ART 021 Booth W01 | Killion Huang

  

Nan Ke Gallery is honored to present the works of artist Killion Huang at booth W01 of ART021 Shanghai Art Fair. Killion Huang graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York and currently lives and works in Shanghai. His practice delves into queer narratives and the significance of intimacy in contemporary society, employing painting as a medium to explore the interplay of light and shadow—peering into the fissures of darkness while probing the boundaries between touch and limitation. "Celebration" serves as his visual leitmotif, manifested through cultural collisions and corporeal investigations that construct an idealized sanctuary of eros—a realm where love flourishes tenderly in silhouettes. 

 

Killion’s brush traces the journey from object to subject, capturing faces, bodies, stories, and souls with equal reverence. He positions himself as a quiet chronicler, documenting the liminal spaces where identity and desire converge. His work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions across Shanghai, Brussels, Paris, and New York, and is held in public collections throughout China and Europe, including Song Museum, X Museum and Thérapia Residency Collection.

 

 

34-Degree Heater, 2025

180h x 150w cm

© Courtesy of the artist

 

At the center of the booth stands a large-scale new painting by Killion Huang, suffused with the warm tones of sunlight caressing the human form at day’s end. His work captures the “golden hour” — the tender and chaotic interlude before nightfall. This year, Huang has deepened his exploration of pictorial structure, dividing his compositions through the natural geometry of walls, tables, and window frames, or positioning his figures frontally and symmetrically, creating a sense of theatricality born from everyday life.

 

With his brush and a palette of gradually deepening hues, Killion Huang dissects the many facets of queer existence. He strives to reveal the quiet, fervent, and gentle interior that lies beneath the perceived “scarcity” and “otherness” so often imposed upon queer identities. Huang paints human beings—specific, embodied individuals—who exist vividly within the flow of daily life. Whether facing one another, embracing, or lost in a moment of solitary stillness, his figures convey a fragile, empathic humanity. Through a gaze reminiscent of Lucian Freud, Huang examines the delicate and vulnerable dimensions of being that invite connection rather than distance.

 

 

 Killion Huang

180h x 150w cm

© Courtesy of the artist

 

Yet within the ambiguous interplay of light and shadow that defines his work, this act of introspection is neither sharp nor ironic. It burns instead with the sincerity and warmth of candlelight. Huang often employs vast expanses of red to convey this intensity: beginning with underpaintings of Permanent Madder diffused into soft pinks, followed by assertive brushstrokes that blend every color into the texture of the canvas. His dynamic, dancing strokes recall the chromatic structures and liberated color fields of Post-Impressionism—like swarming bees in motion. The result is a kind of measured abandon—not a wildfire of rebellion or aggression, but a molten flow of candle wax that advances slowly, solidifying into a vivid yet silent form of presence: steady, self-assured, and quietly radiant.

 

 

60h x 50w cm

© Courtesy of the artist

 

Mirrors and windows are recurring elements in Killion Huang’s work. These ordinary objects—familiar in every domestic environment—serve as metaphors for observation, contemplation, and introspection. Through them, subtle and shifting lights enter his paintings, flowing in rhythm with time and consciousness: the glow of dawn, the warmth of sunset, the neon reflections of a sleepless metropolis, and the quiet constancy of a desk lamp. Light of varying hues, temperatures, and temperaments drifts poetically across his canvases, weaving tranquil yet emotionally charged atmospheres that mirror the complex relationship between human beings and their surrounding worlds.

 

Text by Roxane Fu