LI YONG XIANG

The exhibition centers on a major painting installation, In Rust (2025), consisting of six paintings where figures from Mikhail Nesterov’s In Rus: The Soul of the People (1916) are deconstructed and restyled. The frames of the paintings appear to stretch and morph into an abstract hall—an architectural structure that both supports the surface and reshapes the viewer’s gaze into a more reflective mode.

At the heart of the painting installation lies Li’s journey with fellow artists to Georgia’s Akhali Zarzma Monastery, where he first encountered Nesterov’s Symbolist frescoes, painted around 1904. These works, infused with Russian Orthodox iconography, blended emerging Western styles, surpassing the typical spiritual reverence associated with the artist.

While Nesterov has been associated with Russian movements like Peredvizhniki (1869–1899), which have had a lasting influence on Chinese art education, Li observes this from a distance and distances himself from conservative interpretations of Nesterov. Instead, he is drawn to the fresco’s stylistic eclecticism. This departure from the Peredvizhniki’s realism embraces a dreamlike religiosity and, according to Li, a purposeful flatness influenced by late-19th-century aesthetic movements such as the Pre-Raphaelite and Art Nouveau styles. These diverse influences reflect the artistic debates of the era, navigating the roles of art in both nation-building and cosmopolitanism.

Accompanying the installation is a multi-channel soundtrack, Untitled (Ebb Tide) (2025), which features layered vocals resonating from different corners of the space. The piece reinterprets The Righteous Brothers’ 1965 Ebb Tide, transforming it into a barbershop harmony-style a cappella rendition.