LENG GUANGMIN

Taking its title from the scientific process of staining chromosomes, Dyestuff begins with a paradox: staining makes the invisible visible, yet simultaneously alters the image revealed. What emerges is not an untouched reality, but one shaped by the conditions through which it becomes known.

For Leng, “dye” is not about colour, but the condition of being dyed—altered, layered, concealed and revealed. His paintings question the possibility of a definitive or authentic image, proposing instead that every image is continually processed and rewritten.

This idea is embedded in Leng’s distinctive technique. He mounts paper onto linen, applies acrylic paint, and uses a knife in place of a brush to cut and scrape into the surface, exposing fragments of paper concealed beneath. What appears to be destruction becomes construction: layers are removed, interrupted and reassembled to establish the structure of the image. Paper, paint and the traces of cutting are not simply materials supporting the work; they form the conditions through which the image comes into being.

Across Dyestuff, familiar subjects—including glass, chairs, flowers and architectural spaces—become sites of investigation. Glass is transparent yet obstructive, allowing us to see while simultaneously distorting what lies beyond. This tension leads Leng back to the surface of things. Rather than treating appearance as something to penetrate in search of a hidden truth, he considers the surface itself a point of reference—something to observe, question and return to.

In Hidden Fragments, chairs are embedded within one another, evoking structures of support, concealment and power. In Flower Bones, flowers emerge from a wall’s corner, their forms intertwined with the architecture around them. Both works explore how forms take shape through constraint, support and dependence.

Leng’s practice occupies a space between representation and abstraction. Rather than reproducing reality literally or allowing the image to dissolve completely into abstraction, he fragments and reconstructs familiar forms. Critic Wang Min’an describes this as a “third way” beyond realism and abstraction, existing between the real and the hyperreal.

Ultimately, Dyestuff shifts the question from what things originally are to how they are revealed and understood. Through surfaces, materials and transformation, Leng Guangmin presents reality not as fixed, but as something continually shaped, mediated and reimagined.