Even when the gods lose their will, the afterglow remains

Tara Downs is pleased to present Even when the gods lose their will, the afterglow remains, the gallery's inaugural exhibition with Yirui Fang. Comprising a new body of paintings, the exhibition also marks the first solo presentation of Fang's work in the United States. Informed by Greek mythology, processes of Western modernism, and the poetic cadences of Chinese calligraphy, Fang's densely layered works construct a richly multivalent approach to painting. Educated in both Shandong and Venice, where he is now based, Fang produces a memorable cross-pollination of historical lineages, conjuring a sense of hybridity that animates his work. The compositional play between abstraction and representation inherent to Chinese landscape painting and the sumptuous surfaces of fresco painting coalesce in works that dwell upon natural harmonies and discordances, stasis and fluidity. Manifesting abstract worlds within his compositions, the artist places particular emphasis on light, often punctuating each canvas with several pure white, cloudlike formations. Centering around dusk, another kind of afterglow, the exhibition gathers the resplendent array of colors we associate with the brief window of time after sunset but before nightfall.