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As a child in Dashishan Village in southern China, Tang Shuo was afraid of snakes. He and several generations of the Tang family lived together in a small community and farmed the land, tending to crops and sheep and encountering the occasional reptile. In a vivid new painting on linen, the artist confronts this adolescent fear as he envisions himself grasping a sleek, black serpent, its recently shed skin lying beneath them.
Long interested in his ancestry and familial connection to the land, Tang once again journeys to his home territory for Borrowed History, his first solo exhibition in New York. This body of work extends the artist’s approach to questioning how our heritage informs our understanding of who we are and how we got here. Working from photographs of himself, Tang renders his likeness in a variety of positions he envisions his kin having occupied. There’s “The Migrant” carrying a small sack slung over his back, for example, and “The Settler” hoisting a tree trunk with tools and bones scattered in the background.
“The Migrant” (2026), oil on linen, 100 x 80 centimeters
Tinged with magical realism—Tang cites Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude as an influence—the paintings reach backward to imagine the lives of the artist’s ancestors. Lush forests and candy-colored clouds envelop the scenes as a way to connect eras and generations. Nature and the terrain occupied, the artist suggests, is the throughline that tethers him to those who came before.
Although the specific scenes are fictional, Tang also considers his practice to be one of archiving “a world that is disappearing,” a statement says. “When he was a child, more than two hundred people lived in Dashishan; today, only a dozen or so remain. He continues to document the inhabitants and stories of the village and will eventually publish a book recording its history, which he describes as his ‘own bible.’”
Borrowed History is on view from October 8 to November 7 at Plato Gallery. Explore more of Tang’s works on Instagram.
“The Settler” (2026), oil on linen, 100 x 80 centimeters
“The Tree Hollow I” (2026), oil on linen, 150 x 120 centimeters
“Waiting” (2026), oil on linen, 61 x 50.5 centimeters
“Vessel” (2026), oil on linen, 70 x 50 centimeters
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