ChinaSquare presents work by Li Tianyuan, an artist whose new work grapples with the contradictions between man and nature, the imaginative and the realistic, and connection and isolation. Identified as “Neo-Naturalism,” Tianyuan’s work has a feeling of the poetic, even the elegiac. His mysterious scenes draw the viewer in with their gentle colors and figures, but remain remote and charged with untold meaning. Tianyuan uses the Eastern tradition of naturalism to comment about the most profound moments of life for the individual and society as a whole.

The images in this exhibition tell a story of social and psychological change, moments of emotional insight and the movement between the past and the present. Tianyuan’s work contains an element of strangeness and surrealism; his images are reticent about their own meaning. The inscrutability of his work keeps the viewer constantly engaged, each work is an enigma to be discovered and re-discovered.

Li Tianyuan is an accomplished artist. He studied at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, the most prestigious art school in China, and has been awarded and recognized as one of the most important artists in contemporary Chinese art. Curator Feng Boyi’s insight and sensitivity to Tianyuan’s work creates an exhibition that expresses the complexity and depth of the artist’s strengths. Among the many talents from China, Li Tianyuan stands out as an artist with a profoundly resonant voice.