Scripts on the Fly II

Group show
Cao Renhuo, Ding Renyuan, Huang Haiyan, Hung Ceongsing, Midsummer, Wang Weikai
Tabula Rasa Gallery | Beijing
20 July - 7 September, 2024

Tabula Rasa Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of a group exhibition “Scripts on the Fly II” on July 20, 2024 at the Beijing space. The exhibition will feature works by six artists: Cao Renhuo, Ding Renyuan, Huang Haiyan, Hung Ceongsing, Midsummer, and Wang Weikai. Curated and organised by Canton Gallery, this is the second showing of the "Scripts on the Fly" project, following its debut at Canton Gallery in June 2024. This show also marks the second collaboration between Tabula Rasa Gallery and Canton Gallery, building on our space exchange project in 2018.

In Cantonese, “Scripts on the Fly” describes the process of shooting a film without a complete script, where the script is written as filming progresses and handed to actors on the spot. This approach echoes with the founding vision of an art exhibition, that a gallery is transformed into a studio where artists create openly and form a symbiotic relationship with the space, embodying the flexibility of spontaneous creativity. This exhibition gathers a group of artists born in the 1990s or later who live, work, or study in southern China. Their paintings exhibit distinct personal style. Characterised by unique visual symbols and narrative structures, these works showcase a strong desire for self-expression, reflecting their individual life experiences and perspectives on the present.

The exhibition will feature a seven-meter-long painting by Cao Renhuo. Created on-site at Canton Gallery, the work exemplifies Cao’s distinctive use of comic language and metaphorical expression in her artistic creation. Absurd and dramatic, Ding Renyuan’s works explore the clashes of values between individuals and society. Huang Haiyan's paintings attempt to re-align reality and symbols, revealing the lurking crises and captivating aspects of ordinary life. Hung Ceongsing's paintings aim to depict psychological spaces, with his paper works retaining traces of the mental processes involved. Midsummer’s paintings demonstrate a notably free state, while Wang Weikai's paintings delve into negative emotions of one’s inner self, materialised into traces of memories or a certain emotional state.

The unique economic, historical, and cultural heritage encapsulated by the concept of "the South" has inspired these artists to produce highly experimental and open-ended works. With the aim to showcase diverse painting endeavors and to engage in cross-regional artistic dialogue, the exhibition aspires to provide artists with a broader platform for self-expression, and to offer audiences a rich tapestry of expressions from various creative environments.


About the Artist:


Cao Renhuo (b.1994, Guangxi, China) currently lives and works in Guangzhou, China. She graduated with a bachelor degree in Oil Painting from Hubei Institute of Fine Arts in 2017 and obtained her master degree in Oil Painting from Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2021. Her recent exhibitions include: "Scripts on the fly II," Tabula Rasa Gallery & Canton Gallery (Beijing, 2024); "Scripts on the fly," Canton Gallery (Guangzhou, 2024); among others.


Huang Haiyan (b.1993, Henan, China) currently lives and works in Luoyang, Henan. She received her bachelor's degree from Southwest University in 2016 and her master's degree in Printmaking from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 2021. The artist pursues the deconstruction and reconstruction of cartoon elements in symbols, passionately and intuitively expressing humanity and reality. She excels in exploring the cyclical, repetitive, and ambiguous forces and premonitory moments in life by creating unreal scenes about reality, giving new realistic connotations to cartoon and comic elements. Her works reveal the light yet perplexing side of life.

Her recent exhibitions include: "Scripts on the fly II," Tabula Rasa Gallery & Canton Gallery (Beijing, 2024); "Scripts on the fly," Canton Gallery (Guangzhou, 2024); "Threshold Space," NATSPACE (Nanjing, 2024); "In Other Words," Gallery Prototype (Luoyang, 2023); "Walking in the zoo is the most serious thing," KeYi Gallery (Hefei, 2023); "Folding · Covering," Hongkun Museum of Fine Art (Beijing, 2022); "Gleaner·Artist Fair," Dreamland Art Center (Beijing, 2022); "Da Vinci Talk: The Second Art Exhibition by Chinese New Talent," Aotea Centre (New Zealand, 2021), among others.


Hung Ceongsing (b.1997, Guangdong, China) currently lives and works in Shunde, Guangdong. He graduated from Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication, majoring in Digital Media. While browsing images or news on his phone daily, the artist remembers certain scenes and figures, including some domestic and international events, which become symbolic content in his creations. He enjoys the contrast and collision these symbols have with strokes, textures, and abstractions on his canvases. Often, the artist does not aim to describe a complete narrative space but hopes to evoke a certain familiarity through a detached state, thus expressing his countless absurd experiences in life.

His recent exhibitions include: "Scripts on the fly II," Tabula Rasa Gallery & Canton Gallery (Beijing, 2024); "Scripts on the fly," Canton Gallery (Guangzhou, 2024), among others.


Midsummer (b.1995, Hubei, China) currently lives and works in Guangzhou. She graduated with a bachelor's degree from Hubei Institute of Fine Arts in 2017 and with a master's degree in oil painting from the same institution in 2021. Her work primarily focuses on easel painting, inspired by the unavoidable real-life issues she has encountered. At different stages—academia, work, and life—she seeks genuine states and deeply feels the inescapable gears of reality, which she ultimately aims to answer through her art.

Her recent exhibitions include: "Scripts on the fly II," Tabula Rasa Gallery & Canton Gallery (Beijing, 2024); "Scripts on the fly," Canton Gallery (Guangzhou, 2024), among others.


Wang Weikai (b.2001, Guangdong, China) currently lives and works in Guangzhou. From 2020 to 2024, he studied in the Fifth Studio of the Oil Painting program at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. His recent exhibitions include: "Scripts on the fly II," Tabula Rasa Gallery & Canton Gallery (Beijing, 2024); "Kiss Goodbye," Fifth Studio of the Oil Painting program, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (Guangzhou, 2023), among others.


Ding Renyuan (b.1990, Hunan, China) currently lives and works in Zhuhai, Guangdong. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai in 2013, and with a Master of Arts from the School of Art at Hunan University of Science and Technology in 2016. In recent years, influenced by cartoon imagery, his works have displayed absurdist elements, using flat perspectives and dramatic narratives to reflect the conflict between political backgrounds and pop culture, exploring individual destinies and views on life and death in the context of great historical changes.

His recent exhibitions include: "Scripts on the fly II," Tabula Rasa Gallery & Canton Gallery (Beijing, 2024); Supper Club, Fringe Club (Hong Kong, 2024); "Flesh Color," Inna Art Space (Solo, Hangzhou, 2023); "East, south, west, north, central," Canton Gallery (Guangzhou, 2023); "lin láng mǎn mù," Inna Art Space (Hangzhou, 2023); "What are you looking at?," J Gallery (Shanghai, 2022); "Control and Controlled," HouShan ART (Zhuhai, 2022); "Living in The Time," Youpin Space (Wuhan, 2020), among others.