Stepping on the Mist

Born in 1983 in Chongqing, Xiao Xu graduated from the Chinese Painting department at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute with a bachelor’s degree in 2007 and a master’s degree in 2010. As one of the leading emerging contemporary ink artists, Xiao steadily expands the visual language of ink art through disrupting the rooted conventions. Inspired by paintings dating to the Song dynasty, Xiao sets the scene of Stepping on the Mist in a sparse forest field with weeds, barren tree trunks and stalks of bamboo; to the left, a meticulously painted stag flees, launching clouds of dust trailing behind it. Enshrouding the composition is a mysterious grey fog that heightens a sense of psychological tension. Here, the artist hints at the multitude of narratives of the past.