Deep Water

Clima presents Deep Water, the first solo show with the gallery by Wuhan born, Shanghai based artist Tao Siqi. Tao Siqi practice of painting originates from her seeking of metaphors hidden under the surface of an object. The positive and negative grounds of an object intrigue her to explore its emotional undercurrent on the canvas. For this exhibition, the artist explores the different potential stages of relationships, in the intricate flow of different feelings and states, both emotionally and physically: seductive love, manipulative love, cruel love, and tyrannical love. We experience in romance pleasure and pain at the same time; in this frenetic contest, the seducer may be seduced and the hunter may become the prey, until falling into the whirlpool of emotions and affection, shudders in the intoxicating charm, and getting lost in an illusory will. This cruel and sacred “ceremony” makes one tremble, yet at the same time a beautiful halo has a moment to shine. The artist aims to generate warmth in the paintings, accompanied by a tinge of tension that intersects with the senses, inviting the viewer to a hazy moment of ambiguity and vertigo. There is a seductive yet subtle depiction of surfaces in these works, two layers of reading them, the first by starring at the actions of the depicted character, then forgetting about it an, as personal as it could be, only to the skins, in the widest way.