Soka is pleased to announce the participation in the 2018 Art Basel Hong Kong. Soka will feature three important artists from China: Hong Ling (b.1955), Mao Xuhui (b.1956) and Zhang Yingan(b.1981). 

Hong Ling (b.1955-) began to travel widely and set up a studio residence in the picturesque region of Mount Huangshan in southern Anhui Province, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the 1990s. Since 1990, Hong’s work has also been richly informed by his extensive travels across China, Asia, Africa, Europe and many remote parts of the world, including the north and south polar regions— experiences documented in his works. His works embody personal human experience and values in the ways they echo the dramatic and intense seasonal changes among the high peaks of Huangshan. His uncertainty nature with the surroundings responds to where he stays and travels reflect onto his works. Hong’s works is also provocatively modern and reflexive. Hong’s works also tell a story of one artist's personal development, his embrace of the natural world and his spiritual growth, and as such, provide evidence before our eyes of the dramatic social and political changes that have transformed life in China over the last half century.

Hong Ling, Rainin Bamboo Creek 溪篁賞雨 
 Oil on Canvas 170 x 260 cm  2017 

Mao Xuhui(b.1956-) was the leader of the avant-garde community in southwest China in the 1980s, having organised the touring exhibition "New Concrete Image" with painters like Zhang Xiaogang in 1985. Mao only conducts works related to his life and himself. At 2018 ABHK, Soka will be presenting Mao’s recent major work, Scissor Jungle-No Way to Hide. This magnificent work combines several important hidden metaphor symbols at every stage developed by the artist from the 1980s to the present. Viewers could spot easily several leads: 1980s Paternalism series, 1990s Daily Epic series, 2000s Scissor series and 2014s Purple series all the signature series of the artist are condensed into the work. The Scissor Jungle - No Way to Hide derived from the artist daughter’s suicide three years ago. The motivation is remain a mystery today.  Since then, the artist tried to find the salvation from his religious journey. He traveled to India, Nepal and Tibet. He felt hardy in Varanasi, India, where Hinduism believed Veranasi is the connecting point of heaven and earth. Hinduism celebrates birth and death in the same place by Veranasi, Ganges River. Mao said he is uncertain if he could celebrate her daughter’s death, however, he found his salvation when he immerse into his painting. The studio is his Varanasi although this is very difficult for him to paint because of unbearable suffering. The audience can see from the work: the sharp scissors is falling like heavy rain and the scary men are running nowhere. Scissor Jungle- No Way to Hide is regarded as one of the most remarkable and important works of the artist during past ten years.

Mao Xuhui, TheBackrest Chair 靠背椅 
Oil, Acrylic on Canvas 195 x 195 cm 2018 

Zhang Yingnan (b.1980-) comes from one of the most ancient cities in China, Baoji, Shanxi Province and currently works and bases in Beijing. Zhang’s father served as soldier that Zhang grown up with father’s military and it was about group life of his childhood memory. People were close to each other. When Zhang moved to Beijing at 2006, he started to realize the urban life completely different from Baoji. Beijing’s population is the most crowded in the world however people are extremely distant from each other. He raises the question what is the nature of the society? Urbanization and modernization change the world quickly, everything is closer and yet distant. Therefore, Zhang Yingnan depicts works with surreal places in muted color tones. He tried to capture the contradictory of the society of China and the contemporary moment where he belongs. His painting exudes mysterious and tranquil atmosphere theme that are most often explored by the artist.

Zhang Yingnan, Life is a Dream 浮生若夢 

Oil on Canvas 200 x 150 cm 2017