LIU Cong: Resonance

Artist Liu Cong’s solo exhibition “Resonance” will open at He Art Museum on October 18th, as part of the museum’s “Young Artist Project” series. The exhibition centers on his acclaimed “Paper” series paintings from recent years, alongside works from the “Balloon” and “Reflective Objects” series, as well as his latest “Glass” series.

Born in Shandong in 1987, Liu Cong graduated from the Oil Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2010. He currently lives and works in Beijing. He has long focused on constructing the language of painting itself, achieving a balance between the logic inherent in the image and the state of viewing – his precise capture of this equilibrium lies at the core of the exhibition title “Resonance.” Liu Cong refuses to reduce art to a mere vessel for concepts or narratives. Within his compositions, layered and folded paper, tightly bound balloons, and the faint glow emanating from glass are distilled into pure relationships of form and color, shifts of light and shadow, and geometric structures. These elements collectively form a “structural passageway.” The artist advances his painting according to the natural demands of the image, simultaneously guiding viewers into the internal viewing order established by the work.

The subjects in Liu Cong’s paintings often originate from casual “encounters” in daily life. For instance, a sheet of Xuan paper gently landing on the floor, faintly translucent, overlaps with his immediate psychological state, generating a subtle yet complex resonance that compels him to depict this sensation. Liu Cong opposes the deification of art or its separation from daily life; for him, art is precisely that subtle yet genuine resonance ignited when the individual encounters the world.

Installation view © He Art Museum