Duan Jianyu & Hu Xiaoyuan

A Potent Force: Sister No. 16, Duan Jianyu, 2011; 140 x 180 cm, oil on canvas

A Potent Force
A Potent Force brings together the work of these two strongly individual Chinese artists. The title intones the lyrical, introspective, and sentient intellectual prowess that characterises subtle plays with painting (Duan Jianyu) and with a conceptual video and installation (Hu Xiaoyuan). It further references the nature of both artists' analysis of the world as they experience it. There is but eight years of difference in age between them, but those years describe two different eras: one during and one after the Cultural Revolution. For both artists, their approach is primarily emotive rather than directly cerebral. They have developed two distinct languages, each with a tailored vocabulary.
Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, China