Zhai Liang
2017
Published by White Space Beijing
One painting, two books.
Two paintings, one book.

Before the artist starts painting on canvas, he would prepare himself with a large number of drawings and studies on paper in water colour. This could be read as a prehistory of an oil painting, or could be viewed as an often-neglected space in a garden, the space where there is no apparent path - in other words, where a writer decides the future of his work or where an artist decides what to omit on a canvas. Included in the publication are the studies in a different format; it serves as a prelude or a prologue, and also an integral part of the final painting.





                                                  
                                                  
The cover of the smaller brochure and that of the main body of the publication together form a work with a small gap in-between, and this is an accurate metaphor for the artist’s practise. The combination of the “paper” and “canvas” works changes the format of the book, and brings another exciting structural dimension of depth. The Chinese and English fonts used also supports the unique aesthetics of the artist. Zhai Liang (Chinese and English): the monograph narrates the artist’s practise from the exhibition 'The Garden of Forking Paths', to The Night Ferry with additional notes made by the artist, and includes works from 2011 to 2017.