• ACAE Gallery
• Time: Aug 12,2026

Hu Qinwu: Selected Works

HU QINWU 

Hu Qinwu’s layered oil paintings are grounded in a Buddhist perception of spiritual interconnectedness and meaning found through meditation. Each piece is the introspective result of a deep meditation, where calm and order are brought to bear against the chaos and stress of the modern world. Rather than an expression of a singular emotion or moment, his process is deliberate and controlled, distilled down to the visual manifestation of reflective thought.

Working largely in abstract forms, Hu begins his artistic process with a morning meditation. This method enables the channelling of questions he wishes to bring to the canvas. Having previously studied traditional Chinese calligraphic techniques, Hu paints his insights onto a grid-lined canvas, slowly building a rhythmic flow of swirling brush marks and drip lines. As colour accumulates, legible writing becomes replaced with dotted forms, just as ideas and emotions lack tangible written word. Suddenly, as text loses its recognisable structure, the viewer is encouraged to 'fill in the dots' with the meaning and insights they generate from their own peaceful reflection through the power of looking. Layers of running paint and repetitive asymmetrical dotting allow the viewer to see into the work, past the paint itself and towards a trance-like state of internal pondering. Just as a windowpane covered in rain drops distorts the image behind it, so too does Hu Qinwu’s works create a desire to see both the subject of the painting, and that distinct yet clouded idea hidden below. 

In Chinese writing, each character represents a specific unit of meaning, which in Hu’s works become transformed into a primordial empty point. The multiplication of the blank droplet thus becomes pregnant with the potential insights of the viewer, reflecting endless possibilities within the flow of reality. 

Aimee Lee, 2026

BIOGRAPHY

Hu Qinwu was born in Shandong, China in 1969 and currently works in Beijing as a painter, photographer and printmaker. In 1990 he graduated from the Oil Painting Department, Tai’an Normal Academy, Shandong, and received a Masters Degree (Painting) from Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing in 2008. 

SOLO EXHIBITIONS 

2018     Meditations II, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne 

             Ksansa, XC.HuA Gallery, Berlin 

2016     Nothing, Boding Gallery, Beijing Meditations, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne 

2014     Relative Existence – Hu Qinwu, Boding Gallery, Beijing 

             Hu Quinwu: Buddhist Volume, NKN Gallery, Melbourne 

             Float, Emel, Sichuan 

2013     Diamond Sutra, works on paper, Matthias Kuper Galleries, Stuttgart/Beijing 

             Abstraction: Meditation, Studio Rouge, Hong Kong 

2011     Abstraction: Meditation, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne 

             The Colour Grey, Matthias Kuper Galleries, Stuttgart/Beijing 

2010     New Abstraction from China: Hu Qinwu, Stella Downer Fine Art, Sydney 

2009     Illumination, China Art Projects, Quac Art Space, Beijing 

2008     Phantasms, China Art Projects, Two Lines Galley, Beijing. 

GROUP EXHIBITIONS 

2025     West Bund Art & Design, Shanghai

2024    Chinese Rhythms, ACAE Gallery, Melbourne

2021     Shanghai International Paper Art Biennale, Shanghai, China 

2019     The Splendid Languages of Paper, Zhejiang Art Museum, Hangzhou, 

             China Supreme Metaphysics Spirit, Epoch Art Museum, Wenzhou, 

             China Letters from Beijing, Gwangju Museum of Art, South Korea 

             The Common Difference, Another Art Centre, Beijing, China 

2018     Density Talisman Array, Yingspace, Beijing, 

              China Hu Qinwu and Charlie Shead, Boding Gallery, Beijing, China 

2017     Sydney Contemporary, Niagara Galleries, Carriageworks, Sydney 

2016     The Other Self, Beijing Rainbow Wall Gallery, China 

2015     KIAF 2016 / ART SEOUL, Seoul COEX Hall A & B, Seoul, South Korea 

             Hu Qinwu and Wu Lichang, The Royal Danish Embassy in Beijing and Matthias Kuper Gallery, Beijing, China 

2014     Walking in Origin, Force Gallery, Beijing, China 

             The Seventh Abstract Art Exhibition, PIFO Gallery, Beijing, China 

             Two Voices: Paul Boston – Australia, Hu Qinwu – China, China Art Projects, Projects Space, Hong Kong 

             East by South East: Contemporary Art from East Asia, Old Big School Gallery, Tonbridge, UK 

             Two Voices: Hu Qinwu – China, Vicki Grace – Australia, China Art Projects, Projects Space, Hong Kong 

2013     considering the spiritual, Ning Space, 789, Beijing, China 

2012     Korea International Art Fair, Niagara Galleries, COEX, Seoul, Korea