HONG KONG.- Kwai Fung Hin Art Gallery is presenting Exotica: Latest Works of Li Huayi, the first solo gallery exhibition of the master ink painter in Hong Kong. The exhibition features Li’s latest series of large scale, monumental landscape paintings, inspired by his travels to remote areas of China since 2007, which were unveiled to the public for the very first time. The exhibition opened on Monday, March 22nd, and will run through May 21st, 2016.

When encountering one of Li Huayi’s paintings, viewers often find themselves astonished by the atmosphere and beauty of his expansive landscapes. His works draw their inspiration from Song Dynasty landscape painting – the grandeur, solemnness, majesty and elegance are all present; yet they go further – the scenes seem to envelop the viewer, somehow placing you within the painting itself. Surrounded by a wilderness of trees and rocky cliffs, there is an element of the unknown, and unexplored, within his washes of ink, and the viewer is transported to a familiar, yet alien landscape.

Although he takes his inspiration from the master painters of the Northern Song, Li’s work takes several radical breaks from traditional artistic forms – his close-up, enveloping mountain backgrounds, for example, have no parallel in any Chinese artistic movement from the Song dynasty to the present day. Instead, his technique of magnifying a small detail of a panorama to an immense size has its origins in the West. He inserts the element of chance into his work, often using an abstract, splashed ink technique to create his compositions, which also sets him apart. As he fills in his tableaux, Li’s use of perspective allows the viewer to feel as if they are being given a specific, secret glimpse into another world. Indeed, as he draws the viewer’s eye around the canvas, Li seems to create a distance between reality and the world.

The Spirit of the Northern Song, Re-imagined in a Contemporary World
LI Huayi was born in 1948 in Shanghai. At the age of six, he began to learn ink painting from Wang Jimei, and at sixteen, was introduced to Western art theory and practice by his teacher Zhang Chongren, who was trained at the Royal Academy in Brussels. During the Cultural Revolution Li survived as a ‘worker artist’, producing large Social Realist works in Shanghai. In 1982, he moved to San Francisco and entered the San Francisco Academy of Art. Two years later, he graduated with a master’s degree.

While at the San Francisco Academy of Art, Li Huayi studied postmodernist theory, and for a ten-year period after graduating, he experimented with abstract forms of splash-ink, combining some elements of collage. Working his way through these explorations, he was able to find his artistic calling, as he took on a specific challenge – to create something new in the most important traditional Chinese painting theme: landscape.

The tradition that kept haunting him was that of the Northern Song school. The artist said in an interview that he only saw his first Northern Song painting in 1978. It was Fan Kuan's scene under snow in the Beijing Palace Museum. In 1989, Li was able to travel to Taiwan and visit the National Palace Museum in Taipei, where much of the Imperial collection of China is stored. "Early Spring" by Guo Xi left an indelible impression on his mind. Large in scale and concept, and detailed and time-consuming in execution, have long been recognized as the pinnacle of Chinese landscape painting, and the few existing works are considered national treasures. However, very few artists have had the patience to practice the technique or the skill to capture their essence.

Literati painting is typically a reflection of the inner world of the painter. Imagery and forms are conveyed through inner perceptions. It depends very much on the level of cultivation of the artist – a noble soul will paint with respectable sentiments, a broad mind will paint wide horizons, a pure heart will paint simple truth. Li Huayi brings this tradition into the contemporary sphere, by drawing upon his own life experience, steeped in tradition and yet globally sophisticated. To quote the scholar Dr. Michael Knight:

Recreating an actual scene is not the point of LI’s landscapes. This is true of Chinese landscape painting in general. They are more an expression of the self with a focus on the play of brush and ink. The conceptual stage is very important, as Li decides what elements might be needed to compose his painting – what sort of spirit he is trying to capture for the piece. Once he decides on this, he pours ink directly onto the paper, using a splashed ink technique that has conceptual links to both Abstract Expressionism and in the works and writings of Chinese master Zhang Daqian. Once he is happy with these broad areas of wash over the paper, he mounts it onto board and paints vertically, meticulously painting trees, rocks and flowing water in a very personal interpretation of the Song Dynasty style.

The landscapes of Li often depict the sky and mountains extending far beyond the boundaries of the tableaux. They appear boundless, and yet minute details are presented in the most delicate manner. Vastness and fineness are at constant interplay, held in perfect balance. Traditional motifs like the fisherman or child, the deserted pavilion or boat are absent. Similarly, meticulously detailed pairs of birds and blooming flowers have no place in his vision. But there is always a lone tree standing upon an imposing cliff, symbolizing a humble man in the midst of a dialogue with nature, their murmurings lingering in the surrounding atmosphere.

Exploring Nature, Finding Inspiration
Late in the 1970s, after the Cultural Revolution wound down and travel restrictions were eased, Li Huayi visited a number of China's important scenic, historic, and cultural sites, including Huangshan, in Anhui province. Many of his paintings are inspired by those celebrated peaks. Li taught himself about the early history of Chinese painting and achieved an understanding of religious painting through informal study at the Buddhist cave temples at Dunhuang in Gansu province. He also frequently traveled to Beijing to take in exhibitions Li became fascinated with the long past, ancient and fantastical nature of the Northern Song period, where so few actual works survive. He would take very specific trips in order to gain a deeper understanding of the master painters of the period. For example, in order to capture the sense of the extremely revered Song artist Li Cheng, Li Huayi studied not only the literature on the artist, but actually traveled to Li Chen’s home in modern Linzi, Qingzhou, Shandong. There he studied the physical landscape, trees, and environment, climbing in remote areas far off the beaten path to get a sense of what Li Cheng would have seen and experienced.

Li continues to take opportunities to travel, for sometimes weeks at a time, to remote areas of China, in order to connect with the ancient landscape, and re-discover its silent energy. In the last decade he has explored a newly opened area on Huangshan in Anhui, and traveled to many famous mountain ranges in China including Lushan (Jiangxi), Wuyishan (Fujian), Zhangjiajie (Hunan), Emei Shan (Sichuan), Huashan (Shanxi), and Taishan (Shandong), among many others. Capturing the essence of such far-flung locales is an integral part of Li Huayi’s artistic process – although the specific places are not the subject of his paintings, the communal spirit he feels between himself and nature, and the awe-inspiring energy and natural beauty of these areas is something that the artist channels into his monumental artworks.

Exotica
“Exotica”, the latest series of Li Huayi, is the fruit of his adventures in recent years. Since 2009, Li has traveled extensively through Xinjiang and Zhejiang provinces, visiting historic sites. In 2015, he took a month-long trip to hike East Tianmu, Huangshan, Qiyun Mountain, Jiuhua Mountain, and Tianzhu Mountain in Anhui Province; visited the Wulong natural karst bridges in Chongqing; and made a special trip to previously inaccessible areas of Shichuan, Hubei and Hunan, including the spectacular Wulingyuan area, a UNSECO World Heritage site.

Far removed from the rapid pace of the contemporary world, the artist is tapping into a mindset and a relationship with nature that seems to be all but forgotten. As he takes in the majestic scenes, Li seeks out an invisible natural energy, one that triggers a subconscious evolution within himself, and results in a new outlook on the world. As he translates this energy into his own surreal landscapes, Li Huayi presents us with an extraordinary glimpse into a world beyond our reach. With a crystal-like sensitivity, Li weaves these otherworldly compositions using fantastical ink splashes, creating mystery and imbuing his works with breathtaking tension. As if holding a drop of ancient ink, bequeathed to him by the masters of the Song Dynasty, he revitalizes and transforms it into unprecedented three-dimensional dreamscapes, opening a new direction for Chinese ink painting in the 21st Century, one that incorporates a global sophistication.