The Still Flow

The Still Flow, a solo exhibition by artist Xuemeng Li, curated by Tingzhi Zhang, offers a contemplative meditation on time, spirituality, and Eastern philosophical thought. Through a series of striking greyscale images, Li explores the boundaries of picture-making—where image becomes process, and stillness reveals motion. The works invite viewers into a quiet space of reflection, evoking a sense of suspended time and the subtle flow of inner landscapes. Rooted in both conceptual inquiry and poetic restraint, The Still Flow reimagines the visual field as a site of stillness in flux.

Li’s images of trees, mountains, water, and waves draw inspiration from traditional Chinese landscape paintings. Water is a recurring motif, and the pictures of a quiet ocean, swimming tide, and still pools guide viewers into a meditative, quiescent state. Each photograph suggests stillness and motion, inviting viewers to delve into the relationship between stagnation and movement in visually suspended spaces. In Mountain and River (2022), contrasting gradients of black and white represent the intrinsic flux and balance between gesture and rest, yin and yang, and “xu and shi” (emptiness and substance). The mountain and the river appear to bleed into one another while simultaneously appearing frozen– creating a quiet, suspended feeling in the photo’s pictorial space. Withered Tree II (2022) depicts an image of a severed tree trunk with roots curling outwards over the banks of an anonymous body of water. The disparity between the unmoving water and the decaying tree questions the temporal constraints of a human life span and how the relative briefness of human life affects our perception of eternal motion. Li’s works offer a glimpse into a world at the edges of human understanding, where external and internal worlds flow, converge, and stand still all at once.

Li’s photographic world is best experienced through a meditative process of observation and contemplation. We invite you to join us in this transformative journey on August 24th to celebrate the opening of The Still Flow at our 15 E 40th Street location (2nd Floor). The exhibition is open between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. and will remain on view until September 14th.

Artist

Xuemeng Li is a photographer and filmmaker. His photographic work explores Eastern philosophy, the persistence of memory, and his personal experiences growing up in China. He is the 2022 recipient of the 2nd Banshan Photography Award (GaoYan Award), was shortlisted for “IMA- next: Sound&Voice” and received an honorable mention in the 2023 International Photography Awards Analog/Film Landscape, Student Category. His first solo exhibition, Finding, opened at Banshan Gallery in 2022, followed by his second solo exhibition, Wandering Through, in 2023. His work has also been exhibited in theBlanc Gallery (New York, 2023), Times Art Gallery (New York, 2022), Three Shadows Photography Art Center (China, 2022), Arch Gallery (China, 2021), and the Xie Zilong Photography Museum (China, 2020).

Curator

Tingzhi Zhang’s curatorial practice highlights the power of self-reflection and inner sight. Through her exhibitions, Zhang seeks to create artistic spaces grounded in the poetic expression of consciousness that allow for new interpretations of iconographic practices. She holds degrees in Anthropology and Art History from the University College London. She has also participated in the Arts Council England Exhibition and Central Saint Martins’ Exhibition projects. Zhang has curated exhibitions all over the world, including Another Parallel (Shanghai, 2023), Wandering Through (Tokyo, 2023), Entropy and Hidden Force (Shanghai, 2023), DETOUR (Shanghai, 2023), The Task of Alchemy (Changsha, 2022), and Eclipse (Changsha, 2022), etc.