We introduce artist Ma Shuqing’s most recent works of 2018 as the first exhibition since the recent renovation of Asia Art Center Beijing. Since his studies at the Munich Fine Arts Academy in Germany in the late 80’s to his eventual return to start up his own studio at the 798 Art District in Beijing in 2002, Ma Shuqing has always been persistent in his explorations into the world of abstract paintings. Ma Shuqing ponders over concepts of paintings and visual expressions of painting between the two worlds of conceptual and visual painting. The traces of time left behind by repetitive spreads of paint upon the canvas coupled with the overlaying of colors have produced a unique spatial viewing experience; viewers are immersed within the true state of life of the artist as conveyed through the palpable process of painting, while the warmth found in traditional painting is revealed between the layers of perceptive, pure and minimalistic colors. This is Ma Shuqing’s second solo exhibition at Asia Art Center following the exhibition “Powder · Dust” in 2016.
Overlaying and Repeating
Regardless of how swift or convenient today’s technology proves, everything will be publicized under the umbrella of big data. Painting, however, maintains an intimate touch as most works are independently created by a single person in a relatively isolated space. With that, it seems that the same tale repeats itself in the studio day after day.
I have grown accustomed to these repetitions. The everyday process of layering paint on top of one another allows my surrounding to grow exceptionally quiet; I have no one to speak to, and I have grown to enjoy the ambient sound and not music, so I drink up what’s left of my coffee, and I finally decide to cover the absent spots of yesterday’s canvas with today’s color without hesitance. I no longer worry about botching a work because of what awaits the next day could well be another layer of a slab of paint, allowing me to be more relaxed and in tune with the state – my senses become acute: the most minuscule accidents that occur in the process of slabbing and layering each color are waiting for me to capture them. They welcome new possibilities and opportunities in my painting. To change the work’s seemingly inevitable destiny gives great joy to the otherwise monotonous process of layering.
Repeating is a method of painting but not the purpose. Through the repetitive layering of paint, I am conveying different messages of different times, just as one cannot cross the same river twice.
As Winter leaves and Spring is upon us, whenever the garbage man takes away the empty plastic paint buckets I leave outside the door of my studio, I am always overwhelmed with indescribable joy.
Ma Shuqing
2018, early Summer