Artist: Valentin Rilliet

Galerie Peter Kilchmann Zurich presents the first solo exhibition with new works by Swiss painter Valentin Rilliet (b.1996, Geneva, Switzerland, lives and works in Zurich). The artist previously showed his work at the gallery in the group show Three New Positions featuring emerging artists in 2023. The exhibition has two titles: The Mandarin title 蜀風 (Shǔ Fēng, approximately translated into Essence of Shǔ), and the English title Mountain Stories. It is Rilliet’s inaugural solo exhibition since he was added to the gallery’s program.

In his new oil paintings, Rilliet continues to explore the complex exchanges between his Chinese heritage and upbringing within a Western artistic canon. While conceptualizing this new series, Rilliet stayed for six months in an artist residency in Chongqing, China. The Swiss public foundation Pro Helvetia awarded the residency to Rilliet in 2023, and it took place from early March to late August 2024. He finished the paintings after his return to Zurich.

While in Chongqing, Rilliet occupied a large studio space at ‘Organhaus Art Space’, where he collected the ideas and impressions for his paintings. The works depict people, items, media, and reproductions of site-specific characters, plants, and architectural elements, all existing in real life. Repurposing China’s folklore, and socialist propaganda material has been the core of his painting practice. Similar to the artist’s earlier works, in which he used socialist propaganda pamphlets and cartoons (连环画”, Lián Huán Huà), as source materials, Rilliet also drew from historic depictions of early modern and folkloric Chinese scenery. These impressions make up the rich repository for his compositions. He then reinterpreted them through his contemporary interpretation in an uncanny and anachronistic way.

The exhibition’s title is primarily a reference to the geographic characteristics of the city and the historic name of Chongqing, which is located in the Province of Sichuan. However, the title in its Mandarin version translates closer to ‘tales or anecdotes of the region of Shǔ (Sichuan)’. It was also the dynastic state title of the kingdom of Shu in the 3rd century with a plethora of literary heritage. The particular choice of words in Mandarin is a clue to how much the artist was able to delve into the regional customs and familiarize himself with the region’s extensive history. Rilliet considers the new paintings as a chronicle of his journey. Everything the viewer sees depicted in the paintings are elements, or direct derivations, of what the artist saw during his residency. Each painting in the exhibition is a chapter of this chronicle.

Stylistically, Kenyan-British painter Michael Armitage is an obvious inspiration for Rilliet. However, his visual style is also influenced by Russian-born American artist Sanya Kantarovsky, Japanese Nihonga-style painter Kawabata Ryūshi, and, particularly in the landscape scenes, Peter Doig. With this background, Rilliet skillfully creates his mannerisms in the style of magic realism. This allows him to create paintings with a fresh artistic sovereignty and authenticity that is only possible because of his on-site research and self-reflection during his residency.

In his paintings, Rilliet keeps the level of depth intentionally undefined, opening up the space on the canvas so that several different perspectives make the image appear open and unconstrained. The viewer instantly becomes part of the scene and the depicted environment. An effect that Rilliet has applied expertly in previous paintings.

In his own words, Rilliet is not establishing, defending, or proving a particular viewpoint when depicting abandoned mines, burning buildings, and brutalist concrete facades. His motivation and method lie in observing, collecting, and recording. As an artist, he is inherently interested in creating his own narrative, through personal investigation, free from prejudice and preconceived viewpoints. As such, Rilliet sees himself not as an interpreter but rather as a conduit between cultures. Like Rilliet, the figures in his paintings are explorers and investigators who study their complex relationship to ‘belonging’ and ‘home’.

Parallel to further developing his artistic trajectory, he was strongly interested in connecting with the complex history of modern China - while also reconnecting with traditional Chinese culture. Rilliet grew up in Geneva and was raised by a Chinese mother and a Swiss father. He only previously visited China as a tourist to visit family. The artist was struck by the individuals that he met in Chongqing. In addition, he had the opportunity to study in-depth, for the first time, the flowers and trees in their natural habitat that he had included in previous works. To Rilliet, it was a gradual process of returning to a distant home.

Valentin Rilliet (b.1996, Geneva, Switzerland), lives and works in Zurich. In 2023 he graduated from ZHdK with an MFA in Fine Arts and graduated with a BFA in Fine Arts from The Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, UK, in 2020. In 2023 he has been the awardee of the Yvonne-Lang Chardonnens Stiftung, and Pro Helvetia (artist residency in Chongqing, China). His work has been shown at LINSEED Projects (Shanghai, 2024), Atelier Righini Fries (Zürich, 2024), Espace TOPIC (Geneva, 2024), the Grosse Regionale (Rapperswil, 2023), Galerie Peter Kilchmann (Zürich, 2023), Modern Animals Gallery (Zürich, 2023), Bahay Contemporary (Geneva, 2023), Sonnenstube Offspace (Lugano, 2022). His paintings are included in public and private collections across Switzerland, China, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Among them are the Swiss National Bank, Stadt Zürich, Zürcher Kantonalbank, Sammlung der Schweizer Post, The Leir Foundation, and the Royal Collection of the Crown Prince and Princess of Luxembourg.