Cai Zebin | "360°: why we paint?" @ By Art Matters

 

 

BY ART MATTERS is pleased to announce its partnership with the Centro per l'Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci for the co-presentation of the group exhibition project "360°: why we paint?" Conceived in two chapters, the project will commence in 2025 in Hangzhou, China, and continue in 2026 in Prato, Italy. Bringing together 39 artists from across the globe, each actively engaged in redefining and expanding the parameters of contemporary painting, the exhibition will feature over one hundred works produced since the year 2000. These works will be presented in response to the unique natural and cultural contexts of the two host cities and their respective institutions, offering a diverse and considered reflection on the evolving language of painting in the 21st century.

 

Painting, one of the most enduring and versatile forms of visual expression, continues to resonate as a medium through which the effects of “glocalisation”—the intertwining of global and local influences—are reflected across social and economic landscapes. Organised into three distinct thematic sections, the exhibition at BY ART MATTERS undertakes a gradual and layered exploration of how painting techniques, conceptual approaches, and modes of creative thinking from diverse regions and historical periods converge, contrast, and intermingle. The first section, “Intuitive Flows Between Hand and Eye”, focuses on the immediacy of pictorial content. It presents a wide-ranging selection of works—from canonical genres such as still life, portraiture, and landscape to spontaneous sketches on Post-it notes and large-scale moving image installations. Collectively, these works underscore painting’s intrinsic non-verbal capacity to articulate complex interior states and to evoke a spectrum of human experience. The second section, “Extensions of Image-Making Boundaries”, considers the evolving relationship between painting and the wider field of image production in the contemporary era. In a time when photographic, print-based, and algorithmic processes have rendered image-making increasingly instantaneous, the artists in this section critically engage with these very technologies—employing, disrupting, and reinterpreting them—to probe and expand the expressive range of the painted image. The final section, “Multidimensional Explorations of Space and Concept”, examines the capacity of painting to transcend the confines of the two-dimensional surface. Here, works extend into three-dimensional and temporal domains, becoming audible, textual, and at times even transactional. In doing so, they question and challenge conventional modes of display, reception, and interpretation, inviting viewers to reconsider what painting can be and do in the present moment.

 

Although the three sections are presented sequentially as the exhibition unfolds, they do not suggest a linear progression towards the deconstruction of painting. On the contrary, the creative motivations, forms, techniques, and meanings represented throughout the exhibition coexist and flourish within the expansive and dynamic field of contemporary painting. By inviting audiences to adopt a holistic, 360-degree perspective when engaging with the diverse range of works, the exhibition not only celebrates this pluralism but also pays tribute to the artists who continue to pursue their practice with courage, curiosity, and unwavering commitment.

 

—— Sun Man