WHAT
The Beijing-based artist is one of China’s most highly regarded, and one of the pivotal protagonists of the first non-conformist art groups to emerge from China in 1979 – The Stars (Xing Xing 星星) Art Group. Huang’s practice has been largely influenced by the Book of Changes (I-Ching or Yi Jing). While the artist is used to exploring the reduction of pictorial elements in painting and the universal harmony of spaces, his latest series of blue-themed paintings from his ‘Absence’ series is on view as well as a number of sculptures – a continuation of his ongoing experiments of space, which also references the war in Ukraine.

WHY
A pioneer of free art expression in the Post-Mao era who used his art to promote social ideologies, Huang’s ‘Absence’ series was created in response to the war in the Ukraine – hence the blue and yellow colours of the Ukraine flag; his new series of works for peace is also simultaneously being exhibited at the Polish Embassy in Beijing. For art lovers who are interested in contemporary Chinese art and the non-conformist art movement of the late 1970s, this exhibition offers a thought-provoking exploration and a testament to the way art can serve as a reflection of society and its power to address contemporary issues.