Liu Xintao’s recent works present a systematic depiction of snowy landscapes and polar night starfields, unified by a surrealist approach. The paintings are tranquil yet powerful, imbued with a strong sense of imaginative space. What strikes me most is the pervasive sense of suspension that seems to envelop the depicted objects. From a professional perspective, the most crucial aspect lies in his introduction of a visual vocabulary akin to “wormholes,” through which he attempts to articulate irreconcilable relationships between time, space, and reality. The term “dimension” originates from the English word itself, while “breaking dimensions” suggests the dismantling of barriers between spatiotemporal frameworks, cultural spheres, and modes of thought. It also implies, on the basis of dissolving the boundary between the virtual and the real, the fusion of these elements into a newly constructed spacetime. More broadly, it points to the necessity, in today’s world, for permeability and integration across different fields and social strata. Against the backdrop of contemporary physics and lived reality, Liu Xintao employs the traditional medium of painting—rather than fashionable digital art—and adopts surrealist strategies such as fragmentation, rupture, and recombination to reconnect and interweave previously unrelated elements, including polar night, interstellar imagery, and fragments of everyday life. In doing so, he constructs scenes that appear at once familiar and strangely elusive, charged with metaphorical significance.

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Liu Xintao’s latest solo exhibition, Polar Night, presents a curated selection from his ongoing “Breaking Dimensions” series (2020–present). These works deconstruct physical spacetime and reconstruct relationships between landscapes from the perspective of astrophysics. As is well known, polar night refers to the phenomenon in which the Earth’s polar regions experience continuous darkness for up to half a year. Within such an environment, one is surrounded by endless snow-covered mountains, a darkened sky, and flickering stars, where the conventional rhythms of sunrise and sunset no longer apply. Art, in this sense, offers an alternative and unconventional vantage point—one that observes both the heavens and the earth from shifting perspectives. Liu Xintao’s choice of polar night as a subject, or rather his construction of such a landscape, stems precisely from his artistic conviction: to seek out extraordinary spatiotemporal conditions and to render visible those otherwise imperceptible dimensions.