Zhao Yao: IT'S ORDINARY, BUT...

Ota Fine Arts Tokyo is delighted to present "IT’S ORDINARY, BUT…," the first solo exhibition in Japan by Zhao Yao (b. 1981, China). Zhao is an important Chinese conceptual artist of the 80s generation that works across painting, installation, photography, video and performance. With a consistently rigorous conceptual approach, he has attracted the attention of curators and has been selected to participate in the Thailand Biennale 2025 as well as a historic contemporary art biennale in the United States, upcoming in 2026. In this exhibition, paintings will be shown at Ota Fine Arts in the Piramide Building, while an installation will be presented at 7CHOME, located near the National Art Center, Tokyo.

His body of work is about building a connection between lived experiences and artistic experiences, or mobilizing both types of experiences to create the work. Audiences are often compelled to activate their complex sensory system to ponder materiality, form and the meaning of every present detail while relating what they see, feel, touch or hear to daily encounters.

At the Piramide Building, he will present 5 paintings from the A Painting of Thought series that began in 2011 and continues till today. The compositions of these paintings are derived from brain teaser puzzles that are designed to develop logical thinking — in other words, a readymade image. He painstakingly applies each layer of acrylic paint with a brush, building up to the desired depth, and then sanding it down to achieve a smooth, polished finish. This process is repeated until the image is complete all while maintaining a meticulous production chart. The bottom layer consists of an ordinary found fabric, one that Zhao discovers during his journeys to textile markets and villages throughout China. Many of these fabrics are hand-sewn bedsheets by families, and feature patterns unique to a village or region.

Zhao’s handling of materials produces an important perceptual and conceptual experience, where one associates what they see to the familiar: a painting that resembles a bedsheet, a smoothly painted acrylic layer that reminds one of plastic toys, and a readymade image derived from a brainteaser puzzle book. As part of his recent solo presentation By and by it unfolds and then folds at the Fosun Foundation, Shanghai, paintings were hung out to dry on a rod, just as how ordinary people would sun their bedsheets, evoking a familiar sight seen in China’s housing complexes. 

A quiet, unhurried and meticulous person, Zhao spends a lot of solitary time writing and reflecting on daily thoughts. He is interested in uncovering or activating a sense of value in the ordinary, the repetitive or the mundane. At 7CHOME, Zhao presents a box of stones that are repeatedly carved with the words “Spirit Above All” in Tibetan script. In Tibet, ordinary people tend to commission carvings on a Mani stone for blessing. Here in Tokyo, the accumulation of these stones radiates with a powerful spiritual volume and energy. Audiences will be able to touch the stones, unpack them and place them on a carpeted floor. Through this endeavour, they begin to discover subtle differences in these uniformed-looking stones.