HAN JIAQUAN

”The Final Message” is a state of suspense and uncertainty, a stagnant waiting before the announcement, a gloomy night before dawn. In the past three years in China, everything has been uncertain, and awaiting “the final message” seems to have become a part of normality in our lives. In the course of time, the exhibition has been postponed numerous times, and the artist has repeatedly overturned the selection of works. ”The Final Message” has been belatedly in the making, and it is about to become a reality after a long ride of waiting and suspension.

Returning to Arario Gallery for a solo project after more than three years, HAN Jiaquan continues to develop a distinct visual identity of refinement and restraint in his works, manifested in the contrast of using colorless shades and one or two bright colors as a restraint that allows the artist to establish a sense of certainty in the adaptation of small-scale works. This seemingly antagonistic and contradictory relationship between simplicity and complexity, delightment and frustration, texture and inexplicability has always been the direction of HAN’s artistic practice.

The exhibition presents mundane objects and sceneries as an expression of HAN’s emotions and as a setting for creating illusions and imagination, resulting in a sophisticated, linear connection of streaming consciousness that far surpasses a realistic representation. Compared to HAN’s previous works, these emotional changes and associations triggered by daily life have been captured in the stream of consciousness and transformed into paintings.

“I want to accept this kind of accidental event when viewing. Not presupposing is a way to disintegrate the intention, and it can also remove the unnatural restraint required for seeing.” The featuring works ”Legend”, ”Fish Eyes and Beads”, and ”Fancy Overlay” are based on such a creative approach, where unpredictability enters the picture. While ”Staring at Me” and ”Eyes” depict the artist’s dazed sensations and floating thoughts as he examines a basin-shaped ornament and a brooch stand.

In addition, the highlighted painting series ”Wave”, ”Hope”, and ”A Story about a Fisher Boy” represent the artist’s poetic reveries of water droplets and pearls. It is said that the crystal water droplets on Venus’ body in the legend, or the splashes of water in the memory of the fisherman boy, turn into flawless pearls at the end of the story. This may be how HAN Jiaquan found the shimmering light in the darkness of dawn and wanted to bring this to the attention of everyone - the shimmering light that he was looking for. ”If there is a final message that can only be hope.”

Arario Gallery