Although belonging to different generations and representative of contrasting approaches to the process of painting, Qiu Shihua (born in Sichuan Province, China in 1940) and Shi Jing (born in Yunnan Province, China in 1971) resemble each other in the subtlety of their vision and the narrow tonal range characteristic of their works. At first glance Qiu’s and Shi’s paintings appear to be monochromatic but after careful viewing, the fine gradations of closely related tones used by both painters lead to the appearance of evanescent forms.

Of different generations, Qiu Shihua and Shi Jing speak to each other through the medium of oil on canvas. From this painterly dialog emerged the title of the exhibition, Fugitive Visions, the title of a 1915-1917 work for the piano by Sergei Prokofiev which was inspired by a poem of the Russian Symbolist Konstantin Balmont: “In every fugitive vision I see worlds, full of the changing play of rainbow hues.”