Opera Gallery New York is pleased to present Sailing through the light, an exhibition featuring 26 paintings created between 2009 and 2025 by the Paris-based artist Feng Xiao-Min. In this new body of work, Feng takes us on a journey through an imaginary world. Evoking sailing boats navigating a sea where the horizon blends with the sky, Feng’s immersive paintings and an electric light seems to guide them. Feng creates an experience, a moment of immersion where the viewer becomes the traveler.

Sailing through the light offers catharsis in an age overwhelmed by information, movement, and uncertainty. In Composition N°26.7.21 (2021), the scene is immersed in deep midnight blues, evoking a tranquil yet mysterious atmosphere. At the center of its composition, two small radiant lights emerge from the distance, resembling lighthouses or solitary boats navigating through a seemingly endless sea. The painting invites the viewer into a dreamlike voyage where time stands still.

These imagined landscapes represent Feng’s transformative experiences with nature. For Feng, painting has always been an emotional and sensory experience intrinsically tied to the surrounding environment: “I observe nature at different times of the day and use variations in color to express my own sensations. Light, for me, has a duality—it represents both hope and anxiety. ” Playing with contrasts between celestial light and dark fog, Feng seeks to bring a “natural serenity of the mind” through his paintings.

In Composition N°6.4.23 (2023), warm ochres and deep blues dissolve into one another as the sunset fades. To the left, a coastline emerges. Mountains, plains, and beaches gently shape the horizon. The resulting image leaves the viewer’s imagination wide open, evoking a distant land that feels both familiar and dreamlike.

Feng’s artistic language merges Eastern philosophy with Western abstraction. Like the legendary Qing Dynasty painter Shitao (1642–1707), Feng approaches painting and calligraphy as “two branches from the same root.” He manipulates acrylic paint as a calligrapher manipulates ink, precisely controlling the flow of paint and water. His work embodies a balance between tradition and modernity, incorporating a broad range of influences—from Chu Teh-Chun to J.M.W. Turner to Zao Wou-Ki.

With Sailing through the light, Feng has created a contemplative body of work that invites us to pause. His compositions serve as a reminder that even in an ever-changing world, serenity can be found in the quiet beauty of nature.