Xu Hualing’s works are both in between the real ego and the illusionary identity, between virtual painting and real video, between the traditional easel painting and contemporary installation. Xu Hualing has created aesthetic alienation between the traditional and contemporary in the contemporary self-examination and self-disclosure.

– An excerpt of “Shang Hui: Between Illusion and Reality”

In this painting, the divisions of shape and color give the viewer a neat and tidy visual experience. It seems that it avoids a refreshing feeling if it is vertically extended. This neat, tidy and refreshing look encourages the spectator to be more dedicated, so that the sense of sight wanders in between the language and form, and extends a respective assumed entirely from this.

–An excerpt of “Jiang Hongwei: Fragrance, Not only the Nose - On Xu Hualing’s Paintings”

In this year, Xu Hualing has rejected all heavy technological requirements, so it is easier for her to apply the light brushstrokes which have been used for many years, to draw her ideal chivalrous women and spiritual leaders of her girlhood.

–An excerpt of “Ni Jun: Her Sword and Her Pleasure – Xu Hualing’s Heart of Chivalrous Women”

Her “Double” series seems to emphasize the openness of visual composition itself – digesting the original contents of all images, returning to the vision itself, namely Xu Hualing’s use of “Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains” does not attempt to provide a new specific viewpoint, but hopes through the way of “double silks phantom”, to separate our viewing behavior from the original meaning of “Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains”, it is an effort to digest meanings and contents.

– An excerpt of Hang Chunxiao “Double Silks Phantom”

Xu Hualing’s “Visual Structure”  in contemporary art after her previous “modernized” efforts: she weakens the philosophical significant expression, strengthening the sensual temperature of the screen itself. No matter how profound the art is, it still needs a visual sensory channel. Today’s contemporary art increasingly changes the sensory channel to a tool of philosophical expression, thus it loses some true experience in art. Perhaps because she is aware of this, Xu takes the risk to return to painting.

–An excerpt of “Hang Chunxiao: Feather Light – Solo Exhibition for Xu Hualing”

I graduated from the High School Affiliated to CAFA, at the beginning I accepted the most orthodox education of Western painting, and brought the shaping concept of Western art into the professional field of Chinese painting, but I have been looking for a balance, the balance between the past years, taking the Feather Light series as an example, and the pursuit of the best critical point between the blooming and modeling. Now I am more and more weakening the Western shaping, while finding a thing of lingering charm within the entire planarization.

–An excerpt of “CAFA Interview丨Xu Hualing: Traditional Chinese Realistic Painting – Refusing the Difference between the New and Old, The Contemporary Expansion of Tradition”

She considers adolescent females and their bodies as the drawing objects, amending and expanding the language system of the traditional Chinese Realistic Painting, using the melted elements of language of many other paintings. She changes the traditional stylized aesthetic experience of traditional Chinese Realistic Painting, emphasizing the subjectivity of the performance, contemplation of the ego, and further exploring the value of individual existence, to reveal the current living situation.

–An excerpt of “Feather Light – Solo Exhibition for Xu Hualing Opened at Today Art Museum”

About the Artist

Born in Heilongjiang, China in 1975, Xu Hualing graduated from the Department of Chinese Painting at CAFA in 2003, with a master’s degree, and receives a doctorate in 2016 by CAFA, she currently teaches in the Department of Chinese Painting, CAFA. As one of the most concerned artists creating meticulous contemporary paintings, Xu Hualing’s works are in between the real ego and the illusionary identity, between the virtual painting and real image, between the traditional easel painting and contemporary installation. Xu Hualing has created the aesthetic alienation between the traditional and contemporary in the contemporary self-examination and self-disclosure.

Selected Solo Exhibitions  

2016 Feather Light – Solo Exhibition for Xu Hualing, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China

2015 “Guan Ju”, Tang Contemporary Art Center in Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

2008 “Xu Hualing – Chivalrous Women”, Kohler Muller Gallery, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

2007 “Eternal Beauty”, DF2 Gallery, Los Angeles, USA; F2 Gallery, Beijing, China

Selected Group Exhibitions

2016 World – Chinese Contemporary Art Exhibition, Adelaide Festival Centre, Chinese Culture Center, Sydney, Australia

2015 “She • Horizon”, Mebo Space, Beijing, China

2015 “For Chinese Painting” Round II, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, China

2015 “Imaginary • Image” 2015 New Meticulous Painters Invitational Exhibition, Sunyard Art Center, Hangzhou, China

2015 “Six Cities • New Chinese Ink Exhibition”, Shandong Art Museum, Jinan, China

2015 “The Exhibition to Celebrate the Fifth Anniversary of the Founding of Zhuzi Arts Center”, Zhuzi Arts Center, Nanjing, China

2015 “Pattern • Style“, Dayuntang Art Museum, Beijing, China

2015 The Revival of Tradition – Another Approach Contemporary Chinese Art, Javits Center, New York

2015 On the Road of Shuimo – Contemporary Academies Chinese Painting Youth Academic Invitational Exhibition, Dayuntang Art Museum, Beijing, China

2015 Shuimo, Beijing Minsheng Art Museum, Beijing, China

2015 Wind Veers to the East• Asian Art Box, Qionghai, China

2015 Silent Poems – Chinese Contemporary Ink Painting, University Museum and Art Gallery at the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

2015 Image Study – Logic of Presentation Ink Wash and Ink Process, Rightview Art Museum, Beijing, China

2014 Variation: Contemporary Chinese Ink Art Series II, Hive Centre for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China

2014 Double Tracks – A Sketch about Old Lu”, Jiemo Art Gallery, Nanjing, China

2014 Change of Scenery, Mebo Culture, Beijing, China

2014 Reform Art-System by Ancient Examples Contemporary Elaborate-Style Painting Exhibition, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China

2014 Chinese Contemporary Youth Ink Annual Exhibition Round III – Shape and Spirit, SZ Art Center, Beijing, China

2014 Painted Skin: Five Female Ink Artists，Hive Centre for Contemporary Art, Beijing

2014 Direction of Ink• Unusual Form – Contemporary Chinese Ink Invitational Exhibition, Jiangsu Provincial Art Museum, Nanjing, China

2014 Exploring New Dimensions, Mountain Art-Frank Lim Art Center, Beijing, China

2014 Quiescence-Chinese Contemporary Art Exhibition, Sydney Town Hall, Sydney, Australia

2014 New Water and Live Ink – A View on Ink and Water, Hong Kong Maritime Museum, Hong Kong, China

2014 N12 New Painting Exhibition, Lin & Lin Gallery, Taipei, China

2014 N12-No.5, Beijing Commune, Beijing, China

2013 Hue Art in the Contemporary Era —The 9th National Exhibition of Chinese Hue Art Paintings, National Art Museum of China, Beijing

2013 The Eighth Shenzhen International Ink Painting Biennial, Guan Shanyue Art Museum, Shenzhen, China

2013 The Revival of Tradition – Chinese Contemporary Art Exhibition, Tuyap Exhibition Center, Turkey

2013 New Ink in the First Round, Hadrien de Montferrand Gallery, Beijing, China

2013 Philosophical Interpretations of Painting—The Exhibition of Contemporary Gongbi Painting, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China

2013 New Poetry — Contemporary Chinese Ink Painting, Soka Art Center, Taipei, China

2012 L'écriture féminine – Works on Paper and Installation Group Exhibition, Triumph Art Space, Beijing, China

2012 Onward from Concepts — 2012 XinGongBi Document Exhibition, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China

2012 Shanghai New Ink Exhibition 2012, Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China

2012 Multi-layered – 2012 Contemporary Traditional Chinese Elaborate-style Painting Nomination Exhibition, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China

2012 Changing View – “Contemporary” of Ink Painting Nominated Exhibition, Bridge Art Center, Beijing, China

2011 The Concerned Power – The Exhibition of Youth Ink Painting, Today Art Museum, Beijing,

2011 Visual China - Asia Exhibition Tour: Special Exhibition of China’s Experimental Ink Art, Chinese Culture Center, Tokyo, Japan

2011 Others’ Dimension-Italy in Chinese Artists’ Eyes, China, Italy

2011 Representation of Realistic Art – Exhibition of Painting: 2011 Chengdu Biennale, Chengdu, China

2010 “China Welcomes You”, Oldenburg Museum, Germany

2010 Self Portrait – Feminine Art in China(1920-2010), CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, China

2010 Changing View – Nomination Exhibition of Chinese Contemporary Gongbi Art, Beijing Times Art Museum, Beijing, China

2009 Pink Paintings – Female Ink Art in Contemporary Context, Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, China

2009 Water and Color – Contemporary Ink Art Show, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China

2008 “Crouching Paper Hidden Dragon”, F2 Gallery, Beijing, China

2008 “Illusion • Essence”, Art Museum of Beijing Fine Art Academy & Xin Beijing Art Gallery, Beijing, China

2006 New Drawing Annual 2006, Yan Huang Art Museum, Beijing China

2006 “N12 New Painting Exhibition in the Fourth Round”, C5 Gallery, Beijing China

2005 “N12 New Painting Exhibition in the Third Round”, Museum of Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China

2005 “Contemporary Art from Greater China”, Goedhuis Contemporary Gallery, New York, USA and London, England

2005 “A Return to Painting”, Goedhuis Contemporary, New York, USA

2005 Art of the 20th Century, New York, USA

2004 “N12 New Painting Exhibition in the Second Round”, Museum of Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China

2004 “She”, Art Seasons Gallery, Beijing, China

2003 “N12 New Painting Exhibition in the First Round”, Museum of Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China

Courtesy of the artist, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO