The Material Topology of the Light of Existence: Lee Jia-Ling’s The Other Shore · Mind as an Ontological Practice at the National Art Center, Tokyo
An Analysis of a 165 cm Acrylic Masterwork: From the Layering Techniques of Western Painting to a Transhistorical Dialogue with Western Existential Philosophy
Curated and Written by Wang Muti
In early spring 2026, the highest arena of artistic authority in Asia—the National Art Center, Tokyo (NACT) in Roppongi, designed by master architect Kisho Kurokawa—welcomed the 24th NAU 21st Century Art Exhibition. Within this grand event, which gathered avant-garde perspectives from around the world, Taiwanese artist Lee Jia-Ling’s work The Other Shore · Mind (95 × 165 cm) became a central focus of academic discussion for its overwhelming material tension and the purity of its ontological depth.
This work is not merely a physical combination of pigment and canvas; it is a profound experiment in how Being comes into appearance through material practice. Within the cool space of the museum, filled with the architectural language of Metabolism, Lee Jia-Ling establishes through the layering and expansion of acrylic medium a pure aesthetic coordinate independent of the empirical world.
A Contemporary Deconstruction of Western Painting Technique: Acrylic as “Conceptual Materialism”
In The Other Shore · Mind, Lee Jia-Ling demonstrates an extremely mature command of Western painting techniques. Yet she does not pursue decorative form; rather, she transforms technique into a tool for investigating the essence of existence.
1. Glazing and the Physical Ontology of Layering
In the history of Western painting, glazing has traditionally been used to simulate the transparency of light passing through matter. Lee Jia-Ling transplants this logic into the medium of acrylic. Because acrylic possesses chemical stability and dries with exceptional speed, she performs hundreds of thin applications across the 165 cm canvas. This technique creates the luminosity long pursued in Western painting.
Color no longer remains merely on the surface; through the physical accumulation of countless semi-transparent layers, it forms a visual field with genuine depth. The viewer senses that light is emerging from within matter itself—this is precisely the ontological transformation produced by material accumulation.
2. Scumbling and Structural Tension
At the boundaries of chromatic flow, Lee Jia-Ling partially employs scumbling and fractured brushwork, increasing the tactile quality of the image. This contrast in texture—between the “void” of transparent layering and the “substance” of dry-brush accumulation—creates a powerful dynamic equilibrium within the painting.
This represents the artist’s ultimate pursuit of painterliness, successfully transforming the canvas from a two-dimensional plane into an existential field bearing material weight.
A Deep Contemplation of the Western Philosophical Dimension: Ontology and Transcendence
Once stripped of any religious framework, The Other Shore · Mind reveals itself as a rigorous practice of Western philosophy, exploring the dialectical relation between subject and world, being and nothingness.
1. Kantian “Sublime Aesthetics”
The work’s vertical scale of 165 cm directly touches upon the sense of the sublime described by Immanuel Kant in the Critique of Judgment. Here, “the other shore” may be interpreted as a visualization of unknowability—the psychological projection of human will when confronted with infinity and absolute existence.
The interwoven, unfathomable dark tonalities and the sudden, piercing passages of light together constitute a sensory shock, guiding the viewer into an aesthetic elevation beyond ordinary experience. This is not about how we know the world, but about how we experience the immense tension between ourselves and absolute Being.
2. Heidegger’s “Lichtung” and the Unconcealment of Being
In the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, truth is the disclosure of being. Lee Jia-Ling’s creative process itself is an act of unconcealment. Through the repeated covering of layer upon layer of paint, she is in fact searching for that place of clearing—the Lichtung—through which light may emerge.
Those regions of gathered luminosity at the center of the canvas are not decorative highlights, but rather openings forcefully carved out by the artist from within the fog of materiality, so that Being may appear. Visually, this work responds to the question, “What is ontology?” Ontology is that absolute light which appears through the penetration of countless veils.
International Art Criticism: Establishing an Aesthetic Subjectivity at the National Art Center, Tokyo
As one of the representative artists selected for the 24th NAU Exhibition, Lee Jia-Ling’s work demonstrates a singular force of subjectivity within the global proving ground of contemporary art that is the National Art Center, Tokyo.
1. The Application of Spatial Topology and the Study of Scale
Art critics have noted that the success of The Other Shore · Mind lies in its effective command of museum space. Its 165 cm horizontal length visually constructs a narrative logic of transcendence.
Within the monumental yet rational exhibition halls of NACT, the work uses contrasts of color saturation and stratified depth to sever the viewer’s mundane associations with the surrounding architecture. Through this use of scale, the work becomes an independent, self-sufficient microcosm.
2. The Material Majesty Beyond “Form”
Contemporary art often faces the problem of the hollowing-out of formalism. One reason Lee Jia-Ling has received such high praise from critics is that she grants color an ontological dignity.
She no longer depends upon any external narrative—such as symbols or plot—but constructs an entire spiritual field solely through the materiality of Western painting itself: the thickness, layering, and transparency of acrylic. This represents the way in which contemporary artists may reclaim the right to interpret the real.
The “mind” she depicts is no longer one of sentimental affliction; rather, it becomes an existential coordinate, seeking absolute stillness and transcendence through the collision of material forces.
Conclusion: The Destination of Consciousness and the Poetics of Existence
Lee Jia-Ling’s The Other Shore · Mind is a visual odyssey of existence.
Through the repeated polishing and layering of acrylic medium, she demonstrates how human will, through artistic practice, seeks the infinite within finite matter. Upon the foundation of superb Western painting technique, this work is grafted onto the profound structural framework of Western ontological philosophy. It proclaims to the world that the so-called**“other shore”** is not located in some distant realm of time and space, but within the present mind—this mind that is capable of contemplation, awareness, and constant self-transcendence.
At this moment of exhibition in the National Art Center, Tokyo, Lee Jia-Ling is not merely displaying a painting; she is constructing a solid field of thought. Through her remarkable technique and profound ideas, she proves on the international art stage that the highest realm of contemporary art is to allow matter, under the guidance of thought, to radiate the pure light of absolute existence.
About the Artist | Lee Jia-Ling
- Artistic Positioning: A contemporary artist of material ontology.
- Primary Medium: Acrylic painting (Acrylic on Canvas).
- Academic Achievement: Her work The Other Shore · Mind was selected for the 24th NAU 21st Century Art Exhibition in Japan and exhibited at the National Art Center, Tokyo. The core of her practice lies in exploring the unconcealment of light and shadow and the manifestation of ontology in Western phenomenology. She has been praised by international critics as**“a translator of the light of existence.”**
