Modern Art Gallery
現代畫廊
since 1982
online gallery

Qu Qianmei’s artistic practice defies conventional painting methods. Instead of using brushes or outlining forms, she works with ground mineral pigments mixed with lacquer, allowing these earthy, shimmering materials to flow, settle, and react across the surface. Through gestures such as pouring, layering, washing, and removing, she invites color and matter to interact freely—without control, without preconception. Her works unfold slowly, shaped not by force, but by time, intuition, and the subtle rhythms of nature.

Rather than depicting the external world, Qu’s works allow the world to emerge from within the materials themselves. Each composition may evoke swirling galaxies, emotional terrains, or fragments of memory surfacing from within. Boundaries dissolve; no fixed images are offered. Instead, texture, tone, and rhythm lead the experience. Every mark whispers softly—non-verbal, yet emotionally resonant.

Her paintings do not represent a story or a message. They are created through quiet, meditative actions—dripping, scraping, sedimenting, lifting—until a visual presence gently appears. The results are not objects to interpret, but spaces to enter. Traces of process remain visible: not mistakes, but moments of truth. Each layer that covers or disappears is not meant to hide, but to reveal something deeper.

The title of this exhibition, The Emergence of All Things, reflects Qu’s philosophy of letting form arise organically. Her work embraces the uncertain and the undefined. Instead of telling viewers what to see or feel, she offers a space where perception, memory, and feeling can unfold freely. The paintings do not rush to speak, but remain open—inviting viewers to slow down, to breathe, and to witness their own inner landscapes.

Across the works, a gentle presence of purple can be felt—never dominant, but drifting quietly like mist. It adds a contemplative atmosphere, evoking transition, intuition, and unspoken emotion. It is not decorative, but elemental—like a breath of memory suspended in space.

Qu Qianmei paints with slowness and silence. She removes the noise of symbols, stories, and stylistic embellishments, and returns art to its essence: the encounter between matter and the human spirit. Her canvases are not explanations, but invitations. Not conclusions, but beginnings.

All things do not appear in haste.
They emerge—here, now, in presence.
And perhaps, also, within you.

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