展览名称：虎口
艺术家：罗清
展览日期：2025.6.8-7.20
地点：北京市朝阳区酒仙桥路798艺术区706北一街
EXHIBITION: THE CRUX
ARTISTS: LUO QING
DURATION: 2025.6.8-7.20
LOCATION: 706 North First Street, Jiuxianqiao Road, 798 Art Zone, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China
罗清个展「虎口」于2025年6月8日在喜在空间开幕，本次展览以艺术家近五年的油画探索为主线。多年来他始终从个体的真实生存体验和对社会现实的回应出发，以坚韧自律的研究型学习者状态，前后系统性深入研习东西方绘画语言。直面语言这座大山，一路执拗地寻觅隐蔽的“虎口”作为创作的突破点，试图在语言纯化和观看方式思辨上推进。罗清以“人物”为艺术实践的容器，通过创作不断回归本质的追问，触抵边界，同时迸发出脆弱个体的浑厚浓郁的生命能量。
罗清身上一直隐现着两种强劲的拉扯力：深入他者的学进去还要成为自己的活出来，长年仍保有这种以反复入“虎穴”的方式推进创作的作者，现已寥寥无几。他“跌跌撞撞地经历了几个时期、几种风格，几乎把准确的写实、现实的叙事和批判、表现的再现扎实地走过一遍”。以社会现场观察记录为主的“现实主义时期”（2000-2007）；再借助剥离以往的色彩经验，进入了“黑白时期”（2005-2008），从外部描绘一步步转入内部“心理剧场”的搭建；过几年，他又重返色彩，生发了“彩色时期”（2008-2012）的创作践行。因父母先后患病，2013年他搬回江西，住在医院旁边，以便照顾家人。每日与病患相处，创作成为他从生活中出离的路径，现实主义手法于罗清当时来说是失效的。远离当代艺术行业的核心地，让他又有了近十年的时间重新从塞尚开始对现代主义进行深究，推至到伦敦画派的奥尔巴赫。再从罗丹开始推及布朗·库西、亨利·摩尔，雕塑让他对形和体有了别样的触动。“变形时期”（2013-2017），他画面中是受病痛折磨的人物肖像，尺寸变小、叙事变弱，感受却愈发浓烈。之后，罗清又进入了对颜色和材质探索的新阶段“色彩材质时期”（2017年至今）。雕塑创作者把泥巴当成材料，罗清把油彩当成材质。开始在画布上涂抹时，身体的训练记忆痕迹还是保有的。在后期一遍一遍涂抹中，原有经验在又厚又硬的颜料上失语，本能被激发，更像是生命脱变的留下的痕迹。
◎东郭 Dongguo｜80cm × 60cm
西方近代绘画偏重语言的探索和发展，从塞尚到奥尔巴赫，形体走向打散处于具象和抽象的边缘，色彩类似于抽象表现主义但仍是写实的时空关系，本质上并没离开视网膜所见。罗清近阶段的造型是非散状平面化线条语言，接近于雕塑的抽象形体，是更具完整性和能量感，像物质组成的土壤团聚体。在用色上，他偏重色域，建构主观色彩体系，尝试以色彩情绪为通道抵达所画人物的精神高度。作为绘画实践者，他在深究外来语言的线脉中，因自身的文化底色，性格及经历让他仍走向一个个体的开放性。前人的语言和观念是后来人的“虎口”，进去难出来更难。只要没到尽头，看到一点微光，他仍一如既往地奔赴，“以制伏身心为野战”。
Luo Qing's solo exhibition "The Crux" opened at XZ SPACE on June 8, 2025. This exhibition centers on the artist's oil painting explorations over the past five years. For years, Luo Qing has consistently drawn from genuine personal experiences and responses to social reality. Maintaining a disciplined, research-oriented approach, he systematically immersed himself in both Eastern and Western painting traditions. Confronting the monumental challenge of artistic language, he persistently sought hidden breakthroughs in the crux, to advance in the purification of formal language and the speculation with conceptual viewing methods. Using human figures as vessels for artistic practice, Luo Qing continually probes fundamental questions, tests boundaries, and unleashes potent life energy from the vulnerable individualities.
Two powerful tensions coexist in Luo Qing: deep academic absorption must transform into authentic self-expression. Few artists today sustain their practice through such repeated "tiger's den" explorations. "He stumbled through several phases and styles, thoroughly mastering precise realism, narrative social critique, and expressive representation." From 2000 to 2007, his "Realism Period" focused on documenting social observations. Later, by stripping away previous color experiences, he entered a "Monochrome Period" (2005-2008), shifting from external depiction to constructing internal "psychological theaters." Several years later, he returned to color, initiating the "Color Period" (2008-2012). When his parents fell ill, Luo Qing relocated to Jiangxi in 2013, living near the hospital to care for them. Daily interactions with patients made realism ineffective for him; art became an escape from life. Removed from contemporary art hubs, he spent nearly a decade re-examining modernism—starting from Cézanne to Frank Auerbach of the London School. Beginning with Rodin, he extended his study to Brâncuși and Henry Moore; sculpture reshaped his perception of form and volume. During his "Metamorphosis Period" (2013-2017), he created small-scale portraits of ailing figures—narratives diminished, yet sensations intensified. Luo Qing then entered his current "Materiality Period" (2017-present), exploring color and texture. Just as sculptors treat clay as material, he approaches oil paint as substance. Initial brushstrokes retain bodily training memories, but through repeated layering, prior skills dissolve into thick impasto—instincts ignited, leaving traces like biological metamorphosis.
Modern Western painting emphasizes visual development. From Cézanne to Auerbach, forms verge on abstraction while color retains realistic spatiotemporal relationships. Luo Qing’s recent non-fragmented planar linear language resembles abstract sculpture—more cohesive and energetic, like "soil aggregates." His color fields construct subjective systems, using chromatic emotion to access subjects’ spiritual essence. As a practitioner, while investigating foreign traditions, his cultural roots and personal journey forge an open individuality. Predecessors’ languages and concepts become “the tiger’s jaw”—hard to enter, harder to transcend. Wherever faint light appears, he advances relentlessly, "taming the mind and body as an open battlefield."
Luo Qing, born in 1970 in Nanchang, Jiangxi. Graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts Affiliated High School in 1990; Received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Oil Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1994; Obtained a Master of Arts degree from the Oil Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1998; Formerly taught at the China National Academy of Chinese Theatre. Currently lives and works in Beijing.
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Founded in the spring of 2025 in Beijing’s 798 Art District, XZ SPACE is committed to engaging with artistic practitioners whose work reflects a profound sensitivity to individual existence, a deep contemplation of social ecologies, and a sustained inquiry into the language of artistic creation. Through its exhibition programs, XZ SPACE actively contributes to the diversity and dialogue within the contemporary art landscape.