Alimjan Adil, Lei Yu, Huang Haiyan, Ji Ye
Realms of Their Own
Tabula Rasa Gallery, Beijing
5 September - 24 October 2026
Realms of Their Own
Tabula Rasa Gallery, Beijing
5 September - 24 October 2026
In Conversation with Alimjan Adil: The Tapestries, Streets, and Energy of Kashgar
September 17, 2026
This interview was conducted by Isabelle of Tabula Rasa Gallery with artist Alimjan Adil. The conversation explores his childhood in Xinjiang, his return home and the ways it has changed his perspective, and how local experiences find their way into his work.
TRG
You left Xinjiang to study and later chose to return. After leaving and coming back, did you find yourself looking at Xinjiang in a different way?
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TRG
At what stage did your artistic practice and aesthetic sensibility begin to take shape?
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TRG
Are there elements that recur in your paintings but that viewers might not immediately notice? You once mentioned that the environments you depict often have a quality of looking very "fancy" on the surface, while many things have actually become worn through use. This is especially evident in Indoors, where the scenes seem to be enveloped in a rather dim light.
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TRG
Are there details in your paintings that only someone who has lived in the landscape would notice?
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TRG
The Carpenter developed from a photograph you took into a painting. What attracted you to the photograph? And what did you change when translating it onto canvas?
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Image by Alimjan Adil, Courtesy of the artist.
When I took the photograph, I did not have any particularly strong feelings about it. Perhaps because I grew up there, these were simply things I saw in everyday life. After returning to Beijing and looking at the photograph again, I suddenly felt transported back to that street. In the end, I chose the wooden objects in the photograph as the subject of the painting. There are many elements to choose from in a photograph, and each choice ultimately leads to a different way of presenting the image. I generally choose the part that leaves the strongest impression on me, whether it is the wood, the ground, or a patterned fabric.
Of course, some elements still need to be added or removed through the process of painting. Sometimes I can be quite laid-back about it, and I may add or remove a lot of things subjectively, but I always hold on to one thing: I want the image to feel more “real.” By “real,” I do not mean reproducing reality exactly. It is more like the way people in the past named places: sometimes they used adjectives, and there was a sense of poetry to it. I think what I want is a kind of poetic realism.
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TRG
When you are making a painting, which usually comes first for you: composition, colour, or the subject matter?
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TRG
If you were introducing your work to someone who knew nothing about your practice, what would you want them to see first?
TRG
If you had to describe it in three keywords, what is the most immediate feeling you hope viewers take away after seeing your work and leaving the gallery?
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Alimjan Adil was born in Xinjiang in 1997. He graduated from the Second Studio of the Oil Painting Department at the Central Academy of Fine Arts and currently lives and works in Urumqi. His practice focuses on the everyday life and cultural landscape of Xinjiang. Grounded in representational painting, his work incorporates distinctive decorative elements and reflects the visual intersections between folk traditions and contemporary life. Drawing on figures, street scenes and urban environments, Alimjan uses composition, colour and materiality to construct layered pictorial spaces with a pronounced sense of rhythm. Geometric motifs derived from traditional Xinjiang decorative arts frequently appear in his paintings, contributing to a pictorial language that is both regionally rooted and distinctly his own. His solo exhibitions include Night, Gaotai Contemporary Art Centre, Urumqi (2026). Selected group exhibitions include Beijing Contemporary Art Expo, National Agricultural Exhibition Centre, Beijing (2026); Winter Travellers, O2art 798 Space, Beijing (2025); the 5th Huajiadi Biennale, ParkArt, Beijing (2024); New Era Capital Art Exhibition, China National Academy of Painting, Beijing (2024); National Exhibition for Young Artists: Beijing, Season 1, Beijing Phoenix Art Materials Experience Centre, Beijing (2024); and 2023 China Contemporary Art Exhibition, YinQiu Gallery, online (2023).
September 17, 2026
TRG = Tabula Rasa Gallery
This interview was conducted by Isabelle of Tabula Rasa Gallery with artist Alimjan Adil. The conversation explores his childhood in Xinjiang, his return home and the ways it has changed his perspective, and how local experiences find their way into his work.
TRG
You left Xinjiang to study and later chose to return. After leaving and coming back, did you find yourself looking at Xinjiang in a different way?
Alimjan Adil
Xinjiang is a culturally diverse place with vast expanses of land, and I feel very fortunate to have grown up in such an environment. Although I attended a Han Chinese school, I had classmates from different ethnic backgrounds, and I was naturally exposed to different languages and cultures. Growing up this way made me more sensitive to my surroundings and gradually shaped a way of looking that was somewhat detached, almost as if I were observing things from a third-person perspective. This eventually found its way into my work. The customs and cultures of different ethnic groups have had a profound influence on me, so traces of Xinjiang life often appear in my paintings, though not in a conventional sense.
After leaving Xinjiang to study at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, I began to rediscover my hometown. As Jia Zhangke once said, “You can only truly understand your hometown after leaving it.” In Beijing, I started to notice things in Xinjiang that were both practical and decorative, such as the beautifully decorated rubbish bins along the roadside. Details like these made me rediscover the beauty of Xinjiang. I feel that this kind of beauty may be something that runs through our veins.
After graduating from my master’s degree, I returned to live in Xinjiang. Although I am now based in Ürümqi, I feel that I still haven’t fully captured of the everyday life and atmosphere of southern Xinjiang. The urge to continously paint these sceneries persists.
Xinjiang is a culturally diverse place with vast expanses of land, and I feel very fortunate to have grown up in such an environment. Although I attended a Han Chinese school, I had classmates from different ethnic backgrounds, and I was naturally exposed to different languages and cultures. Growing up this way made me more sensitive to my surroundings and gradually shaped a way of looking that was somewhat detached, almost as if I were observing things from a third-person perspective. This eventually found its way into my work. The customs and cultures of different ethnic groups have had a profound influence on me, so traces of Xinjiang life often appear in my paintings, though not in a conventional sense.
After leaving Xinjiang to study at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, I began to rediscover my hometown. As Jia Zhangke once said, “You can only truly understand your hometown after leaving it.” In Beijing, I started to notice things in Xinjiang that were both practical and decorative, such as the beautifully decorated rubbish bins along the roadside. Details like these made me rediscover the beauty of Xinjiang. I feel that this kind of beauty may be something that runs through our veins.
After graduating from my master’s degree, I returned to live in Xinjiang. Although I am now based in Ürümqi, I feel that I still haven’t fully captured of the everyday life and atmosphere of southern Xinjiang. The urge to continously paint these sceneries persists.
Giant-Pot Polo
Oil on canvas, 90 x 220 cm, 2024
Oil on canvas, 90 x 220 cm, 2024
TRG
At what stage did your artistic practice and aesthetic sensibility begin to take shape?
Alimjan Adil
When it comes to the formation of my aesthetic sensibility, I think my surrounding environment has played a major role. As far back as I can remember, our home was covered in tapestries and carpets, from the walls to the floors. The patterns on the tapestries were bold, featuring flowers and trees, with a wide variety of highly saturated colours. This aesthetic, and lifestyle you could say, was everywhere in the environment I grew up in. Even after moving to Beijing, we would regularly buy and replace different carpets because we wanted to keep a sense of home.
I also enjoy watching Abbas Kiarostami’s films, as well as some Italian rural films. I am drawn to their warm, highly saturated imagery. Many of my early works were influenced by these visual experiences.
When it comes to the formation of my aesthetic sensibility, I think my surrounding environment has played a major role. As far back as I can remember, our home was covered in tapestries and carpets, from the walls to the floors. The patterns on the tapestries were bold, featuring flowers and trees, with a wide variety of highly saturated colours. This aesthetic, and lifestyle you could say, was everywhere in the environment I grew up in. Even after moving to Beijing, we would regularly buy and replace different carpets because we wanted to keep a sense of home.
I also enjoy watching Abbas Kiarostami’s films, as well as some Italian rural films. I am drawn to their warm, highly saturated imagery. Many of my early works were influenced by these visual experiences.
Where Is the Friend’s Home?, a film by Abbas Kiarostami, 83 min, 35mm, 1987.
Image source: online.
Image source: online.
The Camel Show Troupe
Oil on canvas, 160 x 100 cm, diptych,2025
Oil on canvas, 160 x 100 cm, diptych,2025
TRG
Are there elements that recur in your paintings but that viewers might not immediately notice? You once mentioned that the environments you depict often have a quality of looking very "fancy" on the surface, while many things have actually become worn through use. This is especially evident in Indoors, where the scenes seem to be enveloped in a rather dim light.
Alimjan Adil
Floor tiles that have been stepped on countless times, the dirt left behind in the intricate carvings on a chair - I feel that these traces carry a kind of primitive quality, one that may not be particularly admired by the general public.
It is a little like the intricate components inside a car. There is always a pungent smell of lubricating oil. People may not like that smell, but it is precisely these things that allow a car to run at high speed for a long time. I think there is something similar about the environment in Kashgar. If Kashgar lost these primitive traces, it might become brand new, but it would also lose some of what it originally was.
In other words, some people like Michelin dinners, while others prefer night markets. I think I am more drawn to the feeling of eating a meal at a night market. I am not saying that one is more sophisticated than the other. I simply feel that, for Kashgar, this environment, with its marks of use that cannot easily be erased, is indispensable. It is even a kind of wild energy that deserves to be amplified.
Floor tiles that have been stepped on countless times, the dirt left behind in the intricate carvings on a chair - I feel that these traces carry a kind of primitive quality, one that may not be particularly admired by the general public.
It is a little like the intricate components inside a car. There is always a pungent smell of lubricating oil. People may not like that smell, but it is precisely these things that allow a car to run at high speed for a long time. I think there is something similar about the environment in Kashgar. If Kashgar lost these primitive traces, it might become brand new, but it would also lose some of what it originally was.
In other words, some people like Michelin dinners, while others prefer night markets. I think I am more drawn to the feeling of eating a meal at a night market. I am not saying that one is more sophisticated than the other. I simply feel that, for Kashgar, this environment, with its marks of use that cannot easily be erased, is indispensable. It is even a kind of wild energy that deserves to be amplified.
Indoors
Oil on wood panel, 20 x 40 cm, 2023
Oil on wood panel, 20 x 40 cm, 2023
TRG
Are there details in your paintings that only someone who has lived in the landscape would notice?
Alimjan Adil
Roasted Eggs is one example. I rarely see roasted eggs being sold in other cities. Roasted eggs are not simply eggs that have been cooked over a fire. Before roasting, a small opening is made in the top of the shell, and various seasonings and nutritional supplements are put inside. You scoope it out with a small spoon.
Another interesting thing is that the way these eggs are arranged. The vendor might even have a roasting rack specially made to display the eggs in neat rows. This attention to detail and aestheatic is not limited to roasted eggs. When vendors sell watermelons, grapes, or figs by the roadside, they also arrange them in whatever way they consider most beautiful. I feel that this kind of formal sensibility might only be found in Xinjiang, and sometimes I even feel that it might only exist in Kashgar, in southern Xinjiang.
Roasted Eggs is one example. I rarely see roasted eggs being sold in other cities. Roasted eggs are not simply eggs that have been cooked over a fire. Before roasting, a small opening is made in the top of the shell, and various seasonings and nutritional supplements are put inside. You scoope it out with a small spoon.
Another interesting thing is that the way these eggs are arranged. The vendor might even have a roasting rack specially made to display the eggs in neat rows. This attention to detail and aestheatic is not limited to roasted eggs. When vendors sell watermelons, grapes, or figs by the roadside, they also arrange them in whatever way they consider most beautiful. I feel that this kind of formal sensibility might only be found in Xinjiang, and sometimes I even feel that it might only exist in Kashgar, in southern Xinjiang.
Roasted Eggs
Oil on canvas, 40 x 40 cm, 2025
Oil on canvas, 40 x 40 cm, 2025
TRG
The Carpenter developed from a photograph you took into a painting. What attracted you to the photograph? And what did you change when translating it onto canvas?
Alimjan Adil
This is the reference photograph for The Carpenter. It was taken on an old street in the centre of Kashgar called Wusitangboyi Street, which translates as “Beside the Stream.” Looking back, I think the names people used to give places were really poetic.
This is the reference photograph for The Carpenter. It was taken on an old street in the centre of Kashgar called Wusitangboyi Street, which translates as “Beside the Stream.” Looking back, I think the names people used to give places were really poetic.
Image by Alimjan Adil, Courtesy of the artist. When I took the photograph, I did not have any particularly strong feelings about it. Perhaps because I grew up there, these were simply things I saw in everyday life. After returning to Beijing and looking at the photograph again, I suddenly felt transported back to that street. In the end, I chose the wooden objects in the photograph as the subject of the painting. There are many elements to choose from in a photograph, and each choice ultimately leads to a different way of presenting the image. I generally choose the part that leaves the strongest impression on me, whether it is the wood, the ground, or a patterned fabric.
Of course, some elements still need to be added or removed through the process of painting. Sometimes I can be quite laid-back about it, and I may add or remove a lot of things subjectively, but I always hold on to one thing: I want the image to feel more “real.” By “real,” I do not mean reproducing reality exactly. It is more like the way people in the past named places: sometimes they used adjectives, and there was a sense of poetry to it. I think what I want is a kind of poetic realism.
The Carpenter
Oil on canvas, 160 x 100 cm, diptych, 2025
Oil on canvas, 160 x 100 cm, diptych, 2025
TRG
When you are making a painting, which usually comes first for you: composition, colour, or the subject matter?
Alimjan Adil
Composition probably comes first, followed by colour. If I want to describe a story or a narrative, I still tend to start with composition. I do not draw a particularly clear distinction between the story and the image; it is quite random. Whichever part occupies more space or generates a stronger desire to create. When it comes to colour, I try to preserve the integrity of the elements. Sometimes using too many colours, or making the relationships between black, white, and grey too pronounced, can actually weaken my perception of the objects themselves.
Composition probably comes first, followed by colour. If I want to describe a story or a narrative, I still tend to start with composition. I do not draw a particularly clear distinction between the story and the image; it is quite random. Whichever part occupies more space or generates a stronger desire to create. When it comes to colour, I try to preserve the integrity of the elements. Sometimes using too many colours, or making the relationships between black, white, and grey too pronounced, can actually weaken my perception of the objects themselves.
Silk Road Whispers
Oil on canvas, 130 x 110 cm, 2026
Oil on canvas, 130 x 110 cm, 2026
TRG
If you were introducing your work to someone who knew nothing about your practice, what would you want them to see first?
Alimjan Adil
If someone has no idea what my paintings depict or what I am trying to express, I think they might actually find it easier to enter the work itself.
In many of my paintings, I use elements with strong contrasts, such as coarse fur and delicate fabric, or hard sheet metal and loose earth. These elements can be found anywhere in the world, but the way they are brought together determines the meaning they ultimately produce.
Another thing is that I hope to maintain a relatively optimistic attitude when interpreting the image. Although many of my paintings have rather dark overall tones, sometimes it is precisely these “dark” elements that make the other elements appear more positive and interesting. It is a little like Stephen Chow’s films, which express tragedy through comedy, and then transform extreme tragedy into a kind of positive energy. What I am saying may still be quite abstract. In short, I use contrast quite extensively in my paintings, and what a work is trying to express is not always so clear. It may really vary from painting to painting.
If someone has no idea what my paintings depict or what I am trying to express, I think they might actually find it easier to enter the work itself.
In many of my paintings, I use elements with strong contrasts, such as coarse fur and delicate fabric, or hard sheet metal and loose earth. These elements can be found anywhere in the world, but the way they are brought together determines the meaning they ultimately produce.
Another thing is that I hope to maintain a relatively optimistic attitude when interpreting the image. Although many of my paintings have rather dark overall tones, sometimes it is precisely these “dark” elements that make the other elements appear more positive and interesting. It is a little like Stephen Chow’s films, which express tragedy through comedy, and then transform extreme tragedy into a kind of positive energy. What I am saying may still be quite abstract. In short, I use contrast quite extensively in my paintings, and what a work is trying to express is not always so clear. It may really vary from painting to painting.
TRG
If you had to describe it in three keywords, what is the most immediate feeling you hope viewers take away after seeing your work and leaving the gallery?
Alimjan Adil
I would say “primitive, intense, and positive.”
I would say “primitive, intense, and positive.”
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Alimjan Adil was born in Xinjiang in 1997. He graduated from the Second Studio of the Oil Painting Department at the Central Academy of Fine Arts and currently lives and works in Urumqi. His practice focuses on the everyday life and cultural landscape of Xinjiang. Grounded in representational painting, his work incorporates distinctive decorative elements and reflects the visual intersections between folk traditions and contemporary life. Drawing on figures, street scenes and urban environments, Alimjan uses composition, colour and materiality to construct layered pictorial spaces with a pronounced sense of rhythm. Geometric motifs derived from traditional Xinjiang decorative arts frequently appear in his paintings, contributing to a pictorial language that is both regionally rooted and distinctly his own. His solo exhibitions include Night, Gaotai Contemporary Art Centre, Urumqi (2026). Selected group exhibitions include Beijing Contemporary Art Expo, National Agricultural Exhibition Centre, Beijing (2026); Winter Travellers, O2art 798 Space, Beijing (2025); the 5th Huajiadi Biennale, ParkArt, Beijing (2024); New Era Capital Art Exhibition, China National Academy of Painting, Beijing (2024); National Exhibition for Young Artists: Beijing, Season 1, Beijing Phoenix Art Materials Experience Centre, Beijing (2024); and 2023 China Contemporary Art Exhibition, YinQiu Gallery, online (2023).
Tabula Rasa Gallery (London)
Unit One, 99 East Road,
Hoxton, London
N1 6AQ
Unit One, 99 East Road,
Hoxton, London
N1 6AQ
Tuesday - Saturday 12:00 - 18:00 | Sunday - Monday Closed
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