Artist Biography
Hao Liang (b. 1983, Chengdu, China, based in Beijing, China) employs an artistic strategy that combines the formal traditions of Chinese painting with cultural symbols from both Eastern and Western art histories. By collapsing multiple perspectives into single compositions, he speculates on the unstable, non-linear nature of time and space.
Hao’s work is driven by a strong interest in film theory, literature and philosophy, from which he draws contemporary themes and iconographies to challenge the conventions of ink wash painting. Taking the form of silk handscrolls, portraits and landscapes, his work often responds to the enduring subject of humankind’s relationship with nature, the wider world, and the cosmos. In the monumental landscape painting Streams and Mountains Without End (2017), the artist merges visual and textual references from Ming dynasty scholar Dong Qichang with the abstract motifs of modern artist Wassily Kandinsky in a surreal panoramic sequence. Mountains, trees, waves and clouds are layered with anatomical systems and geometric patterns on the same pictorial plane, suggesting a connection in artistic and metaphysical ideals across cultures and centuries.
Hao obtained his BFA and MFA in Chinese Painting from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Chongqing, China, in 2006 and 2009 respectively. His work is held in institutional collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco; Centre Pompidou, Paris; British Museum, London; Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht; Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; and M+, Hong Kong.
Notable exhibitions include The Dream of Museum (2021), M+, Hong Kong; On sabbatical (2020), West Bund Museum, Shanghai; The New Classic of Mountains and Seas (2020), Zhejiang Art Museum, Hangzhou; Circular Pond (2019), Aurora Museum, Shanghai; Beating around the bush (2018), Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht; Streams and Mountains without End (2017), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and The Virtuous Being (2016), Mirrored Gardens, Guangzhou; and Eight Views of Xiaoxiang (2016), UCCA Center of Contemporary Art, Beijing. The artist has also participated in major international festivals including The Infinite Conversation (2022), 9th Beijing Biennale, Beijing; APT10 (2022), 10th Asia Pacific Triennial, Brisbane; 5th Chinese Painting Biennale of Hangzhou (2018); and Viva Arte Viva (2017), 57th Venice Biennale, Venice.