Triangle Gallery is pleased to announce Pond of Memory, the second personal exhibition of drawings by Zehui Xu (b.1998 in China, lives and works in Venice, Italy). Opening reception October 22 at 19:00. Through December 7, 2024.

Zehui Xu is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, who debuted in Russia last year with a series of paintings ("Veil of Depth", Triangle Gallery). In the new project, Triangle gallery presents Zehui's graphics, allowing Moscow viewers to compare the application of the artist's style and main themes to different mediums.

In the traditional hierarchy, painting stands above graphics seen as a preparatory material, an exercise, a study. But it seems that Zehui Xu's intonation - gentle and dreamy - is best embodied in graphic techniques. Her preferred one is bleaching: the paper is covered with a layer of dark paint, then the light drawing appears on the surface with the help of some kind of bleacher. Vague features appear like images from somewhere in the depths. Quick, sketchy strokes resemble streams and glare in a roily stream. For a moment, they gather outlines of the past - curtains, chairs, twisted handrails and fences, chandeliers with melting candles.

Here and there, paper, lined in a grid, appears from under the paint, either structuring any fantasy, or reminiscent of a school notebook with drawings in the margins, thoughtless and sincere, like slips of the tongue on the most important things. A childishly drawn drop is a tear the size of a pear or a future waterfall from a leaking roof. The same schematic hand, but more importantly, holding an umbrella or a candle, not to get lost in the darkness, not to be forgotten.

The format and sepia shades of the works resemble old photographs, convincing that a small, close form of graphics can become a faithful imprint of life, turning into memory before our very eyes.

Alexander Merekin