That’s
who
I am.
“I’m becoming more and more accepting of myself as such a person.” In addition to sharing his paintings in his circle of friends every day as he used to do, Liang He’s works have appeared more frequently in the public eye this year, from Paris, France to Milan, Italy to Shanghai, he casually paints what he feels and sees around the world, and paints for stereos and light fixtures, which is accompanied by more evaluations, which are often mixed.
I studied finance and I’ve heard too many comments, but no one will teach you how to be an artist.” He doesn’t seem to care, and doesn’t really want to give a too precise definition of art, which can be abstract or concrete; art can be very life-like, and life can be very art-like, and he gives his answer with different creations. “
In November 2023, Liang He LEGO will be invited with his works to attend the second season of “Everyone is an Artist” at Shanghai Jinqiao International Commercial Plaza. In addition to presenting his creations at the opening show on 17th November (Friday, 19:00-20:00), LEGO will also hold a month-long solo exhibition of his artworks at the B1 Open Theatre of Jinqiao International Commercial Plaza Tower 1, and share his feelings on the spot. In addition to the opening show on 17 November (Friday 19:00-20:00), he will also hold a one-month exhibition of his personal works at B1 Open Theatre, Block 1, Jinqiao International Commercial Plaza, and will share his feelings on the spot.
Multiple Perspectives on the World
Liang He LEGO has a comic image he has been creating for many years, called GWONG TAU ZAI.
As a matter of fact, the public probably knows more about this image than the man himself.
Most people are always slightly surprised and puzzled by this finance creator who only learnt to draw for a short period of time with his art teacher when he was young, and whose university major is almost completely unrelated to drawing, but in his own opinion, his identity is sometimes a kind of constraint, and more often than not, it gives him unlimited freedom of creation.
When he is not in contact with the outside world, he stays in his studio almost every day, sometimes painting for several hours in a row, and his body can only feel tired when he stops, which is a feeling that makes you feel so good.
He happily paints on products and draws them into paintings, a process that seems very interesting to him, and which in itself is an interesting part of life.
Unlike many skilled but experience-starved artists, he travels to different countries to explore how different cultures and races view the same thing, stopping at different people’s graves to marvel at different people’s attitudes towards life and death, “The world is so diverse that there is some information that you would not know at all, and sometimes you wouldn’t know how other people look at the same thing.
He interprets the world with an open eye, eager to understand and challenge his own unfamiliar territory, in pursuit of the richness of experience. As he says, “Only by opening my eyes can I see more possibilities in this world.
From pleasing yourself
to
pleasing others
At the end of 2022, Liang He LEGO founded “LEGO’s Paradise”, an art and home lifestyle brand with the same name as GWONG TAU ZAI, which contains many of his own paintings, as well as works of art in collaboration with outstanding brands and artists from various countries, and almost all of the products are his favourite.
Creation is originally a matter of pleasing oneself, deliberately trying to please will fall into the commonplace, only to truly please oneself in order to please others.
In his opinion, a work should not simply express beauty, but should also carry more spirit and story. Just like his paintings, “In general I paint my own life at the moment, so people can see how I live and how I get along with the world.”
Creation is more like a protracted battle of the mind, where the material is fleeting and the spiritual lasts forever. “Whether it’s emotional empathy or the qualities of kindness and love, they are the most precious things about human beings, and human beings have survived to this day mainly because of this ability to differentiate themselves from animals, to carry themselves out of the complex and rich spiritual world, to save themselves and to help each other.”
He meets the changes of the times with a calm mind to interpret his life and works. “And only the times in which I grew up can mould a man like me.”
Can I fly as painting?
Almost every creator wants to live out different stages of creation. If Liang He LEGO were to choose, at this stage he would still like to be a picture book writer who tells stories with a brush.
People always like to confirm themselves in their memories, and find a way forward in times of disappointment and triumph; after more than ten years of painting in obscurity, painting slowly opened another small door for him to enter the world, and to this day, he recalls that painting is still a way for him to confirm himself:
“I started my life by learning what I couldn’t do.
You can’t touch this, you can’t eat this, you can’t sit here; when you get to school, you first learn to memorise the daily rules of behaviour, and the list of things you can’t do grows longer and longer; when you grow up slowly, adults start to come and tell you that there are even more things that you can’t think about.
Well, growing up like this seems safe, as we are bound to grow up carefully within cognitive boundaries, but I always felt that something was missing in my life, until I started drawing.
The truth is that everyone grows up drawing, it’s just the ‘can’t’ that stops them, and the truth is that everyone can fly, it’s just the ‘don’t’ that stops them.”