Browsing through Qiu Lingui’s work is like embarking on a rich narrative journey, his works intricately intertwine the essence of the concrete and the abstract, embodied in a myriad of mediums and themes. Qiu Lingui’s prolific creative trajectory is a sincere quest to explore a vocabulary of expression that resonates with his heart. His mediums range from oils, acrylics, and resins to unconventional media such as sulphate paper, gauze, sand, fabric, paper, and fire, while his subjects range from the animate to the inanimate – animals, corpses, mountains, water, trees, people, and houses. This variation in medium and subject matter highlights the profound fluidity of his artistic practice, ensuring thematic or formal stability.
Qiu’s exhibitions in Beijing and Shanghai in particular have become important milestones in his burgeoning artistic career, and his 2018 solo exhibition at Fan Space in Shanghai, titled A Calmness So Profound, perhaps evokes the deep contemplative silence of Shanghai’s bustling urban tapestry. It is a powerful metaphor that encapsulates the dichotomy of calm and chaos, a narrative that Qiu Zhijie eloquently expresses through his multiple mediums.
His collective exhibition experiences in both cities, as part of reputable gallery presentations and highly regarded art fairs, have garnered wider audiences and critical acclaim, situating Qiu Jie within the broader narrative of contemporary Chinese art. Notably, he has participated in events such as the Beijing Contemporary Art Fair and the West Coast Art and Design Fair in Shanghai, which reflect an evolving narrative that is both personal and universally resonant. His work Lone Shadow, included in the 2022 exhibition Call of the Wilderness at Shanghai’s Tank Art Centre, subtly echoes the lonely journey of discovery in the sprawling urban wilderness and the relentless pursuit of artistic truth.
Qiu Lingui’s evolving narrative resonates through the polyphony of media and thematic explorations, reflecting his mature understanding of and dialogue with the changing currents of contemporary art discourse. His exhibitions in Beijing and Shanghai not only highlight his growing visibility in the Chinese art world but also demonstrate his sincere efforts to engage in a broader dialogue with the city, nature, the known and the unknown. Through a fusion of the tactile and the abstract, the sombre and the vibrant, Qiu Jie’s artistic narratives are compelling evidence of his ongoing journey of self-discovery and wider engagement with contemporary society and the art landscape.
