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Hao Liang

Hao Liang, Red Nose, 2017 Ink and color on silk, 10 ¾ × 7 inches (27.4 × 17.7 cm)© Hao Liang

Hao Liang, Red Nose, 2017

Ink and color on silk, 10 ¾ × 7 inches (27.4 × 17.7 cm)
© Hao Liang

About

用中文閱讀

I am always playing on and playing up the strengths of traditional Chinese painting in my work. But I am also looking at film, literature, and philosophy, and using this foundation to break some of the limits of ancient painting.
—Hao Liang

In his intricately painted silk landscapes and portraits, Hao Liang filters the techniques, themes, motifs, and conventions of traditional Chinese guohua ink wash painting through a contemporary, cosmopolitan sensibility. He weaves together such outwardly divergent influences as classical poetry, modern literature, film theory, and modern art. Much of Hao’s work is concerned with perspectives on temporality, a theme that has historically been approached quite differently by Chinese and Western artists; where traditional Chinese artists tend to represent time as mutable and ambiguous, Hao aims to locate its unique complexity in the present moment. Crucially, he positions image making as not only an exercise in technical skill and art historical knowledge, but also a reflection of lived experience.

Hao was born in Chengdu, China, and lives and works in Beijing. His first exposure to art came at an early age through his godmother’s father, a noted collector of Chinese art who studied under Zhang Daqian, perhaps the most prominent Chinese artist of the twentieth century. (Zhang, a master of guohua painting, died in 1983—the year of Hao’s birth.) Hao enrolled at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Chongqing, in 2002, majoring in Chinese painting, and graduated with a master’s degree from there in 2009. He considered becoming a teacher, but at the encouragement of fellow artist Xu Lei, decided to pursue painting.

In 2016, Hao showed a suite of paintings titled Eight Views of Xiaoxiang (2014–16) in a solo exhibition at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing. This set of large-scale works is his interpretation of a traditional subject for East Asian artists. In Hao’s version, each image appears distinct from its conventional depiction, offering a consciously multifaceted treatment of the well-known landscape. In 2017, Eight Views of Xiaoxiang was featured in the central exhibition of the 57th Biennale di Venezia, Viva Arte Viva—where he was one of the youngest participants. In the same year, his work was included in the group exhibitions Streams and Mountains without End: Landscape Traditions of China at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and Musée en oeuvre(s) at the Centre Pompidou, Paris.

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Fairs, Events & Announcements

Gagosian’s booth at ART SG 2024. Artwork, left to right: © ADAGP, Paris, 2024, © Jonas Wood, © Rick Lowe Studio. Photo: Ringo Cheung

Art Fair

ART SG 2024

January 19–21, 2024, booth BC06
Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Singapore
artsg.com

Gagosian is pleased to participate in the second edition of ART SG, with a selection of works by international contemporary artists including Harold Ancart, Georg Baselitz, Ashley Bickerton, Amoako Boafo, Dan Colen, Edmund de Waal, Nan Goldin, Lauren Halsey, Hao Liang, Keith Haring, Damien Hirst, Tetsuya Ishida, Alex Israel, Donald Judd, Y.Z. Kami, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Rick Lowe, Takashi Murakami, Takashi Murakami & Virgil Abloh, Nam June Paik, Ed Ruscha, Jim Shaw, Alexandria Smith, Spencer Sweeney, Stanley Whitney, Jonas Wood, and Zeng Fanzhi. The works on view, which embrace a wide variety of subjects and approaches, find artists infusing traditional genres such as history painting, portraiture, and landscape with new and surprising ideas that traverse cultural and temporal boundaries. 

Gagosian’s booth at ART SG 2024. Artwork, left to right: © ADAGP, Paris, 2024, © Jonas Wood, © Rick Lowe Studio. Photo: Ringo Cheung

Gagosian’s booth at West Bund Art & Design 2023. Artwork, left to right: © Zeng Fanzhi; © Katharina Grosse and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Germany 2023; © Spencer Sweeney; © Yayoi Kusama. Photo: Alessandro Wang

Art Fair

West Bund Art & Design 2023

November 9–12, 2023, booth A102
West Bund Art Center, Shanghai
www.westbundshanghai.com

Gagosian is pleased to participate in West Bund Art & Design with an extensive group presentation. The gallery will exhibit works by Harold Ancart, Georg Baselitz, Glenn Brown, Urs Fischer, Katharina Grosse, Hao Liang, Damien Hirst, Thomas Houseago, Alex Israel, Jia Aili, Anish Kapoor, Yayoi Kusama, Takashi Murakami, Takashi Murakami & Virgil Abloh, Albert Oehlen, Nam June Paik, Ed Ruscha, Alexandria Smith, Spencer Sweeney, Cameron Welch, Jonas Wood, and Zeng Fanzhi.

Gagosian’s booth at West Bund Art & Design 2023. Artwork, left to right: © Zeng Fanzhi; © Katharina Grosse and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Germany 2023; © Spencer Sweeney; © Yayoi Kusama. Photo: Alessandro Wang

Gagosian’s booth at Art Basel Hong Kong 2022. Artwork, left to right: © Georg Baselitz; © Louise Bonnet; © Zeng Fanzhi; © 2019 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved; © Rudolf Stingel. Photo: Martin Wong

Art Fair

Art Basel Hong Kong 2022

May 27–29, 2022, booth 1C15
Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
www.artbasel.com

Gagosian is pleased to participate in Art Basel Hong Kong 2022 with an ensemble of contemporary works by international artists. The gallery’s presentation will feature works by artists including Georg BaselitzLouise BonnetEdmund de WaalUrs FischerKatharina GrosseMark GrotjahnJennifer GuidiSimon HantaïHao LiangDamien HirstThomas HouseagoTetsuya IshidaAlex IsraelEwa JuszkiewiczRick LoweTakashi MurakamiAlbert OehlenNam June PaikGiuseppe PenoneRudolf PolanszkySterling RubyEd RuschaJenny SavilleJim ShawRudolf StingelSpencer SweeneyRachel Whiteread, and Zeng Fanzhi.

Gagosian’s booth at Art Basel Hong Kong 2022. Artwork, left to right: © Georg Baselitz; © Louise Bonnet; © Zeng Fanzhi; © 2019 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All rights reserved; © Rudolf Stingel. Photo: Martin Wong

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Museum Exhibitions

Hao Liang, Eight Views of Xiaoxiang—Snowscape, 2014–15 © Hao Liang. Photo: courtesy UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing

On View

Duration
Chinese Art in Transformation

Opened September 25, 2020
Minsheng Art Museum, Beijing
www.msam.cn

Duration: Chinese Art in Transformation attempts to show how every moment that stretches is an absorption of the past, and the endless possibilities of the future are based on the past and the present. The exhibition presents painting, sculpture, installation, video, animation, and more from the 1970s to the present. Work by Hao Liang, Jia Aili, and Zeng Fanzhi is included.

Hao Liang, Eight Views of Xiaoxiang—Snowscape, 2014–15 © Hao Liang. Photo: courtesy UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing

Hao Liang, Eight Views of Xiaoxiang—Dazzle, 2015 © Hao Liang. Photo: courtesy UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing

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The Dream of the Museum

November 11, 2021–April 23, 2023
M+, Hong Kong
www.mplus.org.hk

The Dream of the Museum examines the concept of found objects to show how artists use cultures as source material to update tradition. Beginning with four pioneers of contemporary art—Marcel Duchamp, John Cage, Yoko Ono, and Nam June Paik—the exhibition brings together work by twenty-seven artists from across geographies and generations, including Hao Liang and Andy Warhol, who explore chance and found objects in their work.

Hao Liang, Eight Views of XiaoxiangDazzle, 2015 © Hao Liang. Photo: courtesy UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing

Hao Liang, A Thread of Sky, 2021 © Hao Liang

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Hao Liang in
ON | OFF 2021: Carousel of Progress

February 4–June 5, 2022
He Art Museum, Guangdong, China
www.hem.net.cn

ON | OFF revisits the narrative of a 2013 group exhibition of the same title at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, which reflected on the work of a generation of young artists who came of age in China’s era of opening and reform. Emphasizing the curatorial concepts of return, repetition, and the spiral, this new iteration features the work of around thirty Chinese artists from the “post-globalization” era and is divided into three sections: Gestures of Time, Chambers of Memories, and Multiple Echoes. Work by Hao Liang is included.

Hao Liang, A Thread of Sky, 2021 © Hao Liang

Hao Liang, The Chase of Apollo, Act I, 2021 © Hao Liang. Photo: Yang Chao Studio

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Hao Liang in
The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT10)

December 4, 2021–April 25, 2022
Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia
www.qagoma.qld.gov.au

For its tenth edition, Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art’s Asia Pacific Triennial looks to the future of art and the world we inhabit together. The Triennial includes sixty-nine projects—from large-scale installations and immersive multimedia artworks to sculpture, textiles, paintings, photography, and video—with new and recent work by emerging and established artists and collectives from thirty countries. Work by Hao Liang is included.

Hao Liang, The Chase of Apollo, Act I, 2021 © Hao Liang. Photo: Yang Chao Studio

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