Asia NOW Paris | 2024: Huang Long - Urban Fable

Created specifically for the fair, Long's new series, Urban Fable, offers a series of surreal compositions depicting imagined architectural spaces that have been invaded by various animals. Characterised by a recurring imagery of pools and psychedelic colours, Long’s paintings fuse inner and outer landscapes in an attempt to convey an embodied sensation of longing. Long seeks to give form to the universal experience of melancholy, longing, and déjà vu by imaging the perceived energy of spaces, rather than real places themselves.

 

The series’ pictorial focus on man-made enclosures, such as swimming pools and gardens contrasts with the central position of animals, highlighting the very status of cities as enclosures themselves. In this way, Long’s exploration of the pervasive yet inexplicable longing felt by each one of us carries a subliminally romanticist message of longing as the perpetual condition of the citizen.