“TRANSCENDENCE — Under the Name of Self
9-person Painting Exhibition
Socrates said: ‘Know thyself.’ Nietzsche responded: ‘Become who you are.’ These two philosophical thoughts spanning a thousand years are like the two poles of artistic creation—exploring inward and expressing outward.
This ‘TRANSCENDENCE — Under the Name of Self’ field painting exhibition is a practice from ‘knowing’ to ‘becoming’. In mid-April 2025, under the guidance of Mr. Zhou Shichao, multiple artists gathered at Guanxiang Mountain in Qingdao to engage in a half-month-long field painting activity, using brushes as the medium and nature as the mirror. They gaze at the world and reflect on themselves, exploring ways to make each work a manifestation of individual spirit.
Field painting is not merely mechanical recording, but a deep dialogue between the artist and the world. When faced with overlapping houses, undulating sea tides, and shifting light and shadow, painters not only capture the appearance of objects but also ask: What do I see? Why am I moved by it? This questioning allows field painting to transcend technical depiction and become an exploration of the mind.
As the German Romantic composer Richard Wagner said: ‘Genius is only exposed without disguise where technique is thin.’ True art does not lie in skilled techniques, but in the emotions and thoughts beyond the techniques.
The works in this exhibition have diverse styles, yet they all contain the artists’ unique balance between ‘what is seen’ and ‘what is felt’—they, with their personalized perspectives, dig out extraordinary meanings from ordinary landscapes.
When cameras have already conquered the precision of vision, the mission of art is no longer to replicate reality, but to give the world a personal interpretation.Arnold Toynbee wrote in The Study of History: ‘Cameras have conquered the visual world, thus allowing artists to freely explore the hidden psychological world and ways of feeling.’
This exhibition is named ‘TRANSCENDENCE’, which sounds like ‘field painting’ and also points to ‘sublimation’—while observing nature, artists are also refining their own language. The outlines of mountains, the undulations of the sea, and the leaps of light all integrate into their respective aesthetic systems, becoming part of their style. This transformation is at the core of ‘under the name of self’. The path from ‘knowing’ to ‘becoming’ is long, and this field painting session is a node on that path. Artists, with brushes as their staff, explore between the past and future of art. They prove with their works that field painting is not only about depicting the external scenery but also a practice about self-reflection.
Ma Xikui, PhD, May 2025”
The opening ceremony of the exhibition.
The exhibition site.
The exhibition site.
The exhibition site.
The exhibition site.
The exhibition site.
The exhibition site.
Artists and guests at the exhibition.
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