Starry Heavens, Moral Law

Central to the core of Wo Xinyu’s solo exhibition with VillageOne Art, on view May 2023, is the concept of a shared sense of humanity and purpose. Xinyu’s soft and voluminous figures set within abstracted landscapes question the place of humankind within a larger philosophical context. Softy diffused colors allude to a soft intuition, hinting at the lofty goal of extending consciousness into the realm of painting. These pastels and permeable outlines of figures depicted throughout these works infuse the artist’s oeuvre with a sense of ambiguous narration buoyed by timelessness. As shown in Guardian of Humanity, figures water prone human bodies who seem to grow plants from their centers, offering a moment of reflection on how we foster and nourish qualities within ourselves and what lies attached to our bodies beyond the realm of the physical.

Xinyu reflects on the interrelationships between us as people while dividing the picture plane into orderly, harmonious regions. This careful delineation leads the eye to digest her subject matter evenly, taking in the painting in careful parts to better comprehend the whole composition. The artist also extends these scenes to encompass the sky, stretching upward into the firmament. Her paintings embrace soft gradients and rounded, organic curvilinear elements rising upward in the space of the picture plane. Xinyu reflects on the symmetries that connect us with the wider world – and universe – that we originate from. “When I look up at the stars, from a physical standpoint,” reflects Xinyu, “I don't feel any different from them because we are all made up of the same elements.”