EXHIBITED:
Fly Through the Troposphere: Memo of the New Generation Painting, Iberia Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, June 25 - August 27, 2011

ILLUSTRATED:
Fly Through the Troposphere: Memo of the New Generation Painting, Iberia Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, 2011, color illustrated, p. 220

The bad-boy, decadent side of Tu Hongtao has drawn him to the erotic expression in the work of Araki Nobuyoshi. Tu brought the imagery used by Araki into his own paintings. In the structuring of his images, Tu has been influenced by the style of the New Leipzig School; he has gradually begun to display inter-layered and inverted spatial arrangements. The forms portrayed extend continuously and are almost stacked together, which creates a dispersed, penetrating perspective that expands and envelops. The density and inflation of the forms almost result in a collapse of the space within the scene. This corresponds to the decadent fantasy-scape of desire, while at the same time, it also reveals an inner experience of emptiness and loneliness. Tu's brush-strokes speak of finesse and sensitivity. He holds an admirable mastery over the organization of detail. (Excerpt from The Gray Carnival: Chinese Contemporary Artist from the 2000s, Zhu Zhu, Guangxi Normal University Press, Guilin, November 2013, pp.171-175)

Tu Hongtao uses a stage-like setting to peer into modern urban reality. The complex images and the concentrated details mirror our dazzling yet bizarre urban lives. It also symbolizes the true emotions behind the lavishness. The images portrayed in the artwork are not obscured. Instead, what is truly hidden and requires more in-depth attention from us are the performers hidden within the scene. In Araki’s Friends, the character wearing the dive mask is Araki Nobuyoshi himself, blending in with the bustling crowd. He looks at us from 'within', instead of being an uncaring 'outsider'.