CHI PENG

Throughout his multifaceted artistic exploration, Chi Peng has consistently reflected on the limitations of photographic language and the shifts in artistic creation. Driven by a desire for innovation and transformation, Chi Peng continually thinks and experiments with different forms of expression. He firmly believes that painting is an essential personal endeavour, ‘Painting is a journey of self-discovery, as well as a process of self-transcendence and self-conquest’.

On & On Off & Off means the freedom of thought fosters the boundlessness of painting, where the inexplicable nature of painting lies in the diversity and possibilities between the rules of technique and the circularity of ideas. Seeking boundaries above and adhering to the fundamental constancy of expressing the world below, the infinite above and below shapes the grand future, while limitations above and below reveal brilliance in the gaps. In his paintings, Chi Peng seeks to convey a sense of border-seeking in today’s world, exploring the appearance of new world gates through the realm of colors and the volume of language. The choice of entering or exiting is personal, and the binary of yes or no directs values. Life’s myriad transformations give rise to unprecedented phenomena, making every present in painting an encounter unlike any before.

In the paintings presented in this exhibition, Chi Peng thinks about the confirmation of identity and the dissociation of the spirit, the duality of body and the reorganisation of consciousness, and he tries to explain the problem of synesthesia conversion between conceptual consciousness and visual characteristics from the perspective of painting language. The works emphasise the concept of “duality,” highlighting the visual transitions of identity, while the entanglement and intricacies within the painterly language serve as a visual manifestation of inherent identity traits and personality.

The thematic content of this series of paintings expresses a kind of direct resistance to identity. In Chi Peng’s painting, a strong desire for expression and the hidden consciousness of self-protection has become a specific contradiction. Additionally, this exhibition explores the tension between the artist’s self-expression and societal dialogue. Chi Peng’s works not only depict the process of personal and self-conflict but also continually pose deeper questions that challenge the viewer’s mind. The core issues in the exhibition include the notion of open-source consciousness—investigating the possibilities for future explorations—and the complexity of identity characteristics, touching upon self-identity and societal recognition. These intertwined issues create a multi-layered field of thought, where each problem becomes the starting point for new questions.