This exhibition features 30 works, including "Magic Cube", "Ink Magic Cube", "Magic Cube Landscape", "Aspiration", and "Proportion" series. In the gallery, small screens continuously display short documentaries about Dai Ying's creation of the Magic Cube series and her life, study, and creative process in New York. Large screens show special effects videos made specifically for this exhibition, where Magic Cube works are continuously scrambled and reassembled in three-dimensional space, with electronic music enhancing the mysterious theme of the creation.

During the opening ceremony, Dai Ying also performed a piece of performance art. A canvas over five meters in length was spread out on the floor, and Dai Ying, barefoot, wrote the Heart Sutra on it. Guests could interfere with her creation in various ways during the writing. However, regardless of the form of interference, Dai Ying remained calm and completed her creation with a tranquil mind. Through such a mode of behavior, artist Dai Ying expresses a deeper relationship of coexistence and confrontation between humans and their environment.

Curatorial Statement by Grace Du

Dai Ying was born in Emei Mountain, Sichuan Province, and began studying traditional Chinese calligraphy and painting at the age of five. From Jin and Tang calligraphy to Song and Yuan painting, everything she learned was the essence of traditional Chinese culture. These classics have always permeated Dai Ying's thought system and artistic creation. In her words, this is the breath of the classics, as well as her own breath.

Upon first meeting Dai Ying, she was still known as Ziran. Over the years, through intermittent interactions, the most striking impression was her evident desire for communication and expression. Like a bird forbidden to sing, her only outlet was her bright, expressive eyes. Life's vicissitudes provided her with opportunities to showcase her talent. Breaking free, transforming, reborn. She became free again, returning to the unrestrained Dai Ying. Decades of accumulation, vibrant thoughts, and an innate desire to express propelled her into an inescapable realm of creation. Thus, magnificent, mysterious, ancient yet modern works were naturally born. The theme of this exhibition, "Magic Cube", represents a soul full of contradictions at a milestone of transformation.

Deeply influenced by Taoism, a native religion of China, Dai Ying has always explored the theme of the universe. In the "Aspiration" series, her longing for freedom and passion for life are fully expressed through vibrant and profound reds. It's as if one could see the undercurrents and flows beneath a sun-like red circle. In the oil painting "Magic Cube", dazzling blocks of color emerge from a deep blue background. The colors are vivid, yet their opacity and rounded shapes add a sense of gravity to the composition. These blocks seem to move towards the audience while also drifting deeper into the canvas, blending into the vast blue, directionless. This sensation perfectly encapsulates an artist transitioning from tradition to modernity, eager to advance without losing sight of her heritage. Thus, Dai Ying's works are profound and introspective.

Dai Ying's depth stems from her study of tradition, a natural effusion of accumulation. Her early ink works, with concentrated strokes and substantial texture, retain vitality throughout the composition. In her landscape works, mountains have direction, water flows, and people are in dialogue. However, it's difficult to categorize most of Dai Ying's works as either traditional or contemporary art. In essence, such distinctions may not be necessary in art. As long as humanity continues to reproduce according to natural laws, tradition persists. All artistic creation should derive from the traditions of predecessors, embodying the legacy of art. Dai Ying's contemporary art is not a fanciful construct but rooted in and arising from tradition. Thus, the ink Magic Cube was born. Here, Dai Ying attempts to interpret what has long been considered Chinese or Eastern art with contemporary language and strokes. The traditional essence deposited in her body lends a classical breath to her works. This essence makes these ink Magic Cubes resemble landscape paintings, yet the mountains and waters within are indistinguishable. The expression of this era allows more people to witness China's precious traditional art, signifying the revival of an ancient civilization in this era.

In this fast-paced age, where few pause to feel, Dai Ying, with her innate talents, perceives deep emotions. Then, with her three decades of artistic accumulation, she depicts the depth that this superficial world ought to possess. Respecting tradition and facing the future, this is the role Dai Ying plays in heritage. Her works, expressions of deep perception, are both a revival of tradition and an enlightenment for the present world.