LIANG Manqi: Gazing at The Imaginary
ARARIO GALLERY is pleased to present a solo exhibition of recent works by LIANG Manqi at its brand-new space in Shanghai. Titled Gazing at the Imaginary, on view from January 14th to March 4th, 2023. Featuring LIANG Manqi’s latest works, including paintings and installations that have come as a result of self-reflection and consolidation by the artist.
LIANG Manqi uses painting as a medium for deconstructing and reconfiguring the geometry of colors as symbols, exploring and investigating the relationship between the imaginary, symbolic, and real realms. As the three sections of the exhibition are opposed to each other but transformed towards one another, they provide people with a comprehensive experience of entering the phantasm, walking through the ground of symbols, and ultimately arriving at reality.
This exhibition explores the intricacies of the human mind and unravels the enigma inherent in the intangible expressions of thoughts, emotions, and consciousness. Our perception of the world and our experience are inextricably intertwined with our minds. Through optical illusions, déjà vu, delusions, and hallucinations, our minds play tricks that manifest through our actions, which are shaped by perception, thus continuing to shape our world. LIANG Manqi believes that people "register" the image or thing in their minds before they realize what they are seeing in front of them. The sensation of the abstract often overrides our perception of reality. LIANG Manqi’s works strive to hold onto each of these fragmented, abstract, and seemingly meaningless but significant moments in our daily life.
“My work is not creating a new image but deconstructing and reconstructing the real images in the limbic system of each of our brains that we tend to ignore, which includes an infinite level of space that I have to ponder for a long time. Color and geometric structure are like a universal formula, freely woven and overlapped on the picture; different colors sometimes interfere with each other to form a conflict, and sometimes they restrain each other to reach a balance; nothing could be more relevant to what I want to express than the relationship between them both.”
In addition to the paintings, this exhibition includes a new installation on display, “Portal”, as a continuation of the artist’s passion and response to the space and the powerful dichotomy between our internal and external perceptions and emotions to evoke the emotional blast behind the repetitive actions of mundane life.
