Tao Siqi 陶斯祺, Savoring 品尝, 2025

“Savoring” (2025) is a recently created signature artwork by Tao Siqi. In this piece, Tao continues her exploration into themes such as desire, intimacy, dependence, violence, and destruction. With a compassionate gaze, she examines the complexity of human emotions and desires, portraying them with a rare sense of empathy, and redefining notions of taboo and eroticism into a prism that refracts our physical and emotional experiences. Through her delicate brushstrokes and using intimate close-ups of subject, Tao captures moments that oscillate between tenderness and struggle.

In “Savoring”, a figure cradles a bare foot and kisses it — an act that conveys an intoxicating obsession, tinged with an unspoken yearning for possession. The fluorescent green glow dominating the scene and the snake coiling below add a surreal, enigmatic presence, drawing viewers into a fluid and charged emotional landscape she crafts.

Tao Siqi's paintings are rooted in her fascination with the body and flesh as a medium of sensibility and sexuality. She delves into desire of all forms through her intense colors, delicate brushstrokes and characteristic close-up perspective. By creating a tension between beauty and destruction, tenderness and violence, temptation and taboo, her surreal scenes inspire a provocative viewing experience and conjure emotional unease, flickering between pleasure and pain.

Tao Siqi was born in Wuhan, Hubei province, China in 1994, and currently lives and works in Shanghai. She graduated from Hubei Institute of Fine Art with a BA in painting in 2016. Her solo exhibitions include "Trembling" at Fortnight Institute (New York, USA, 2022), "Deep Water" at Clima (Milan, Italy, 2022), "Tender Thorns" at Capsule Shanghai (Shanghai, China, 2021) and "Transient" at chi K11 Art Space (Wuhan, China, 2015). Her group exhibitions include "Games People Play" (Nathalie Karg Gallery, New York, USA, 2024), "Deep! Down! Inside!" (Hales Gallery, New York, USA, 2023) , "F*ck Art: The Body & Its Absence" (Museum of Sex, New York, USA, 2022), "Notes on Ecstatic Unity" (OTP Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2022), "Mouthed Echoes" (Lyles & King, New York, USA, 2022), "Indoor Weather", curated by Lu Xiangyi and Wang Shiying (Light Palette Through Time and Space - 2022 Caochangdi Young Artists Group Exhibition, Beijing, China, 2022), "Nine Lives" (Fortnight Institute, New York, USA, 2021), "IMPORT-EXPORT" (Import Export Project, Locarno, Switzerland, 2019), "Right Behind Your Eyes", curated by Sarah Faux (Capsule Shanghai, Shanghai, China, 2019), "The Apple Incident" (Dream Co., Beijing, China, 2018), "On Drawing: Visibility of Power" curated by Lu Mingjun (J: Gallery, Shanghai, China, 2017) and "Chūn rì dì xìan" (RS_PROJECTS, Wuhan, China, 2016) among others.

《品尝》（2025）是陶斯祺近期创作中的一幅标志性作品，延续了她对情欲、亲密关系、依赖、暴力与毁灭等主题的关注。她对人类的各色情感和欲望进行一视同仁的审视，对其作出富有共情心的刻画，将禁忌和情色重新定义为折射我们身心体验的棱镜。陶斯祺用一如既往的细腻笔触和特写视角捕捉或柔情或挣扎的瞬间。画面中的人物捧起一只裸露的脚并亲吻的动作，似乎透露出痴迷的沉溺，也暗含某种无法言说的占有欲。主导画面的荧光绿色光晕和盘旋在下方的蛇赋予了画面一种超现实的神秘氛围，引领观者步入她流动的情绪场域。

对身体和肉体作为感性和性的载体的迷恋，是陶斯祺在绘画实践中探索的主题。她以强烈而灼热的色彩、细腻的笔触和独特的特写视角来研究各种形式的欲望，试图在美丽与毁灭、温柔与暴力、诱惑与禁忌之间创造一种张力，引发一种挑衅性的观看体验，并触发情感上的紧张和不安。这些画面带有超现实的气息，在快乐与痛苦之间摇摆不定。

陶斯祺于1994年出生于中国湖北武汉，现工作生活于上海。她于2016年毕业于湖北美术学院油画系，获学士学位。她的个人展览包括 "Trembling", Fortnight Institute，美国纽约（2022）；"Deep Water"，Clima, 意大利米兰（2022）；"嫩刺"，胶囊上海，中国上海（2021）和 "暂存"，chi K11 艺术空间，中国武汉（2015）。群展包括 "Games People Play"，Nathalie Karg Gallery，美国纽约（2024）；"Deep! Down! Inside!"，由莎拉·福克斯策展，Hales Gallery，美国纽约（2023）；"F*ck Art: The Body & Its Absence"，性博物馆，美国纽约（2022）；"Notes on Ecstatic Unity"，OTP Copenhagen, 丹麦哥本哈根（2022）；"Mouthed Echoes", Lyles & King画廊，美国纽约（2022）；"闲有闲时多云到阴"，由陆向怡和王诗颖策展，穿越时空的调色板--2022草场地青年艺术家群展，设计之春·北京草场地艺术生活示范区先生活设计，中国北京（2022）；"Nine Lives", Fortnight Institute 画廊，美国纽约（2021）；"IMPORT-EXPORT/输入-输出"，IMPORT EXPORT PROJECT，瑞士洛迦诺（2019）；"匿于眼后"（由莎拉·福克斯策展），胶囊上海，中国上海（2019）；"苹果序曲"，梦办，中国北京（2018）；"力的能见度"（由鲁明军策展），J: GALLERY，中国上海（2017）；"春日地陷"，RS_PROJECTS，中国武汉（2016）等。