In 2008, when Shun Art Gallery was in its infan-cy, we held a group exhi-bi-tion at the old space in 50 Mogan-shan Road in Shang-hai, fea-tur-ing grad-u-ates of the LuX-un Acad-e-my of Fine Arts, QU Yan was one of the par-tic-i-pa-tors.

More than a decade lat-er, QU Yan’s solo exhi-bi-tion will be held at the gallery’s cur-rent and relo-cat-ed space in Fux-ing Road. His works are per-sis-tent and evolv-ing from an indus-tri-al and deca-dent state to a strong ten-sion express-ing the dash and tran-scen-dence of a prac-ti-tion-er, with the reflec-tion and accu-mu-la-tion of time.

The main hue of car-bon gray in his paint-ings remains unchanged, but one may also be pleased to find that his recent works con-tain some new exper-i-ments and attempts of blue and green.

Ruins

The sto-ry in your mem-o-ry,

Has its own plot.

The frag-ments in my mem-o-ry,

Dis-con-nect-ed, dis-parate.

In the rain,

The one who doesn’t need an umbrel-la,

Won’t be able to see your big hands,

Had mer-cy on me.

Once The heart has left –

It might not return.

A sto-ry of 16 years,

When it ends, maybe it could start again.

In the ruins,

Your famil-iar fig-ure,

Still car-ing anoth-er one.

It’s okay,

The rain in the ruins.

The leaves pre-vent us from see-ing the for-est, and when we are young we tend to be too self-con-scious, lack-ing the ease of “blank-ing”. Qu Yan’s images have changed from a full ten-sion to the veil-ing space now. Mean-while, through those images, the authen-tic his-to-ry and self-por-tray-ing are pre-sent-ing.

曲巖 QU Yan

　　出生于1980年，2006年碩士畢業(yè)于魯迅美術(shù)學(xué)院油畫系，現(xiàn)生活工作于上海。個(gè)展：凝聚與奔放，東籬畫廊，臺(tái)北中國(guó)（2015）；“梵行手記”曲巖單車騎行川藏線油畫與攝影雙個(gè)展，非馬美術(shù)館，成都中國(guó)（2014）。群展：藝來(lái)藝往兩岸東籬，東籬畫廊，臺(tái)北中國(guó)（2017）；明心見性，香海畫廊，上海中國(guó)（2016）。藝博會(huì)：亞洲畫廊藝術(shù)博覽會(huì)——中日韓畫廊精品展，中國(guó)文化部，上海中國(guó)（2012）。

Born in 1980, grad-u-at-ed from Mas-ter of Oil Paint-ing, Lu Xun Acad-e-my of Fine Arts in 2006, Now liv-ing and work-ing in Shang-hai. Solo Exhi-bi-tion: Con-den-sa-tion and Enthu-si-asm, Dongli Gallery, Taipei Chi-na (2015); Jour-nal of Brah-macariya Oil Paint-ing and Pho-tog-ra-phy Exhi-bi-tions of Qu Yan’s Bike-rid-ing Trip along the Sichuan-Tibet High-way, Feima Gallery, Cheng-du Chi-na (2014). Group Exhi-bi-tion: Art to Cross-Strait, Dongli Gallery, Taipei Chi-na (2017); Find One’s True Self, Xiang-hai Gallery, Shang-hai Chi-na (2016). Art Fair: Art Gallery Art Fair—China-Japan-Korea Fine Art Gallery Exhi-bi-tion, Shang-hai Chi-na (2012).