Announcement of “ The Dao Way”

Wang Guangle’s Solo Exhibition

      Fosun Foundation is pleased to present “The Dao Way”, a solo exhibition of Wang Guangle, the renowned Chinese contemporary artist, from March 25 to April 13, 2025. Developed under the collaboration framework between Fosun Foundation and the Department of Art Philosophy, School of Philosophy of Fudan University. The exhibition will retrospectively showcase 45 masterpieces which spanning Wang Guangle’s career as artist, including his latest work, across the second and third floor of Fosun Foundation.

       The profound exploration of time, materiality, and existence is often the main thesis of Wang Guangle's artistic practice. His signature series Terrazzo, Coffin Paint, and the latest work Untitled II demonstrate the artist's creative evolution from daily materials to life philosophy. The title “The Dao Way” reflects both the qualities of symbiosis with nature in his works and the unique creative methodology crystallized through persistent contemplation.

       As a pioneer of conceptual art in China, Wang Guangle continuously investigates the essence and boundaries of medium. This exhibition comprehensively traces the trajectory of his artistic development, beginning with his early Terrazzo series, transitioning into Coffin Paint, and culminating in the latest Untitled II series. Through the chronological progression, visitors can distinctly trace Wang Guangle's persistent investigation into time, materiality, and existence, articulated through his methodical transformation of mundane substances into philosophical contemplations.

       The curator Leng Lin concluded Wang Guangle's works: “Wang's art constitutes a persistent practice of cognition, emphasizing time, accumulation, and embracement of transformations.” In the Terrazzo series, the artist selects a low-cost material in Chinese architectural contexts as his medium, transmuting the mundane into foundational practices. Through repetitive and commemorative gestures, he immobilizes fleeting moments of daily life into artistic expressions. This conceptual framework evolves radically in the Coffin Paint series, where Wang engages with the Fujian tradition (an annual ritual of renewing coffin lacquer in Fujian). Wang Guangle orchestrates a metaphysical dialogue between material excess and spiritual austerity: deploying over a hundred stratified layers of acrylic pigment in ritualistic applications, he constructs abstract paintings that negotiate equilibrium between accumulation and reduction.

       In the multiple 2025 new works displayed in this exhibition (including “Untitled II-1” to “Untitled II-4” ) Wang Guangle transitions from the horizontal depth exemplified in works such as “ Untitled 221203” to a vertical composition. The stacked layers of material intensify the accumulation of temporal traces. Constrained by spatial limitations, this vertical method relinquishes the artist's complete control over each brushstroke, as gravity's effects generate distinctive textures and organic formations on the canvas. While these works employ a minimalist visual language, the interplay of time's multiplicity and material imprints transcends superficial appearances, articulating Wang's philosophical inquiry into subject-object relations and the interdependence of existence and temporality. As the artist remarks: “ Though 'Moon' (月球, yueqiu) and 'Moon' (月亮, yueliang) are linguistically proximate, they represent divergent cognitive frameworks—scientific analysis of the celestial body cannot penetrate the poetic essence of its luminescence.”

       Wang Guangle has consistently engaged in artistic practice which characterized by extreme repetitiveness and time-intensive processes. In Wang’s experimental project at the Xi'an Nanshan Art Collective, he created directly on architectural walls, subsequently employing precision cutting techniques to extract and transfer wall fragments—imbued with structural imprints and chromatic accumulations—into gallery spaces. Wang transforms material constraints (dimensions, pigments, and spatial conditions) into conceptual departure points, enabling the sustained creative process to gradually digest the limitations, ultimately giving form to structures that self-generate through site-responsive environmental negotiations.

       This practice substantiates the philosophical proposition that “Dao(道)” transcends methodology—it emerges as a boundary delineated through material engagement, from which authentic artistic freedom manifests. As curator Leng Lin asserts: “The ‘Dao (pathway)’ manifests solely through the physical road, which becomes ‘the pathway’ only when aligned with the ‘Dao’.”

       Fosun Foundation, as a leading institution promoting contemporary art, remains committed to supporting innovative artistic practices. This exhibition not only systematically reviews Wang Guangle's artist career, but also reflects Fosun Foundation’s profound engagement with Chinese contemporary art discourse. During the exhibition, a series of public education programs will be conducted, including “Seminars of Daoist Philosophy” and “Artist Forum”, designed to provide audiences with profound insights into the artist's conceptual framework and creative methodology.