Artist: Xiaochi Dong

Albion Jeune presents Xiaochi Dong (b. 1993, Shanghai) in Understory. Dong’s meticulously crafted multi-panel paintings draw energy and influence from classical Chinese ink painting and systems of cultivating nature. At a moment in history where most human interactions are carefully prescribed, Dong’s works remind us of how organic processes evolve unconstrained, slowly, over time. One large multi-panel work is displayed along the gallery wall, while four Green Cube paintings are presented suspended on each side of a free-standing cube-shaped wooden structure.

Chinese ink painting forms a foundational manner of thinking around which Dong constructs his images. Though traditional cunfa (texturing brushstrokes) continue to influence how he creates figures and forms, he is primarily interested in how these traditional techniques can be transposed into contemporary painting. Cunfa, for Dong, operates as a way of organizing time: brushstrokes accumulate throughout the process, adding layers that gradually allow an image to emerge. Every brushstroke carries intention, contributes to the image-making process, and documents the passing of time.

Systems of cultivating and displaying nature do not simply comprise the subject matter of Dong’s paintings but allow him to explore ideas pertaining to the natural world. Through painting, Dong considers numerous ways in which humans experience nature. Domestic terrariums, botanical gardens, museum collections, and greenhouse architectures are some examples of interactions that underpin his work. Rather than depicting scenes drawn from these specific examples, Dong explores how natural environments and the interactions of living organisms within these ecosystems can inform his painterly process. Each formal display of the natural world offers a unique example of how organisms interact and contribute to a larger whole. These examples provide principles that are subsequently applied to his paintings, allowing Dong to explore how brushstrokes, traditional and contemporary materials, and numerous panels might interact to create a single work.

Dong’s Green Cube paintings—eight-panel works which take their scale from the Waterlily House at Kew Gardens— are studies in how an image can grow throughout the painterly process. Like the ecosystems that Dong explores, his process of layering paint produces organic shapes and natural forms that emerge in much the same way as moss might grow on a branch. The compositions are not predetermined responses to detailed underdrawings, but the result of an intricate, gradual, and organic process. Each work creates the impression that the viewer is gazing through the glass windowpanes at the Waterlily House and, rather than observing a rendering of an existing ecosystem, the viewer is observing an environment that grew organically out of Dong’s intricate process.

Understory conveys a meditative tempo, and the viewer is invited to observe the paintings much in the same way that they came together: with careful introspection. Dong’s sustained observation, and the repetition of actions influenced by principles of Chinese ink painting, created an environment in which the works could emerge, almost imperceptibly, before him. On view in Understory, the works document this contemplative and gradual process, inviting considered, slow viewing.

Xiaochi Dong (b. 1993, Shanghai) is an artist based between London and Shanghai whose practice bridges classical Chinese painting and Western contemporary art. A graduate of the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts and the Royal College of Art, Xiaochi draws from a wide range of references including traditional Chinese gardens, the greenhouses in Kew Gardens, and Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage. Through these physical spaces, he explores the simulation, compression, and transformation of nature, drawing connections between real and artificial landscapes. His work reflects a deep engagement with the aesthetics, and often specific dimensions, of constructed ecosystems and how these echo classical Chinese landscape painting.

Xiaochi’s work has been presented at Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2025); Altman Siegel, San Francisco (2025); William Hine, London (2025); Tank Shanghai, Shanghai (2024); The 24 Windows (2024), The Swatch Art Peace Hotel, Shanghai; Lychee One, London (2024); and THE SHOPHOUSE, Hong Kong (2024). In 2023 his work featured at Nan Ke Gallery, Shanghai; at ART021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair with both Hive Center for Contemporary Art and Nan Ke Gallery, Shanghai; Sherbet Green, London; Studio West, London; Pearl Art Museum (PAM), Shanghai; the RA Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London; and Split Gallery, London.