Lin Mo exhibition breaks down cultural barriers between east and west

More than thirty of Lin Mo's works are brought together in an exhibition entitled Pintura Sedimentaria (Sedimentary Painting). Finca El Portón in Alhaurín de la Torre provides a unique opportunity to enjoy the work of this Chinese artist. Currently based in Estepona, Lin Mo has strong ties to the Guadalhorce valley town, where he spent time recovering from Covid-19.

His latest exhibition, the result of a collaboration with the Miguel Marcos gallery in Barcelona, fills the Sala Vicente Llinares at Finca El Portón. They evoke memories of landscapes, nature, identity and cultural tension. An attraction for lovers of creative hybrids which is open until 19 September.

The display offers pieces created between 2017 and 2024, in a range of formats. Among the 30 works, the 18-metre long canvas stands out and invites us to "long beyond". In the acrylic painting, he travels to his home country but always keeps one foot in the west.

In the creation of his works, he is not averse to using drills or knives. Unconventional tools generate rich textures and subtle glazes that convey interior landscapes, nature, identity and cultural tension; an end-result which makes the artist very "proud".

The unveiling of Pintura Sedimentaria which included a cello concert, was attended by councillors Manuel López, Andrés García and María del Carmen Molina, as well as the artist himself, people from the art world and local residents.

Lin Mo (born 1962 in Harbin, China) studied at the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts in Shenyang in 1984, and in 1990 arrived at the University of Barcelona - the start of his permanent residence in Spain.

He has had solo and group exhibitions in China, Spain, France, Italy, and the United States and in 2011, published a book. Travelling To Find Myself narrates two decades of travelling around Europe in which he also lived his own personal and artistic journey.

His works combine bright, subtle western colours and eastern ink, a harmony between east and west that ignores convention and aims to generate beauty without imitation.

Lin Mo's creative practice, as stated in the exhibit's catalogue, reflects the cultural destiny of contemporary Chinese artists: asserting their legitimacy in the western-dominated global art scene, while protecting the spiritual core of local aesthetics. The value of their works lies not only in the break from traditional visual forms, but also in providing methodological inspirations for the application of oriental aesthetics.

Through his creative strategy of "reverse gaze", Lin Mo turns cultural differences into a powerful innovative force, reconstructing artistic subjectivity within the wave of globalisation. This artistic exploration stands out among the European cultural landscape, and as a solid international foothold for Eastern artistic spirit. Lin Mo's Pintura Sedimentaria in Alhaurín de la Torre opens a door to deep and enriching intercultural dialogue.