Garden Ge. 2014

Qin Yufen made this piece, Garden Ge., with layers of translucent colour. The colour palette is striking, a dance between warm and cool, yellow ochres and blues, with hints of red peeking through. I love how the visible brushstrokes reveal the process of layering, like an archeological dig into the artist's thought process. The texture is smooth, not too much impasto, but you can see the strokes where the brush has been dragged across the surface. It's almost as if the painting is built up from a series of transparent planes. It reminds me a little of Etel Adnan, but the approach is different, more grounded in the physical gestures, but as always, it resists easy definition. It's a reminder that art isn't about answers, but about continually asking questions.