Foreword

Although looking much more mature than his age,  Fan Bo is not an introverted person. However when I first met him in his tiny studio, he was quiet and tacit. The smoke from his cigarette swirling slowly and silently, it created certain distance in space between him and his canvas. Later on, I read Fan Bo’s handwritten notes by chance and find that my perception of him matches his own description.

"Sitting in the studio, far away from the city‘s hustle and bustle, I feel, through the lingering smoke, that the past, so near yet so far, resurrects in the tranquility which evolves into this misty background bathed in light and warmth, and sublimes to unique personal significance.---Fan Bo"

In such real and at the same time trance-like space, Fan Bo questions and captures the condition and the course of the spiritual journey in today’s Chinese.

Fan Bo paints in an exquisite language, looking closely, is direct and accurate, yet elegantly implicit as the poetry in the Tang Dynasty and the rhymed lyrics of the Song Dynasty. His human and tree series is structured in a kind of  minimalist style which suffused with the profound atmosphere of Chinese ink paintings. In this atmosphere, Fan Bo subtly employs light and color to create some aesthetically anti-traditional but poetic ambience; Making the human fugres dimensional and prominent in this solemn atmosphere, with an appearance of sculptures; yet the spiritual relationship between and  the human subjects themselves and their scenes is distanced and in a state of flux. Subtly, they are somewhat connected with each other in some inseparable links. For that reason, in appreciating Fan Bo‘s works, the surface appear to be volatile, it appears to bring back to us not only the stereotyped spiritual activities in today’s people, but also the process of their activities. 

I am very much honored that Fan Bo has chosen Oriental Vista Art Collections as the exhibition platform for his works. In particular, after tremendaous social changes in China and the lack of recognition for so many years, Chinese contemporary art is now in vogue and the methods of expression and the meanings they are trying to convey are fertile and ever-changing. "Conceptual Art" such as Installation Art, New Media and Performance Art have naturally become the trend setter. Contemporary paintings, that have been identifiled as the pioneer and experimentaion since the "85 New Chinese Art" movement, are now facing serious challenges. "What other possibilities can paintings do?" This is a question which Chinese painters who are teeming with unprecedented success, must quietly contemplate. Certainly, the "possibilities" are multi-faced and optimistic. In Fan Bo‘s opinion, when the spiritual realm reaches certain level, some tendency can be sublimated resulting in certain innovation. I think that the works created under such conditions will be exquisitely mature and will be beyond the constraint of time and space. Such "Possibilities" may be what the artists strive to pursue for and they are the ultimate "Possibilities".

Undoubtedly, one of the best "Possibilities" for contemporary Chinese painting can be found from  Fan Bo’s solo exhibition this time.

Huang Lingling
Art Director
OV Gallery　

June 2007   Hong Kong