Xintong Gao China, b. 1998
Autoritratto 24#01, 2023
Acrylic and oil on canvas
19 7/10 × 15 7/10 in | 50 × 40 cm
signed and dated 2023 verso
Copyright: The Artist and Andrea Festa
€1,800.00
Gao Xintong, a young emerging talent, whose research, deeply rooted in Taoist philosophy, investigates themes such as spirituality, contemplation, and the harmonious friction between movement and stillness, using painting as...
Gao Xintong, a young emerging talent, whose research, deeply rooted in Taoist philosophy, investigates themes such as spirituality, contemplation, and the harmonious friction between movement and stillness, using painting as a tool to give form to the invisible. Shades of fluid colors, vibrant beams of light, antithetical energies, and indefinite forms - almost synographic - intertwine in his canvases, resulting in a painting that challenges the boundaries of the figurative and invites an immersive and novel experience, harmoniously oscillating between tradition and avant-garde. His works, which blend Italian Futurism and Eastern tradition with originality, investigate the balance between movement and stillness through the lens of Taoist philosophy, particularly the concept of qi and the duality of emptiness and fullness. All of his compositions, constructed with meticulous care through fluid lines and vibrant colors, recall his home culture and embody, precisely, the idea of qi: that vital energy, invisible but perceptible, that runs through nature and permeates the entire cosmos. Linked to the change and movement of the real world, qi manifests itself in every living being, giving rise to a visual flow that unites physical and spiritual dimensions. In his works, the relationship between full and empty becomes a dynamic engine, generating inner and recondite. The canvas is thus transformed into an encephalic landscape, characterized by fluid lines and colors vibrant, alternating between warm and cold tones. Each element takes on a symbolic and energetic form, giving rise to an abstraction that invites us to explore the dynamic flow and unconditional spiritual energy of nature. Evocative landscapes come to life in his work, where emptiness, a force silent and dynamic, allows elements to surface and come alive gradually. His pictorial approach often reflects a desire to capture the “energy of the air” and explore the flow through a gesture that, while spontaneous, is always precise, measured, and never random. Also taking inspiration from the Taoist concept of Wu Wei - effortless action - and that of Yin and Yang, which in Chinese philosophy represents the harmony of opposites, Gao approaches painting as a gesture in eurythmic attunement with the natural flow of things. His works invite the viewer to overcome the dualism between subject and object, moving ever closer to the concept of the “landscape of the soul,” which becomes a central theme of his visual research. Specifically, the “Cyberbamboo” series represents, precisely, a bamboo forest in such a way that the viewer becomes part of it, an experience reminiscent of traditional Shan shui paintings. Similarly, the “Untitled” series of portraits restores the ‘landscape of the soul’ from scratch: a dynamic and sensory that invites the audience to look beyond the figurative, to explore the essence of the spirit through the pictorial gesture, to the sound of brush and ink, proper to the Shan shui tradition.
Exhibitions
Sala Nova presents AutoritrattoMay 8th – June 20th, 2025
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