Liang Hao Knuckles Down at BANK, Shanghai

Hands are notoriously difficult to draw but Liang Hao doesn’t shy away from them, making them the focus of his paintings now on view at BANK in Shanghai.

In the solo exhibition Gesture and Speech (5 August–16 September 2023), the Chinese artist presents paintings of hands stretching, pressing, gripping, and holding.

In Liquid Flame (2023), one hand clasps an open lighter while the other lies palm up, providing a well in which spilt lighter fluid burns.

In The One Who Makes the Last Letter of the Alphabet (2022), a sheet of reflective foil is cinched between two hands, showing warped reflections of the latter on its arched surface.

Hao seemingly can’t get enough of hands. Reflections are just one way he doubles down on them. He also introduces more hands by, for example, having them open a book to a close-up of Caravaggio’s Boy Bitten by a Lizard (c.1594).

This conspicuous study of hands studying hands, a meta-study of hands, creates a sense of unreality in the works. Though the subjects and gestures are familiar to us, the scenes feel staged, even allegorical. The smooth, near-immaculate application of paint contributes to this impression of unreality.

Hao’s paintings summon questions. To whom do these hands belong? Why focus on them to the exclusion of other features?

The exhibition’s title suggests hands are expressive enough all by themselves, and in Hao’s capable hands, each pair has their own mood and personality.