TRIUMPH GALLERY is pleased to announce The Out-of-Joint World, the artist Lu Hao’s first solo exhibition with the gallery, from March 16 to April 30, 2024. The exhibition, curated by Su Wei, features more than 30 pieces of the artist's work, including recently completed works on silk and important manuscript documentation from the early years. 

This exhibition focuses on a series of new works by the artist on the theme of architecture. Lu Hao employs mediums such as Chinese ink and mineral pigment and technique akins to the mode of “Jiehua” (boundary-painting, a traditional mode of Chinese “Gongbi” painting) to delineate the contours of the exotic architectures in his works, but in a way that removes any traces of techniques. He remains invested in the detail of objects depicted and the amalgamation of various visual elements seen on them. The depiction of these details and elements, however, is not to fulfill any realist endeavors but to bestow the composition an ambiance that oscillates between illustration and “Lianhuanhua” (linked picture, a form of picture book popular in 1920s China), allowing the artist to come up with an expression that circumvents narratives and meanings.

Embedded within his paintings are emotions, sentiments, and inner voices of neighbors from afar. Continuing to polish his artistic language, Lu Hao and his works have never attempted to detach themselves from this ever-changing and anxious era. After experiencing the rise of globalism in the art world, he remains faithful to the flat yet multifaceted aesthetic of the past. With this emotion, he utilizes and continues to believe in his previous creative experience. At the same time, he seems to be tackling something that has often been overlooked—the truthful depictions of things that have been given different positions. For Lu Hao, the contemporary lies within the delineation of such things.

At a time of despair, artists tend to express themselves and their position through an “ugly and naïve” mode. Lu Hao’s approach is not to illustrate the difference between self-explanatory dichotomies such as beauty and ugliness, peace and violence. Instead, he decides to confront the world by observing it in silence.