Hunsand Space (Beijing) is delighted to present In Broad Daylight, a solo exhibition by artist Tian Zhaoting, opening on April 12, 2025. This marks Tian’s first solo show in Beijing and follows his 2023 solo exhibition at Hunsand Space (Hangzhou), offering a comprehensive reflection on his practice over the past two years.
The exhibition title In Broad Daylight gestures toward the artist’s objective and unshielded engagement with natural reality. Through translucent gauze and layered chromatic washes, Tian constructs a visual field in which exposure and concealment coexist in a delicate dialectic. The Chinese phrase “化日” (huà rì, transformed daylight) not only evokes a sense of radiant transparency but also resonates with the needle-and-thread forms newly appearing in his work—gestures that stitch together the inexpressible. Drawn to the mythical and surreal creatures of the Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shanhaijing), Tian finds in them a release valve for emotional tension and a way to anchor his imaginative dissonance. This experience parallels standing outdoors at noon, under the sun’s piercing light: one's presence becomes undeniable, while privacy dissolves. In response, the artist’s gaze turns to the fantastical, as a psychic retreat from the blinding clarity of the real.
In Tian’s canvases, fantastical figures and metaphoric hybrids of nature—layered through gauze and diffused color—echo the Shanhaijing’s otherworldly imagery: strange beasts, illogical realms, and the blurred thresholds of truth and myth. These works become at once reflections of reality and allegories of the uncanny. Through subtly shifting light and shadow, he invites viewers to confront hidden complexities that exist even under the brightest of skies—offering a landscape where the seen and unseen intertwine.
