Why Still Paint

As contemporary art continues to expand its modes of expression, painting persists in a way that is increasingly difficult to define—neither fully belonging to the past nor having fully entered the present.

Compared to the immediacy and open-ended nature of video, performance, or spatial practices, painting seems slow and concrete. It remains confined to a finite surface, engaging directly with materials, touch, and time. These conditions both constitute its limitations and ensure that it remains perpetually difficult to replace entirely.

This exhibition begins with a straightforward question: WHY STILL PAINT?

This question does not presuppose an answer; rather, it places the painting in a state of instability. The images tend to dissolve, forms hover between revelation and concealment, and colours are muted to the point of near-silence. They resemble a delayed development rather than a direct manifestation. Viewing is no longer a matter of immediate recognition, but rather a process that unfolds gradually...

Through overlay, permeation, and accumulation, images are constantly generated and simultaneously erased. The surface is no longer a medium that bears images; rather, it becomes the site where events unfold. Viewing is no longer the reception of images, but rather a wandering through unstable manifestations: certain images appear fleetingly, only to retreat once more into the invisible.

Perhaps the question is not whether we should continue to paint, but rather: how we can embrace it anew from the perspective of today’s contemporary art.

Artists
Yingtai Wang
Nura Derbyshire
Dukai Wang
Harry Owens
Jace Ambwani
Adrian Novac
Martin Derbyshire
Jingyuan Chen
Tong Wu

Curator
Yubin Zhao

Organisers: Dukai Wang, Yingtai Wang, Nura Derbyshire