Hou Zichao’s imagery contains a complex visual structure that exists between figuration and dissolution where the form in his artworks continuously is developed and destabilized by remarkable layering painting methods. For instance, “Landing at the hot spring island” illustrates this method; upon first viewing, there seems to be a structured design around a central vertical mass; however, as soon as you look at the painting, the structure breaks apart into different areas of dispersed pigment, suspended marks, and interrupted textures. As a result, it is not possible to view the painting in only one way; rather, it reveals its various layers through overlapping other visual configurations.
The colours act as the main structural framework in Zichao’s universe; the paintings contain a predominance of warm colours – high-saturation reds and fuschias, burnt oranges, and various greens – which are contrasted by cooler colours such as pale blue and grey – that boost the visual atmosphere in the viewers’ eyes. Particularly, the red-orange mass appears at times to be dense but also to be eroded, as if it has partially dissolved or been scraped back to reveal layers of dark colour underneath it such as in ‘Snowy Cracker’ and ‘Have a tails fragrance thick noble embrace’. In general, all hues coexist in constant tension with each other refusing any spatial hierarchy in the painting’s final formation. Creatively, the distractive arrangements favourably render an explosive visual vocabulary on Zichao’s canvases.
words: yannis kostarias
In many works, the recurring use of dotted or abstracted glitchy formations provides a reoccurring motif and pattern through a vividly contrasting colour palette. In “Landing at the hot spring island” or “Flora in the Heated Sight” there is a circular shape created by small blue dots that travel through the centre of the circle and away from the centre, creating a connection between the centre of the painting and the surrounding area. Unlike pure decoration or pure representation, these dots create an additional rhythm that moves independently from the larger painted forms. The dotted image therefore suggests an image fragmenting and constructing at the same time as the whole image is being formed and destroyed. In addition, pale spray-painted gradients are often carefully contrasted with heavily expressionistic abstract brushwork within the same imagery providing an extra alluring tone in the painting result. The hidden sense of an ongoing optical dichotomy on his canvases embraces an ambiguity in Zichao’s practice avoiding the establishment of one well-distinctive identity.
Similar structural compositions can be seen within the other paintings throughout this body of work. Large, ambiguous shapes—some may be interpreted as representing vertical growths, branching configurations, or an explosive force within the composition—are placed in the centre of the work, surrounded by partial symbolic markers or multiple round shapes which function as navigators within the painting’s vague landscape.
The overall aesthetic of the paintings uses repetition and variation as a basis for their visual language; however, this has been accomplished through varying scales, densities, and chromatic intensities through the paint’s treatment on the canvases: circular clusters, vertical axes and sphere-like forms. Thus, Zichao’s imagery presents itself as being formally cohesive, while it also continues to constantly change its internal structures through the use of colour, fragmentation, and multi-layered applications. The consistency across the surface treatment of the paintings is composed of both smooth and finely detailed surfaces where paint has been applied, moved, or partially removed from particular sections. This relationship creates a depth of field underscoring a sophisticated visual interplay and a perpetually fluid artistry ignoring the use of the traditional art perspectives.
How would you define your work in a few words (ideally in 3 words)?
Unstable Ground, False Geography, Eruption
Could you share with us some insights on your new work named ‘Landing at the hot spring island’ (2024)? Is there any particular story behind this new painting?
This work starts from the idea of “landing,” but not to a clear place. “Hot spring island” is both real and fictional. It refers to geology, temperature, and a temporary place to stay, but also carries a sense of displacement. The image is built from different layers, landscape memories, map-like signs, and traces from painting itself. There is no single story. It is more a condition, like landing in a place that feels both familiar and uncertain. This painting starts from a volcanic scene. I’ve been painting volcanoes for a while, they have a very direct visual impact, energy, eruption, and a sense that things could change at any moment. The hot spring feels like the opposite. It’s like a place to rest inside danger, or a kind of home built on something unstable. The shapes in the painting that look like burning, falling fruits sit somewhere in
between. They can be natural fruits, but also like materials thrown out by an eruption. They feel like they exist between life and disaster. They fall, they burn, but at the same time, they also feel like the start of a cycle.
It seems like your surfaces are telling a story of you layering and changing the work, could you share the journey of a painting, describing a bit your creative process?
A painting usually begins with a loose structure, sometimes a landscape idea or spatial feeling. I then build and interrupt the surface through layering, adding terrain, like elements, objects, and different impressions. I treat painting as something editable but not reversible. Each change remains visible. The process is a back and forth between construction and accumulation. The image is not planned in advance, but emerges gradually.
You regularly use such repeated elements as dots, circular and fragmented shapes in your paintings, is there is a reason for coming back to these recurring motifs?
These elements act as basic units. They can mark, connect, or interrupt the surface. They also relate to signs, maps, or moving signals. I repeat them because they allow the image to shift between different scales and meanings without becoming fixed.
There are a great number of your pieces that look like they combine the textural suggestion of a landscape with abstract forms, what means to you as an artist the relationship between environment and abstraction?
The landscape in my work is not painted from what I directly see, but from memory, fragments of movement, and images that suddenly appear in my mind. I like this instability, it feels like a random landscape, almost like a card-drawing game. When I work, I also talk with AI. It constantly throws out new angles and information, much of it inaccurate, but this excess and confusion makes me want to try everything. I keep sorting through it, which creates anxiety. I am interested in this unstable condition. You have to keep responding to it. That is how the world feels. Abstraction becomes a way to hold this instability.
Do you see a big difference between the full and busy spots and the empty white areas in your paintings, and if yes, then how do you decide where to put more detail and where to leave bare spaces?
I usually let the surface become dense until it starts to lose clarity. Then I introduce empty space as a pause or interruption. The empty areas are active. They reset the structure of the painting.
Do specific artworks have been created by random experiments in your studio or do you usually come up with a particular concept or narrative in the very beginning of your artistic process?
It is neither fully random nor fully planned. I usually start from certain conditions or interests, not a fixed narrative. The concept forms during the process, not at the beginning. I used to work in a linear way, but it does not fit my way of working. I often restart at each layer and build connections while opening newpossibilities. It is more about discovering the question through the process.
Which are your plans for the near future?
I continue working with routes, borders, and constructed geographies. Not only within painting, but also extending into space. I am interested in building an environment where the viewer can move through the work, rather than only look at it.
all images courtesy of the artist