Introduction 

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- Matti Gao

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我在2000年拿起畫筆，當時還不知道，這將成為我看待世界、理解他人的方式。二十五年過去了，我仍在尋找，仍在追逐光影，追逐面孔中的故事、話語間的沉默、那些無聲卻深刻的瞬間。

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有些畫家像遙遠的星辰指引著我—霍克尼（DavidHockney）、弗洛伊德（Lucian Freud）、培根（Francis Bacon) , 尼爾（Alice Neel）、基泰（R.B. Kitaj）。他們讓我明白，肖像不只是描摹輪廓，而是一場對話，一場對自身與世界的審視，一面映照靈魂的鏡子。

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這次展覽不是新的開始，而是延續，如同河流不斷向前。

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去年在倫敦，我畫了我的朋友。其中一位讓我放心不下，他擁有一切，卻彷佛活在陰影之中。我不知道如何幫助他，只能畫下他的肖像，希望這個過程能帶給他一絲平靜與喜悅。結果，確實如此。這正是肖像的神奇之處—它不僅是顏料與畫布，更是一段時間、一份專注，一種讓人重新被看見的溫柔凝視。

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自從踏入中央美術學院已經二十年了，這些年我遊走於繪畫、設計、電影與媒體之間，但藝術的低語從未離開我：

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「什麼是好藝術？藝術還有意義嗎？為什麼要堅持畫畫？」

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我不知道答案。但我知道，我會繼續畫下去，繼續尋找，繼續傾聽。因為在這一切之中，或許藏著某種意義，或許，也藏著一點愛。

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I picked up a brush in 2000, not knowing it would become my way of seeing the world, of understanding people. Twenty-five years later, I'm still searching, still chasing the light in faces, in moments, in the quiet spaces between words.

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There are painters I have followed like distant stars— Hockney, Freud, Bacon, Neel, Kitaj. They showed me how a portrait can be more than a likeness. How it can be a conversation, a reckoning, a mirror held up to the soul.

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This exhibition isn't new, just a continuation, like a river winding forward. Last year in London, I painted my friends. One in particular weighed on my heart—he had everything and yet, a shadow sat heavy on his shoulders. I didn't know how to help, so I painted him, hoping the act itself might lift something in him, might bring some quiet joy. And it did. That's the magic, isn't it? A portrait is more than paint-it's time, attention, the kind of seeing that makes someone feel real again.

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It's been twenty years since I walked through the doors of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and though l've wandered through painting, design, film, and media, art has never stopped whispering its questions to me.

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What is good art? Does it still matter?

I don't know the answers. But I know this—I'll keep painting, keep searching, keep listening. Because somewhere in it all, there is meaning. And maybe, just maybe, a little bit of love.

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