Afterlight
Gao Yutao
THE BLANC
15 East 40th Street, New York
February 19 - March 24, 2026
Gao Yutao, Scanner (扫描仪), 2025. Inkjet print, aluminum frame; 65 x 44 cm;
Afterlight centers on Gao’s exploration of light, presenting over 30 image-based works, including 3 video pieces produced since 2016. The exhibition is structured across two distinct zones—light and dark. Visitors progress through an environment that transitions from brightness to shadow.
The scanner is Gao Yutao’s primary instrument of creation. While a camera seizes light from the external world, the scanner generates its own glow and, through intimate contact, registers the light reflected from the object’s surface. The image does not appear in an instant but unfolds slowly, as though born from the lingering trace of light itself. It is within this slow and contemplative act of illumination and return that the idea of Afterlight takes form.
Middle: Gao Yutao, Behind the Curtain (帷幕之后), 2025. Inkjet print, aluminum frame; 65 x 46 cm;
Departing from conventional uses of the scanner, Gao sometimes drags objects across a flatbed surface, or adopts a handheld device in outdoor settings. In both cases, the act of scanning is intimate and meticulous, like tracing an object with a brush of light, or performing a close reading of a text.
Gao Yutao, Peach Blossom (桃夭), 2019. Video; 2'17''.
Through this process, viewers’ habitual perception of things is unsettled. One is asked to look again and discover new meanings in what they see. Across Gao’s work, this often takes the form of inverted relationships—large and small, sacred and profane, finite and infinite, eternal and fleeting. By deconstructing these oppositions, the artist redirects attention to the act of seeing itself, recalling the Zen notion of hui guang fan zhao—literally “turning the light inward”—a state of self-reflective awareness.
From left to right: Gao Yutao, Apple Tree &White Plastic Snake (一棵塑料的苹果树与一只塑料蛇), 2025; Shape Tools (形状工具), 2025; Night Window (窗外风景), 2025; Falling (降临), 2025; all inkjet print, aluminum frame, 65 x 47 cm.
In Gao’s recent Spectrum series, insect specimens and gemstones are placed side by side on a scanner. Regardless of their physical forms, the resulting images transform the objects into radiant bands of light, revealing that both organic and inorganic matter, once stripped of tangible forms, return to a pure state of luminosity. This idea echoes perspectives found in both physics and spirituality, that all matter ultimately exists as energy, and that everything, in the end, returns to light.
Before, things are matter; after, light.
Gao Yutao, A Nocturnal Cicada Inside the Electric Wire Network (一只侵入电线内部的夜蝉), 2025. Inkjet print, Diasec. 166 x 120 cm.
高郁韬：回光
作为艺术家在纽约的首次亮相，本次展览由袁政策展，系统性地呈现
了高郁韬过去十年间创作的超30件图像及视频作品。
Right: Gao Yutao, Santana 2000 (桑塔纳2000), 2025. Inkjet print, Diasec, artist frame. 206 x 153 cm.
策展围绕艺术家最常用的创作工具“扫描仪”展开。扫描仪是高郁韬最具标志性的创作媒介。始于他在德国杜塞尔多夫艺术学院留学期间的尝试。对比相机，扫描仪的原理并非捕捉外界的光，而是自带一个较弱的光源，在与扫描对象近乎触碰的极近距离下，接收物体反射回来的光，从而完成记录。展览标题“回光”的第一层意思，即出自于此。
Gao Yutao, The Story Behind Laocoon (拉奥孔背后的真相), 2025. Inkjet print, aluminum frame. 65 x 47 cm.
相比于传统的静态采样，高郁韬对扫描仪的使用充满了行为艺术式的动态感：或是将收集的物件在台式扫描仪上进行拖拽，或是手持便携扫描仪，在户外进行扫描。他曾登上雅典市最高的山，去扫描山顶最高的一棵橄榄树，也曾在周六上海人民公园的相亲角，扫描池中的荷花。扫描作为一种数字化的记录行为，整个过程是亲密的，像是用发光的画笔去勾勒，同时也是严谨的，像是对图像这种“文本”的细读。
From left to right: Gao Yutao, 9 Flies and 9 Purple Gems (9只苍蝇与9颗紫宝石), 2025. Inkjet print, Diasec. 166 x 120 cm; Room 007 (007房间), 2025; Nike (胜利女神), 2017. Inkjet print, Diasec. 144 x 100 cm; Black (黑), 2019. Inkjet print, Diasec. 144 x 105 cm.
在扫描仪重构图像的这一过程中，高郁韬独特的视角与思考鼓励观者打破固有的认知，去重新审视那些被忽视的细节与角度，赋予其新的意义。这在艺术家近几年创作的“物”系列中尤为明显。在高的作品中，这种视角转变往往体现为两极概念的博弈与反转：如宏大与微观、神圣与低贱、有限与无限，永恒与瞬间等。通过解构这些对立，艺术家巧妙地将讨论的重心挪回“观察”本身。这颇有禅宗的回光返照，反观自性的意思。这可以说是主题“回光”的第二层涵义。
Gao Yutao, Apple Tree &White Plastic Snake (一棵塑料的苹果树与一只塑料蛇), 2025. Inkjet print, aluminum frame. 65 x 47 cm. (detail)
在高郁韬的全新系列“光谱”中，艺术家将昆虫标本与宝石放在一起扫描。通过拖动物体后扫描仪光的解构与记录，无机的宝石矿物与有机的生命残骸，都呈现为绚丽的光谱。它们在脱下了具象的外衣后，回到了光的状态。这点呼应了物理学和灵性体系中，所有物质均以能量的形式存在的观点。万物终究会回到光。这是“回光”的第三层意思。
Paul Hutchinson, Schmetterlinge, Nongfu Spring, 2016. C print. © Paul Hutchinson.
Gao Yutao, 9 Flies and 9 Purple Gems (9只苍蝇与9颗紫宝石), 2025. Inkjet print, Diasec. 166x120 cm
在空间布局上，展览将横跨画廊的两个展厅。观众将经历从明亮过渡到幽暗的空间环境。这种光影的感官转化，呼应了高郁韬作品中关于光亮与黑暗的主题之一。
Gao Yutao, Shape Tools (形状工具), 2025. Inkjet print, aluminum frame. 65 x 47 cm.
Gao Yutao, Lotus Pond No.3 (荷花池03), 2024. Inkjet print. 21 x 30 cm.