![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Qiu-Xiaofei_Parasol-Pagoda_2014.jpg\")
Qiu Xiaofei, Parasol Pagoda, 2014. Acrylic on canvas. 300 x 400 cm.<\/p>\n Qiu Xiaofei, Parasol Pagoda, 2014. Acrylic on canvas. 300 x 400 cm.<\/p>\n
Sino-German relations are currently having a moment, with the Hauptstadt celebrating the 20th anniversary of the cooperation between Berlin and Beijing. This week, to make the most the current love for Chinese culture in Berlin, we\u2019re focusing on artists and designers hailing from the People\u2019s Republic.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n “Apollo Bangs Dionysus” is Qiu Xiaofei\u2019s first solo show at Pace Beijing. Presenting a range of new canvases and installations (all 2013-2014), the exhibition documents Qiu\u2019s recent foray into the realm of abstraction. Seemingly fuelled by the wish to depart from the kind of figurative representations that brought him initial merit, Qiu focuses instead on chronicling his recent process of artistic reinvention.<\/p>\n Qiu, who graduated from the China Central Academy\u2019s department of oil painting in 2002, is known most widely for his nostalgic figurative compositions that are inspired by early childhood memories and photographs. Often appearing as though through a fine distortive gauze, his previous works are characterised by their intimate subject matter and narrative quality. However, after taking a break from artistic production in 2011 and 2012, Qiu\u2019s visual lexicon appears to have undergone a paradigm shift, favouring more energetic, vividly abstract compositions that work towards dismantling romanticised notions of his earlier practice and departing from overt narrative structures. The critic Iona Whittaker points out that Qiu attributes this break in his production to an illness his mother endured in 2006 to 2007. \u201cPerhaps I, too, was ill,\u201d Whittaker quotes Qiu, \u201ctoo attached to the past\u2026I realised this was not a positive thing\u2026 I needed to find a new way of working to avoid this predicament and preoccupation.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The exhibition can be separated into three parts; abstract canvases, installation pieces, and two figurative paintings. Dominating the exhibition, the abstract canvases themselves are composed mostly of three distinctive forces. First, broadly applied primary colours are used to create backdrop, then there are remnants of Qiu\u2019s antecedent figurative methodology scattered throughout a number of the works. Finally, blocks of solid monochromatic brushstrokes obfuscate these other, more delicate compositions – applied as if in a final crescendo of freely executed creative force (“Two Round Roots Entering A Temple”, 2013). However, this dogmatic uniformity in almost all of his new works ironically directs the viewer\u2019s attention back to the two figurative works that appear almost out of place in the context of this new approach.<\/p>\n Strategically placed at a narrow thoroughfare between the large exhibition space that houses Qiu\u2019s abstract paintings, and a smaller one with his installation work, the two mid-sized canvases communicate a meta-commentary of the show itself. The smaller one depicts a human form with a monkey perched atop its left shoulder (“Wood on Blue Timber on Wood”, 2013-2014). The canvas emanates a stifling formality, as though it were the legacy of some arcane dignitary, and yet simultaneously, the figural is being expelled through a series of abstract elements that litter the canvas. Here, abstraction becomes viral – literally “infecting” the figure and gradually transforming it, while two coarse pieces of wood mockingly obscure the very emblem of figurative portraiture: the human face. Thus the work, hung at the centre of the exhibition, visualises the artist’s own transformation, suggesting to the viewer that Qiu Xiaofei\u2019s journey into abstraction has only just begun.<\/p>\n The energy, vivacity and force that is transmitted in these canvases speaks of Qiu\u2019s struggle to emerge from the “illness” of nostalgia while forging for himself a new methodology. However, only time will tell whether this exhibition genuinely represents a new sustained phase for Qiu, or if it will be cast aside as a short-lived byproduct after all.<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Qiu-Xiaofei_Wood-on-Blue-Timber-on-Wood_2013-2014_1.jpg\")
Qiu Xiaofei, Wood on Blue Timber on Wood, 2013-2014. Left: Acrylic on canvas, wood. Right: Oil on board, wood. Left 26 x 23 cm. Right 124 x 140.5 cm. Courtesy Pace Beijing.<\/p>\n