Galerie Karsten Greve and artist Qiu Shihua will present Calme, Qiu’s first solo exhibition in France in ten years. The exhibition will show a selection of his oil paintings made between 2010 and 2014, which all evoke an impression of ephemerality and lightness.
Qiu describes his paintings as revealing an atmosphere, and he is fascinated by how we perceive the world around us. At first glance, his works appear as pure monochromes. Upon gazing longer, they reveal themselves to be faint landscapes, reminiscent of traditional Chinese 山水 (mountain-water) paintings. Subtle tones and fibres begin to reveal themselves, mirroring the process of recognition and consciousness. Hovering between abstraction and representation, Qiu’s works refer directly to the individual’s disposition to wait and to observe, and thus lay bare the way we see around us.
As an avid practitioner of Taoism, Qiu also incorporates Taoist perspectives into his work. Instead of pure shade and colour, Qiu hopes that the works presented in Calme will be conceived as arising from the opposition between light and darkness.
Qiu Shihua Untitled, 2012 Oil on canvas © Qiu Shihua
Courtesy Galerie Karsten Greve Köln, Paris, St Moritz
by Louise Lui
Calme will run from January 16 through March 21, 2015 at at Galerie Karsten Greve,
5, Rue Debelleyme F-75003 Paris