XIAO KEGANG

Xiao Kegang’s practice has centred around the observation of the world from different perspectives and principles, or ‘cognitive alternatives’. A half-face of an owl could resemble an ionic column. A left foot could invoke a right-leaning shrub. These paintings are visually harmonic, but cognitively puzzling. Xiao Kegang expects viewers to tour through his canvas, identifying their own objects of interest.

The foregrounds and backgrounds are often interchangeable in Xiao Kegang’s works. In Still Life, for instance, the fruits and flowers consist of the objects in the foreground, in the fashion of a traditional still life painting. However, Kegang creates an airy white line which connects these items, flattening the entire surface, causing the colour fields of white to become a foreground.

In Mixed Scenery V, the form of the fish shares intimate relationships with a bone, a flower, and some blue clouds. In 1951, American essayist Clement Greenberg declared Jewish master painter Chaïm Soutine’s treatment of fish and flesh ‘exotic’, thanks to its lack of ‘reassuring unity’. Xiao Kegang’s portrayal on animals offers a similar discomfort in its lack of ‘reassuring unity’. In opposition to Soutine’s desire to feature his fish and flesh, Xiao Kegang’s bold colors serve the intention for animals and non-animals to become unified.

Three large-scale works command the gallery’s back space. With features of both cave paintings and maps, these works are simultaneously flat and dimensional. They are mazes filled with color, content, order, distortion, proximity and distance. Viewers may find themselves trapped inside these paintings in a state of confusion and anxiety, while totally relaxed in the bliss of their abstract beauty.