Artist: Zhai Liang
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.
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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.

