2014.10.13《Dog Ⅱ》 Painting by Han Xiao

Han Xiao was born in 1982 in China. Currently living in DaLian City, she attended the Academy of Art & Design of Tsinghua University. Upon graduation, she worked as a design assistant at Design Group, and later taught at a high school. During this period, she became inspired to pick up a paintbrush for the first time since she was a small child. Her portraits possess an innate sense of loneliness and anxiety, and are reminiscent of Francis Bacon’s paintings. She deliberately blurs out the faces of her subjects and makes it difficult to discern any identifiable features. Her energetic and highly impastoed brush strokes and rich color palette of vibrant blues, ochres, greens, and pinks illuminate her canvases and beg the viewer to linger. The major themes I pursue include life, conflict, confrontation of odd shapes in the social environment, and the contradiction behind the reality. Now, I draw a range of subjects, including my lover, friends, my mother, animals, models, students, or myself.