Chen Qiang (born in 1960 in Hunan Province, China, currently lives and works in Shanghai) is one of the important representatives of contemporary abstract painting in China. He has long been devoted to building a highly personal abstract visual language, gradually developing a mode of expression that exists between order and chance.
His artistic practice consistently revolves around themes of “inner conflict” and “spiritual experience.” His works embody both the control of rational structure and the fluidity of emotion and intuition. This tension forms the core characteristic of his visual language. Behind the seemingly chaotic surfaces of his paintings lies a continuously emerging sense of order, placing his works in a state of “coexistence between loss of control and self-consistency.”
In terms of materials and methods, Chen Qiang often breaks the boundaries between Eastern and Western media by juxtaposing and integrating Chinese ink-and-paper traditions with Western oil painting techniques and linen canvas. Through layered brushwork and color application, he allows different pictorial logics from these cultural systems to collide and reorganize, forming a distinctive visual texture.
His painting process is not a pre-determined execution but rather a “drifting” generative state—progressing through openness and chance encounters, constantly adjusting between control and surrender. The repeated layering of dots, lines, and planes acts like a simultaneous recording of thought and emotion, turning the canvas into a sedimentation of time and perception. Chen Qiang’s works are characterized by open structures, layered textures, and inherent tension. At the intersection of Eastern and Western materials and ideas, he constructs an ever-evolving abstract world.
陈墙(1960年生于湖南,现工作生活于上海)是中国当代抽象绘画的重要代表之一。他长期致力于构建个人化的抽象语言体系,在不断的探索中形成一种介于秩序与偶然之间的视觉表达方式。
他的创作始终围绕“内在冲突”与“精神经验”展开。作品中既包含理性结构的控制,也保留情绪与直觉的流动性,这种张力构成其视觉语言的核心特征。在看似混沌的画面背后,隐藏着一种持续生成的秩序感,使作品处于“失控与自洽并存”的状态。
在材料与方法上,陈墙常常打破东西方媒介的边界,将中国水墨与纸本语言,与西方油画材料和亚麻画布并置、融合。他通过层层叠加的笔触与色彩,让不同文化体系中的绘画逻辑发生碰撞与重组,从而形成独特的视觉肌理。
他的绘画过程并非预设结果的推演,而更接近一种“游弋式”的生成状态——在开放与偶遇中推进,在控制与放任之间不断调整节奏。点、线、面的反复堆叠,如同思维与情绪的同步记录,使画面成为时间与感知的沉积。
在精神层面,陈墙的抽象绘画并非远离现实,而是对“个体如何感知世界”的持续追问。他通过去叙事化的视觉结构,将观者引入一种介于理性与情绪之间的观看经验,使抽象成为一种可感知的心理空间。陈墙的作品以开放结构、层叠肌理与内在张力为特征,在东西方材料与观念的交汇中,构建出一个不断生成的抽象世界。










