Xue Mo

…SERENE and deliberate, the sitters in the portraits of Xue Mo have monumental presence that is also strange and unnerving. The works are technically brilliant and imitate the Renaissance portrait, with mysterious desert landscapes echoing the ambiguities of the smile. (Robert Nelson, “The Age”, 18 November 2009).
Catherine Asquith Gallery is delighted to announce that internationally acclaimed Mongolian artist, Xue Mo, will be showcasing her latest body of paintings entitled Interpreting Mona Lisa from the 31st August to 18th September. The exhibition will officially open on Thursday 2nd September (6 to 8pm).

Xue has been working as a full-time practicing artist since 1998. Interpreting Mona Lisa continues Xue’s unique approach to the genre of portraiture, situating Asian subjects in a highly stylised manner that is reminiscent, both technically and compositionally, of the portraits of early Renaissance artists of the quattrocento period such as Piero della Francesca, Fra Angelico and Andrea Mantegna. To Xue, these great ‘masters’ epitomize painting in its purest form. Xue draws her subjects from her homeland of Mongolia and is singularly focused on the female subject, impressed by the ‘noble simplicity, natural beauty, and serene dispositions’ of the young fieldworkers. Well documented in the Australian press, Xue’s last exhibition in November 2009 was highly praised by The Age’s critic, Robert Nelson. As he noted:

What gives the works their monumental appearance is the visual clout of the forms inside them. It’s a function of composition and volume, and these formal qualities are reinforced by the statuesque body language of the figure.

More especially, Nelson was particularly impressed with Xue’s facility of line: It’s unusual in Australia to find this knowledge, which is the art of drawing classically defined. And concluded: the figures have a marvellous sense of composure, in which their place in the world is reinforced by the settled gaze that they return to it.

Xue lives and works in Beijing, China, and has had solo exhibitions in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, the USA and Canada.