ICONOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT

　　Lui Dahai

　　On Friday 31 January the Il Ponte Contemporanea art gallery is pleased to present the personal exhibition of Lui Dahai “Iconographic Portrait”. The project is part of the ONE series in collaboration with Achille Bonito Oliva.

　　“Liu Dahai’s painting takes up the iconographic cadences of an oriental art capable of retaining the past in our present. Circular time is that of art， out of any linear flow to found a long-lasting iconography “.

　　Achille Bonito Oliva

　　Liu Dahai creates a painting as a deposit of stylized and contaminated images， out of any totalizing pride and therefore of any form of idealism. Liu Dahai moves on the side of linguistic contamination and stylistic eclecticism， which means metalinguistic awareness of the work and therefore the adoption of a postmodern sensibility. Irony is the weapon with which the artist removes any trace of idealism from himself， any identification between reality and language. The reality of art is language， the reservoir of images that make up the iconographic memory of the artist who takes a further step forward， identifying style and language.

　　To create his works， Liu Dahai bought all the stamps that a Chinese person receives in his life span on his documents and brought them back into his paintings using propylene， giving life to works that simulate a dense texture with a selection of colors like red， black， gold and silver. He thus creates works drawing from the imagery of the Chinese tradition and exploring the language of which he emphasizes the expressive power. For the ‘ONE’ series he presents a sometimes disturbing portrait of a clown， but which is actually a melodramatic mask of Chinese culture. Thanks to his technique， which visually refers us to tapestries， the result is extremely emotional.