Tong Kunniao
After the Waves and the Dusk
11 SEP until 18 OCT 2025
Opening – 11 SEP 2025, 6-10 pm
Auspicious Bats (Ruifu Tu), 2023–2025,
Tong Kunniao,
color on silk,
90 x 120 cm.
Courtesy of the artist and Hua International.
Hua International is delighted to present After the Waves and the Dusk, a solo exhibition by Chinese artist Tong Kunniao, on view during Berlin Art Week. The show brings together selected paintings from Tong, expanding his ongoing exploration of history, mythology, and the future.
Tong Kunniao,
50 x 50 cm.
Inspired by Seawater and Rising Sun, a classical Chinese painting by Ming dynasty master Dai Jin, the installation covers the gallery floor with cotton and applies sea wave motifs to the windows, visually extending the work outdoors. Through the patterned glass, visitors can glimpse the building across the street, like a mirage shimmering above the sea. For the artist, this mirage mirrors his own state of mind—set against today’s unsettled global climate, it feels as though the era of globalization has receded and dusk has fallen. Yet the future remains cloaked in mist and mystery, like an elusive vision on the horizon.
Tong Kunniao,
color on silk,
90 x 120 cm.
Courtesy of the artist and Hua International.
Tong Kunniao,
color on silk,
50 x 50 cm.
Courtesy of the artist and Hua International.
The emotional tenor of Tong’s paintings emerges through a tapestry of subjects—ancient creatures, futuristic cyborgs, historic architecture, and contemporary environments—forming a kind of group portrait of our time. While charged with unease, the works also carry a quiet resilience, holding contradictions in tension: darkness and light, past and future, fear and hope.