We chase after fame, our eyes dazzled by the glitter of wealth and personal
gain. So when busy, we appear to be aspiring; when at leisure, we become
pessimistic and decadent.  - Liu Qinghe, “Doubt and Belief”
 

January 31, 2008—Morono Kiang Gallery is pleased to announce its fifth exhibition, Li Jin and Liu Qinghe: Side by Side.  The exhibition marks the first time Li Jin and Liu Qinghe have shown together anywhere in the world, and most of these pieces have been created exclusively for this show.  The works will be on view from March 8 to April 25, 2008, and an opening reception will be held on Saturday, March 8 from 3:00 – 6:00 PM.
 
Both Li Jin and Liu Qinghe are contemporary masters of ink and wash painting, renowned for advancing the broad potential and expressive qualities of this traditional medium to portray post-modern realities.  Their art practice signals new directions for the medium, in effect, redefining how Chinese ink painting will be viewed and understood by future generations.
 
Li Jin takes as his subject ordinary people and the everyday whimsy of contemporary Chinese life, playfully rendered in ink and color on paper.  The traditional practice of putting ink and brush to paper is several millennia old, yet in the hands of Li, the result is vibrant, new, and of the moment. His characters are refreshingly ordinary, flawed, and vulnerable.  Enchanted with the fleeting, non-monumentality of the mundane, Li chooses to capture the raw nuances of ritual informalities and the imperfections that characterize us all.  
 
Li Jin graduated from the Tianjin Academy of Fine Art, where he now teaches. His work has been exhibited widely in China, as well as Asia, Sweden, and the United States.  Li’s work is in the collections of the National Art Museum in Beijing, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Seattle Art Museum, Berkeley Art Museum, as well as private collections.
 
Liu Qinghe’s paintings operate like wide-open windows, giving us an unfiltered view of the landscape of leisure in today’s China.  Moody, languorous figures and desolate urbanscapes form the basis of Liu’s pictorial vocabulary. Amid this mise-en-scene of idleness and anxiety, a wary humanism emerges to reveal a complex present full of hope, doubt, and mixed blessings.  
 
Liu Qinghe is a member of the Chinese painting faculty at the Central Academy of Fine Art, where he studied Chinese painting and comic strip art.  He has exhibited throughout China and the United States, as well as Europe and Korea.  Liu’s work is collected by the Embassy of Australia, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, National Art Museum in Beijing, and Shanghai Art Museum, among others.