A selection of recent work by artist Gao Hang. Hang’s artistic process involves listening to standup comedy which plays a role in his own work. Like comedy, Hang’s paintings “can only do so much” when it comes to solving the problems of the real world. Nevertheless, brutal honesty, absurdity, and humour have their own power. Hang’s latest paintings are concerned with image “definition” in digital graphics, especially from the last 20 years–“found objects” that are steeped in the awkwardness of “modern technology’s greatness”:

“When I first encountered 3D modeling and graphic rendering in computer games in the late 20th century, I was totally shocked…. I was inspired by the fact that graphical spectaculars could end up being rawness and ridicule in the digital image evolution. However, it is that rawness and ridicule that triggers the same creative impulse with what the painting process can offer. The effect is an actual physical feedback during process: could be surprise, a shifting attitude, a more extreme emotion–my secretions as a human being. I want my practice to simulate a modern production method, but with a high fault tolerance.”