PKBJ 艺术 | 協力空间 Double Double 展览预告｜一个、两个三个 Keep Gathering

From one to two, then to three, steady accumulation brings a certain frequency, and within that frequency lie hints about form. Under the title Keep Gathering , Double Double Gallery will present the second solo exhibition of artist Tan Tan, showcasing a new phase of her oil paintings and pastels on paper.

Tan Tan's works immediately strike viewers with their sensitivity to color and masterful control of composition. While their formal qualities are striking, they rarely spring from pure imagination; instead, they are crystallizations of images refined and transformed from things the artist has observed, shaped through long periods of deliberate practice. In her latest works, “home” becomes the theme: her own home-studio—an environment saturated with personal traces—depicted in oil paint, and the interior scenes of an IKEA showroom—spaces constructed as “simulated homes” for product display—sketched with pastels on paper. Navigating the differences and similarities between these two spaces allows us to construct multifaceted understandings and imaginings of home.  As Xavier de Maistre suggests in Voyage autour de ma chambre [1], a “defamiliarized” perspective can liberate the most ordinary objects from the veil of utility, revealing their inherent forms and textures. Tan Tan’s extraction of everyday scenes reminds us that subtle details always hold information worth uncovering, and that infinite charm resides within the simplest combinations of one, two, or three elements.

In her oil paintings, Tan Tan continues her long-standing method of using a palette knife rather than a brush. The crisp lines created by the knife’s edge and the solid planes sculpted by its surface complement one another. The artist's mastery of this technique yields compositions that are rustic yet not heavy, relaxed yet richly textured. We see how thin layers of pigment engage the canvas's texture in the composition, how the contour lines emphasized by color-block recession borrow the visual language of printmaking, and how seemingly simple glazing achieves unexpectedly nuanced gradations, transparencies, and light effects. Beyond the stylistic maturation, we also observe the artist's internalization of modern painting concepts dating back to Cézanne in spatial relationships, alongside a Morandi-like yearning to infinitely approach a subtle state of perfection.

If in the oil paintings Tan Tan treats objects as subjects to be depicted like portraits, then in the works on paper, the presence of objects can be understood as a technique to express human absence. The hazy granularity of pastel emphasizes a visual illusion—bustling marketplaces fall silent under Tan Tan’s brush, while empty chairs and glowing lights set the stage for a typified narrative. Throughout her oeuvre, a tempered, non‑urgent attention to humanity can always be felt. In her new works, solitude and warmth coexist; within these objects designed and constructed for people, we find echoes of ourselves, and feel a still comfort in the juxtaposition of similar products.

To keep gathering is to keep moving forward. For over a decade of practice, Tan Tan has consistently maintained an honest self‑examination, resulting in works that appear stylistically distinct yet modest in demeanor. Centered around an unchanging core, her painting subjects and specific techniques have evolved steadily and gradually. with the new works on display as a medium, we warmly invite you to enter Tan Tan's realm of ease and self-possession, achieved after this phase of small breakthroughs.

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[1] Xavier de Maistre（1763—1852）， the first person to propose the concept of "indoor travel" is known for his work Voyage autour de ma chambre (1795).

*This English text is translated from its original Chinese text.

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