Zhu Hong’s portrayal of water is distinctly her own, in keeping with her probing, unwavering attitude to art and life. A highly praised young artist in China, she took a career risk in 2003 by moving to France. And she continues to defy convention in these works: the play of pared down strokes, high precision lines, and accidental drips and stains displace our perception of the crafted and the elemental.

Based on Zhu Hong’s intense photographic research performed on location—the recent Kunstmuseum 1558 is a painted ode to a murky morning in The Hague; the immense pencil work Atlantique takes note of an observed flood of light on the ocean shore; and the small, purple-shadowed Amstel drawings recover impressions of September walks along the river and the origin of the water theme—each work is an electrifying union of subject matter and chosen technique. Amid current anxieties, they stand out as daringly elegiac in form. Fragile and soft-spoken, they insist on the immensity of experience and vital urgency we associate with shimmering light and clear water.

The project began in Amsterdam during Zhu Hong’s stay for the first TMH exhibition. She says she immersed herself in the layered city, both as an artist and an observer. She now makes a direct link to that time with an in-situ painting inspired by her Amstel drawings. An exemplar of her museum intervention practice—she will also be making an in-situ work at the Arts Museum of Nantes this summer—the TMH mural is a performative, jazz-like piece in the gallery’s courtyard passage. This courtyard on the Herengracht was originally the location of a 17^th-century water well that served generations of households. Seemingly abstract, the painting partakes of its location and becomes a sparkling ephemeral reflection on the essential significance of water in everyday life.