Xiao-Min Feng
French of Chinese descent
B. 1959 (French of Chinese Descent)
Xiaoming Feng's paintings are a profound exploration of traditional roots—an integration of Chinese ink painting techniques with Western artistic sensibilities. Neither fully abstract nor entirely figurative, his work emerges from an inner world of imagined landscapes and emotional resonance.
His compositions evoke impressions of tree-covered valleys, sunlit hills, mist-veiled peaks, and vast oceans where sea and sky merge. These elements, reduced to their most essential visual cues, breathe new meaning into the natural world. His color palette creates a dreamlike atmosphere—vibrant yet meditative. Bold contrasts between blues, greens, orange-yellows, reds, ochres, browns, and blacks unfold in complex gradients, crafting a refined visual experience that recalls the mastery of Song Dynasty landscape painters.
With layered washes and textures—hooking, texturing, shading, dotting—each brushstroke forms its own rhythm and logic. The energy in his brushwork resonates with the universal flow of the Dao, or the Way of the cosmos.
Contemporary masters such as Zao Wou-Ki and Chu Teh-Chun have echoed the philosophy of the ancient Chinese painting tradition:
"A true painting gives the viewer what they have never seen."
Calligraphy and painting, deeply rooted in Chinese culture, demand both spontaneity and adherence to structure. Feng embraces this duality as a core principle of his artistic practice.
Feng’s intuitive connection to nature informs his mature painterly language. For him, the majestic landscapes he recreates must stem from a fundamental understanding of the world. Nature is no longer simply a divine creation—it becomes a subtle synthesis of vastness and silence. This sense of metaphysical atmosphere is rarely seen in traditional Chinese painting.
As an observer, Feng seeks the ultimate harmony of the universe through a Daoist lens. His paintings become spaces where wild brushstrokes, flowing colors, shifting light, and the movement of ink and pigment come together in visual harmony.
Recent Auction Records
2023.06.07 – Sotheby’s Paris, Art Contemporain Day Auction
Sold: €190,500 (~NTD 6,602,000)
65.2 x 81 cm (No. 26)2022.05.27 – Christie’s Hong Kong, 21st Century Art Day Sale
Sold: HKD 2,016,000 (~NTD 8,212,000)
100 x 81 cm (No. 40.5)2021.03.12 – Sotheby’s New York
Sold: USD 201,600 (~NTD 6,436,000)
130.2 x 96.8 cm (No. 63)
Recent Exhibitions
2023
Central Hong Kong Art Fair | Opera Gallery | Hong Kong
2022
Abstraction – A Virtual Reality (Group Show) | Opera Gallery | Dubai
Paris Art Fair | Opera Gallery | Paris, France
Busan Art Fair | Opera Gallery | Busan, South Korea
2021
Painting Group Exhibition | Opera Gallery | Seoul, South Korea
Paris Art Fair | Opera Gallery | Paris, France
Composition (Solo Exhibition) | Opera Gallery | Paris, France
La Biennale | Opera Gallery | Paris, France