Soka Art is pleased to present Li Jie's solo exhibition Lost in Illusion. In Chinese traditional artistic concept, the notion of illusion refers to the sensorial realm, while also being connected to the philosophical dimension of the interplay between existence and non-existence. Buddhism and Taoist philosophy emphasize that everything is an illusion: the deceptive character of the material forms visible to the naked eye revels the essence of universe and existence, characterized by a constant flow of generation and dissolution. 

The notion of illusion informs the expressive language of Chinese traditional art, and Li Jie’s works are a contemporary interpretation of it. Li Jie’s first solo exhibition at Soka Art brings together a selection of the artist’s latest paintings revolving around the exploration and the representation of symbolic and metaphorical nuances. Through the technique of impasto, Li Jie applies the thick swathes of paint that evoke the visceral nature of memory, physicality, time and space, challenging the traditional boundaries of painting itself: vibrant, layered surfaces reveal the complex intersection between emotion and form, while blurring the boundaries between abstraction and figuration and between two-dimensionality and three-dimensionality and inviting the viewer to experience the work from multiple angles, each revealing new perspectives, shadows, antextures. 

If we look at the works from a close perspective, our attention is captured by the abstract accumulation of paint: highly condensed, it fills the pictorial surface creating a highly emotional chromatic continuum with no empty space, almost recalling the Greenbergian all over. However, if we look at them from afar, a wide range of narrative elements, pictorial details and visual fragments start to emerge. In the shifting perspective between viewing the painting from afar and up close, the image seems to suggest certain human figures: they are captured in forms of aggregation and their individual facial features are deliberately obscured, thus highlighting the dichotomy between anonymity and identification, and between the self and the group: individual identity is vaguely evoked yet ungraspable, while the representation of the crowd is complex and multifaceted, thus suggesting the impossibility to acknowledge it as uniform entity and the feeling that what we see might be an illusion. 

Through vibrant chromatic combinations and thick layers of paint that infuses his works with a quasi-sculptural quality, Li Jie creates poetic symbols, visual metaphors and iconographic allegories to address issues related to human existential experience, while also casting light on the ambiguous relationship between the self and the group and between the individual and the universe. The experience of togetherness and the representation of collective moments contribute to remind us that our lives are interconnected and that we cannot live alone: as mentioned by the artist himself, the last person on earth would never be happy, even if he could have all the earth’s resources for himself, he would miss people’s warmth. 

However, there is also another layer of interpretation associated with a sense of melancholy and nostalgia. These individuals, characterized by vague and indistinct facial features, are depicted next to each other, however they seem unable to communicate and to convey their feelings. This suggests an inherent paradox of the contemporary world, namely the fact that the more easily we connect to others through technological development, the more isolated we might feel. Contemporary society is characterized by a sense of instability, uncertainty, fragmentation and isolation. Through a layered and symbolic visual language, Li Jie, on the one hand, depicts the dichotomy between the cohesion of the group and the alienation of the individual, thus highlighting the psychological condition of humanity in contemporary society; on the other hand, he also unveils the illusionary character of this very contradiction, which is impossible to explain and to represent. 

While lingering on recognizable shapes, Li Jie, through the representation of the deceptive character of crowd, evokes also the illusionary essence of reality, allowing the viewers to grasp the uncertainty of existence within a visual dimension in perpetual transformation. Li Jie’s work attempts to arouse the viewers’ perception, enabling them to experience the transience and the beauty of the forms in front of them. In the exhibition Lost in Illusion the artist suggests a contemporary re-interpretation of the notion of illusion: taking the concept of illusion in Chinese traditional art as a starting point, Li Jie re-elaborates it through the painterly practice of the digital age, thus shaping a new form of perception and allowing the viewer to re-examine surrounding reality and inner space.