Art Salon : Qin Ai

Ora-Ora is pleased to present Art Salon: Qin Ai at the gallery from 12 December until 1 February, 2020.  An important figure in the contemporary ink movement, her work combines traditional Chinese painting techniques with compositions inspired by Western art.  Both contemporary and timeless, it is characterised by delicate brushstrokes, saturated colour tones, and a refined use of space and perspective—elements which give her works a sense of dreamlike unreality. Art Salon: Qin Ai presents a collection of paintings from different stages of Qin’s life, each expressing her unique style and philosophy.

Qin employs a variety of traditional Chinese painting techniques in her work, but favours the staining technique of san fan jiu ran (“multiple layers”), expressed in The Mountain of Flourish (2017), The Cloud of Rushing Water (2017) and The Water of Sky River (2017).  These works also exhibit three main themes commonly associated with Qin’s paintings: "time", "space" and "emotion". Perhaps the most difficult element to capture, Qin uses static motion to present the “flow of time” in her paintings, expressing the linearity of time as a frozen moment in life. Her paintings do not offer a full narrative, no beginning or end, but only a moment in between. This emphasis on momentary feeling reflects Qin’s personal motto: that is important to “just quietly be you”.