Abstract painters are relatively rare in China, but Wang Guangle, who was born in 1976 and trained at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, has clearly plumbed the Western esthetic that produced Rothko, Albers et al. His large monochrome acrylics-light at the edges and progressively layered to a dark, visually receding center-create an illusionistic depth while simultaneously referencing a cultural practice in his native Fujian Province, where aging citizens add one coat of lacquer to their coffin each year until their demise.
