展期 Period：
2024.7.20—2024.8.17
艺术家 Artist：
策展人 Curator：
杨紫苑 Yuana
地点 Venue：
索卡艺术 Soka Art（北京）
前言 Introduction：
索卡艺术荣幸宣布，将于2024年7月20日推出艺术家马焘在北京空间的首个展 “比格·穆恩”。本次展览由杨紫苑策划，集中呈现艺术家近两年来创作的16件绘画作品，展期将持续至8月17日。
展题源自马焘的同名作品“比格·穆恩”（Big Moon），这件作品无论从名字还是画面都展现了艺术家一贯的幽默感和鬼马行空，他把皎洁的月亮置于一个有限的室内空间，大有将其私藏的意味。当月亮的光晕染指四周直至窗外虚廓，万物变得柔和而安定，彷佛世界是因个人所属物被分享才明朗。
“ 浪漫主义的弊病在于想要得到月亮，就好像月亮真的唾手可得一样。”
— 费尔南多·佩索阿《不安之书》
从最早的先民自然崇拜到如今的宇宙天体探索，月亮一直是亘古不变的话题，亦成为无数浪漫主义者自我意识下沉的载体。与其断言马焘是个纯粹的浪漫主义者，不如说他只是把浪漫有机地汇入生活巨流并融于创作。比如作品“纵横四海”中，气球牵引着拐杖，轻盈又执拗，同时拐杖也支撑着气球免于气流的掠取，这种相互依凭的共生关系无声昭示着人的一生。成长和衰退像蔬果腐烂，像季节轮替，不可避免也无能为力。如果说月亮的盈亏晦朔象征着死亡与重生，那肉身的衰竭就只是精神力量不断循环起伏的序章，只要头顶的光还在，便不存在真正的消逝。
渴望与拥有总是背道而驰，纵然人对月亮的私心由来已久，现实是，月亮就在那里，取不下也搬不走。如此持续的矛盾拉锯，本身已足够浪漫。人类永远难抑对未知事物和无限希翼的追索，这种几近癫狂的渴求随时会喷薄出胸腔。为了不把自己憋坏，艺术家选择让作品成为释放口，所以我们看到了马焘画里种种违背常理的意象和构图。西斜的心型太阳看起来像棉花糖，漂浮的高尔夫球是鸟类的飞毯，还有寄生于树木的沉默诗人…每一个看似不可能的场景，仿佛都在鲜活地证明其存在的合理性和可感性。这或许代表着艺术家自我认知里一些与外部世界相冲突的东西，当它们被观者所接引和成全，就成了一件作品完成的闭环。
马焘的画作总是以最直白和纯粹的方式传达情绪，用他自己的话来说，即“情绪的翻译”。本次呈现的一系列作品都是在后疫情时代完成，有着较于以往更高饱和度的用色，应和着艺术家即时的生活状态和心理喧嚣。哲学里的伊壁鸠鲁学派认为，在快乐和痛苦之间并不存在诸如“没有痛苦”的中间状态，不断摆脱痛苦的过程就是让人实现快乐的途径。对于艺术家来说，创作就是一点点剥离痛楚，终抵达雀跃的历程。马焘将大面积的艳粉，翠绿和柠檬黄涂抹于画布，使其与主体在交融中争相跳脱，这一做法难以把控又令人着迷。他试图用欢活的撞色打破特定静物的单一构图，放大画面甜蜜感的张力，保留成人理想中的天真，以此弥补伤痛给人留下的缺失感和淡化悲悯回忆的不安。
现实混乱失序令人惶惑，终极的幻想世界人们从来只敢仰视，马焘的遐思和愿景却引领观者驶向了它。夜色侵袭，月亮从上空俯身贴近，你我的内心渐渐变得完整。
Soka Art is pleased to announce that Ma Tao's first solo exhibition in Beijing's Space, “Big Moon”, will be presented on July 20, 2024. Curated by Yuana, this exhibition will feature 16 painting works over the past two years created by the artist and will run until August 17.
The title of this exhibition comes from Ma Tao's work of the same name, "Big Moon", a work that displays the artist's usual sense of humor and wonders in both its name and images. He placed the bright moon in a limited indoor space, which seems to be a private collection. When the moonlight spreads to the surroundings and even to the more space outside the window, everything becomes soft and peaceful, as if the world is brightened by the sharing of one's personal item.
“The Romantic malady is to want the moon as if it could actually be obtained.”
— Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet
From the earliest ancestors' worship of nature to today's exploration of celestial bodies, the moon has always been an eternal topic and a carrier of the self-consciousness of many romanticists. Rather than asserting that Ma Tao is a pure romanticist, it is better to say that he organically merged romance into life and integrated it into his creation. For example, in the work "From the Balloon to The Walking Stick", the balloon pulls the cane, light and stubborn, while the cane also supports the balloon to avoid being swept away by the air. This kind of symbiotic relationship of mutual dependence is a silent indication of the life of human beings. Growth and decline are like the rotting of fruits and vegetables, like the rotation of seasons, inevitable and nothing we can do. If the waxing and waning of the moon means death and rebirth, then the exhaustion of the physical body is just the prelude to the continuous cycle of spiritual power. As long as the light over the head is still there, there is no real passing away.
Ma Tao's paintings always convey emotions in the most direct and pure way, in his own words, "translation of emotions". The series of works in this exhibition are all completed in the post-epidemic period, with more saturated colors than before, responding to the artist's immediate state of life and psychological clamor. Epicureanism in philosophy believes that there is no intermediate state like "no pain" between happiness and pain, and the process of constantly getting rid of pain is the way to achieve happiness. For an artist, creation is the process of peeling away pain little by little, and finally arriving at happiness. Ma Tao's practice of using large areas of bright pink, emerald green, and lemon yellow on the canvas so that they compete with the main subject in a state of integration, which is difficult to control but fascinating. He tried to break the simple composition of a specific still life with joyful contrasting colors, enlarge the tension of the sweetness of the painting, also retain the innocence of adults' dreams, so as to make up for the feeling left by the pain and heal the uneasiness of miserable memories。
Reality is chaotic and confusing, the ultimate world of fantasy is one that people have only dared to look up to, but Ma Tao's reverie and vision lead the viewer to it. As night falls, the moon is leaning closer, our hearts gradually become complete.
