Showcasing Zeng Fanzhi’s unique painterly style, ‘Yes, it’s an oil painting.’ (2025) is representative of the artist’s newest body of work, which has emerged from decades of research into color theory. Layering and combining more than 40 shades of paint, Zeng delves into the visual and experiential possibilities of oil pigments.

A leading figure in contemporary painting today, examples of Zeng’s work are held in esteemed public collections internationally, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Exploring a multiplicity of techniques, including wet-on-wet and impasto, Zeng conjures figurative elements that dissolves into thousands of individual strokes when viewed more closely. Recalling digital pixilation, these interweaving touches of saturated paint mark an important departure from the networks of lines that comprise his acclaimed ‘Abstract Landscape Series’ of the 2000s.

Zeng’s lifelong engagement with natural imagery draws inspiration in part from the landscape paintings of the Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties (960 – 1644). The elusive impressions in his recent works recall the spatial ambiguities of paintings from this period, conveying a Daoist worldview that addresses issues of matter and energy.

Starting with a detailed conception of the composition before he begins work, Zeng continually alters the relationship between colors and forms with each new adjacent brushstroke. Uniting precision and spontaneity, volumes and colors emerge and recede in a breathtaking expanse of overlapping dashes and marks that explore the essence of painting itself.