Meditative and powerful, with echoes of Rothko in the technique, Wang Guangle’s abstract paintings demand slow viewing. One of China’s preeminent contemporary abstract painters, Guangle has developed a singular artistic practice over the past two decades, working to interpret his classical painting training into a new, abstract style. Now the subject of his solo exhibition at Pace — his second in London — the works reflect Guangle’s interest in using the painting process to translate an abstract sense of time and death into a tangible experience.
Repetition is key to this practice, as Guangle systematically layers acrylic paint over the canvas to create enigmatic colour gradations and textured surfaces, in a meditative process that reflectsEastern spiritual practices. The works in Faded Colours reflect two different approaches — one sees Guangle use a horizontal style that echo moments in time such as the blurring of mist and fog or the fall of dusk, while the other sees him move gradually and evenly towards the centre until he creates a a trapezoid, challenging the two-dimensionality of the painting.
Beautiful at first sight, with so much more to see with closer inspection, Guangle’s show is not to be missed.
