Deeply mesmerized by nightscapes, Lin Baoling has been seeking new ways to portray night scenes over the last decade. He developed a way of using multi-media vellum as his creative medium by allowing water-saturated acrylic paint flow across the non-absorbent, translucent vellum, creating a rich and surreal blooming effect. This flowing, uncertain, and ephemeral artistic style has been dubbed "dreamlike", mysterious, charming, and desirable by many collectors. Looking back at his works, such as Nocturne in Blue and Purple, TPE Nocturne, Kyoto Nocturne, Starry Night over Mt. Nanhu, Yellowed Night, and the more recent Snow Country series, it's evident he has mastered techniques and grown ever more proficient with different media. The themes of his works have also grown more diverse due to his travel and residency in locations including New York, Singapore, and Japan. In recent years, however, he has distanced himself from the boisterous noise of cities and moved into the remote and tranquil realm of nature.

The pieces displayed in the 2020 show, Like a Dream – Lin Baoling Solo Exhibition, depict dreamlike views of a scarcely lit village in the woods of Niigata, Japan - a scene he witnessed from afar during his participation of the triennial Echigo-Tsumari Art Field in 2017. In Snow Country VI, he emulated theatre lighting to free the objects from their original colors, using cool-toned colors such as blue, purple, and silver to capture the coolness and tranquility of the snowy night and sprinkled it with flickers of yellow and white. The piece demonstrated the artist's pursuit of light and shadow, the warmth in his heart, and his poetic imagination. As Yasunari Kawabata wrote in Snow Country, "Where there's snow, there's hope. Snow brings hope of a plentiful harvest." He attempted to use his brush to create a remote, sparsely populated, and poetic dreamland that carries a sense of hope and calm.

Aside from the dreamlike yet realistic depiction of magnificent scenery, he has also continued his Nameless Little Guy series, where the titular character truly represents the artist. Every work in which the Nameless Little Guy makes an appearance serves as a page out of Lin's experiences in life. Through this series, Lin wishes to tell of the loneliness, helplessness, and perseverance in life. In Broken Rail III, he transformed himself into the Little Guy with hiking gear, treading carefully on the rails in the vast universe. The Little Guy eventually finds out that everything is fictitious, and that a person cannot simply walk into another's heart. Despite this, however, we always seem to continue these attempts.

Lin's works depict a scenery with interwoven stories, memories, and reality much like our dreams, onto which our daily experiences and subconscious are projected. In the dream it's as if we are really there. The emotions and experiences run deep just as in real life. To Lin, "Life is like a dream, and the creative process is how dreams are made, a microcosm of life. Artworks are fictitious dreams, the happiness and suffering we experience inside. By conveying the true emotions and thoughts through these fictitious dreams, a picture of hope and meaning can be painted for the empty lives." Like a Dream – Lin Baoling Solo Exhibition opens Saturday, October 3, 2020 and concludes on Saturday, November 14. Lin himself will be attending the opening event at 4 pm on Saturday, October 3. We cordially invite you to enter and dream with us in Lin’s fantasy snow realm.