Liu Dongyuan's solo exhibition at Tong Gallery+Projects, Night Dreaming, will open on January 6, 2024 and run through February 25, 2024. This exhibition will present the artist’s latest paintings created since 2023, which linked up the previous exhibition, Day Dreaming, presented Liu's earlier collage works. The combination of the two exhibitions is akin to Spielberg's quote, "I dream all day; I dream for a living.”
Collage was the medium initially chosen by Liu Dongyuan. The shape of the paper’s edges is both controlled and uncontrolled at the same time, which become an accidental product of the execution of his ideas. The current change implies that Liu no longer relies on this "support" and instead opts to walk independently. The artist, amidst continuous observation and exploration, starts taking deliberate control over shapes, achieving a state that is clear yet imprecise. Initially, the uncertainty derived from paper collage gradually transforms into an imprecision that can be accurately portrayed with a brush. It also means that he is more capable of controlling his own work, eliminating external contingencies, and focusing more on internal spontaneity.
Liu Dongyuan said he is first a painter, then an artist. Therefore, his early primary task was to explore and refine his language of painting, and in this process of "confirmation," he found his own subjectivity. In the artist's dreamscape, subjectivity intertwines with the subconscious, presenting a natural flow of consciousness. Drifting symbols in the mind evoke a surreal deconstructed scene, freely reassembling within their thoughts. When individuals regard dreams as projections of personal consciousness, retracing their origins in a more rational manner, we could find ourselves gazing into a reflected world. Eventually, the artwork itself acquires subjectivity, detached from the artist's existence, while simultaneously reflecting and recomposing within the inner worlds of observers, ultimately becoming the dreams of each individual.
After going through a stage focused on depicting people and objects in life, Liu shifted his focus away from presenting symbolic content. Instead, he emphasized the use of elements such as color, lines, and shapes, combining them to convey intuitive expression. The result is that the images of his works lack a sense of volume and haven't undergone deliberate shaping. Liu’s works underscore the uniqueness and significance of painting as an art form, much like the artist often states, "Painting holds meaning for me.” Liu also mentioned that he get a deliberate departure from classicism, aiming instead to focus on the exploration of painting itself—emphasizing the texture of the canvas surface and an emphasis on the image itself. Not considering painting as a means or tool of expression also allows the flatness of painting to be fully presented in his works.
Regarding the conspicuous red color in his painting, Liu mentioned that as someone who grew up in the northeastern part of China, industrial traces were prominent in his childhood environment. He was always surrounded by factory elements such as brick buildings, iron gates, and fences. In winter, people required thick clothing, and felt desolate when walking along the streets. White smoke and red lights enveloped everyone on the street. It's a striking red, full of vigilance. Like what David Lynch said, "my world won't go beyond the two blocks I grew up in."
For Liu Dongyuan, art is like "two blocks he grew up in" and also like “he dreams for a living." Because in dreams, in this realm, he enters a world entirely of his own.
