ZHAO YANG

The Last Man revisits the misty pink-and-blue world that Zhao created over many years, while the characters from which seem much deeper and more solemn, imbued with a sense of obligation. Most of the characters turn their backs to the audience and walk towards the depths of the painting, fading away into the perplexing wildness along the winding and treacherous mountain paths. Inspired by an illustration depicting soldiers walking through a snowy forest in an old pictorial from the 1970s, which recalled Zhao’s memory of some well-known hero stories since childhood, a strong resonance emerged between the heroic complex and his artistic life – Zhao has become one of the protagonists in his paintings, and painting, as his ‘unfinished business’ (mentioned in the largest paintings) is his long journey to go...

‘If painting is a form of faith, it transcends mere artistry; it is liberation, a confrontation with absolute independent space of self, the most rightful way of life, embodying the authenticity covering all things, like celestial bodies in the sky, natural and flickering, just for observation.’