. Tabula Rasa hopes that the exhibitions they present can subvert viewers’ preconceptions, creating conditions for fresh artistic experiments. ...
