Glimmer: Su Xiaobai solo exhibition

Lacquer

Su Xiaobai’s lacquer body of work evokes a palimpsest of cultural lineage.

Commonly found in East Asian craft traditions and typically applied in a laborious process, lacquer exudes a glimmer of depth and luster, of earnest, rusticity, and luminosity amidst light and shadow. It gleams in quiet, yet intrigues in silence. Such attributes speak to the ethos of Asian literati: humility, restraint, and integrity.

Su’s serendipitous encounter with lacquer in Fuzhou, China, in 2003 led to a creative shift in his artistic approach. Perhaps the spirit of Chu state, from the Zhou dynasty, still lingers in the veins of this Hubei-born artist. The Chu culture of valor and romance, which once treasured exquisite lacquerware, has come to manifest itself through the muted palette of his work, three centuries later.

Consciously stepping back from intervening in the composition, the artist allows the materiality to unveil itself: amid layering, drying and polishing, the cracks, textures, variegation, and sheen of the lacquer begin to crystallize and coalesce.

Tile

Su Xiaobai’s tile-based body of work articulates the language of materiality.

At his Shanghai studio, he opens the roof, letting sunlight suffuse the space. To see color under natural light is his guiding principle. There, the hues in his work glimmer beneath the surface. He shuns artificial light, wary of its intrusion upon the purity of color. Each tile retains its own texture, perhaps out of a tender familiarity with the object, or perhaps, a quiet philosophy.

Back in Fuzhou in 2003, lacquer was not the only thing that made the artist pause — clay tiles did, too. The curve of a tile forged through fire appeared like open arms, beckoning him for an embrace, hinting at home. Since then, Su has gathered countless scattered tiles, each an unfinished story.

Then, he simply listens for the material’s voice, before layering lacquer onto the surface, engaging with its breath.

The artist found the tile, and the tile, him. The hardened clay limns his wistful nostalgia along its curve, eliciting a moment of solitude amid the lacquer’s presence.

Hometown

Su Xiaobai’s hometown glimmers in his mind, steeped in perpetual yearning.

Düsseldorf, 1987.

Even after years immersed in German culture and society, the artist gravitates toward a life of seclusion, absorbed in his artistic practice. The Chinese spirit within him, though never severed, has grown into a distant connection through years of absence. Rooted in Eastern heritage and nurtured in a Western milieu, he belongs to neither yet remains entwined with both, conjuring an ethereal grace in his work. His Western contemporary art education allows for detachment and autonomy in the form and structure of his work, while his Eastern upbringing breathes profound life into it. The artist never seeks to portray or re-present cultural symbols, yet his work embodies something searingly Eastern — perhaps emanating from the texture of lacquer, the vigor of Chinese calligraphy, or the cultural lineage that permeates memory.

This is why his work needs no nationality. His hometown is defined not by geography, but by a sense of belonging etched in his heart. It is a homeland of childhood memories, formal European training, and the vicissitudes of years past, layer upon layer like the lacquer beneath his brush.

As we stand before Su Xiaobai’s painting, the lacquer glimmers. Its layered luminosity draws us into an enduring stillness.