Yuan Daxi began his interdisciplinary training at a young age, developing his talents in such areas as calligraphy, Chinese ink art, Western painting, and classical music. He holds the belief that an extraordinary artist has to explore a wide variety of practices, and obtain the spirit of a scholar. In ancient Confucianism, a scholar is required to master the six artistic abilities of ritual, music, archery, governance, calligraphy, and mathematics. This demand for obtaining the holistic abilities and cultivate spirituality has always been the conscious pursuit of ancient Chinese literati and artists. Yuan’s attitude towards art and experimentation aligns with it. Resembling meditation, Yuan allows process and practice to evoke his body and spirit, and thus explores human’s deep subconscious.
Yuan’s oil paintings are composed in an abstract style, with traces of harmonious curves resembling gracious strokes of Chinese calligraphy. Heavy textures scattered around the canvases unfold the artist’s mind, shifting from awareness to a spiritual state. Both sculptural and painterly, these paintings serve as mirrors that reflect the artist’s transcendent journeys at the time of creation. Yuan has been trying to use oil painting language to express the spirit of traditional Chinese painting. This attempt is not just simply to change the material, but with the hope that the brushstrokes can truly show the essence of calligraphy and Chinese art.
In the "Mysterious" and “Galaxy” series, the techniques of Western contemporary art and oil painting are combined with the philosophies of the Yin and Yang, and the Five Elements of Chinese traditional culture, creating tranquility, profoundness, vividness, and rhythm.
