Mr. Shi Haitao, an artist who has long secluded himself in a corner of Beijing, immersing in creation, his works embody both the transcendental elegance and the earthly passion. His new creations exude a state of pure tranquility after fading away restlessness, without losing the profound ideological contemplation accumulated over the years.Following his large-scale solo exhibition at the Powerlong Museum in Shanghai in 2021, Shi Haitao’s creations have embarked on an innovative and boundary-breaking direction with a rhythmic pace of pauses and reflections. The “Seeking Light” series is built on dim backgrounds, where ubiquitous tangled tree shadows, lines, and brushstrokes interweave. Behind the dappled bright light, ambiguous snowflakes and feathers, countless aspects of the world spanning the past, present, and future are gradually unfolded. This high-contrast fusion of light and shadow in the paintings constitutes the fundamental tone of the “Seeking Light” series, which took the artist three years to complete. Rather than a basic presentation of contemporary easel painting, “Seeking Light” is more like a series of grand stage dramas with dappled light and shadow directed from the depths of the artist’s soul. Opening with the spiritual totem of ancient Greek group sculpture Laocoön, the rooster crowing under the stage spotlight, the dolls in boxes, clowns, red dancing shoes, back windows, shooting stars… make their appearances one by one in the black box. With Intermission as the scene scheduling, and the lonely tables and chairs themed after Waiting for Godot and Doctor Zhivago, it depicts the absurd dramatic life that comes to a sudden realization after the curtain falls. Artistic creation presented through narrative or thematic expression is a comprehensive reflection of the artist’s ideological cognition and an externalization of his spiritual world beyond technical skills. However, the spiritual core of an independent artist can never be expressed through a linear narrative. Such an open-ended expression endows viewers with more possibilities and uncertainties for reflection and appreciation.