Generally, a new generation of young artists that shows superb technique boasts a range of stunning academy backgrounds. Yet, the few who are truly outstanding are able to maintain a sense of self-integrity and remain true to themselves. Zhao Bo and Xun Guipin indeed fall under this category of artists. With a sense of sorrow, Zhao Bo reads many books and contemplates many things. However, similar to Schophenhauer’s extreme pessimism as well as the notion of “when things reach an extreme, they can only move in the opposite direction” in Chinese philosophy, the ultimate sadness is also the expression of a boundless love for life and living. In contrast, Xun Guipin offers a more sunny personality, perhaps because the influences of social change have been comparably weaker in Yunnan than elsewhere. Or, perhaps he lives relatively closer to the countryside, so that he is able to maintain a more simplistic and content attitude.

This art exhibition, entitled Blank to Blank, continues with the ideas explored in the previous Infra-Mince exhibition, continuing the transformation of the remnant philosophy of “leaving blankness” in Chinese culture and incorporating the free and open space of the West, using the “absorptivity” and “emptiness” of ink to form a new “remnant white” and thus engage in a reverse-reconstruction of a “non-dimensional plane” and produce a new formal language comprised of “shades of white.”