V Year of the Dragon, 2019
In 2011, after a 50-year hiatus from art-making, contemporary Chinese painter Yinghua picked up his brushes (and an assortment of other materials), re-approached the canvas, and began producing the explosive, mashed-up, mixed-media works for which he has become known. His works are a combination of chaos and harmony, which, for him, reflects the balance of nature. Though their rectangular shape resembles that of traditional Chinese scroll paintings, Yinghua’s canvases are radically contemporary and subversive. To make his works, he stretches, welds, and sculpts precious metals, like pure silver, into crinkly forms, which he then affixes to the canvas in interlocking accretions, together with masses of trash. Splashes, strokes, and drips of paint complete these paradoxical pictures, through which he breaks down the distinction between trash and treasure, challenging viewers to re-assess conceptions of value and preciousness.