Snø Galleri is pleased to present The Two Sides of the Mountain (Begge sider av fjellet) , an exhibition of colored ink works on paper by the Chinese artist Wang Shuo.

Wang Shuo spent a short period living in Bergen in 2025, and many of the mountains and forests depicted in this exhibition are drawn from his memories of Norway. The exhibition features traditional Chinese mounted paintings on paper, including nine hanging scrolls and two handscrolls.

The landscapes in the hanging scrolls continue the tradition of Chinese literati painting. Through the use of negative space, mist, and clouds, the works create an atmosphere in which the visible and the invisible, the real and the imagined. Rather than presenting a fixed perspective, the paintings invite viewers to “wander” through the landscape. Space unfolds gradually, remaining open, fluid, and in constant transformation—an aesthetic approach that reflects an Eastern appreciation of change itself.

The two handscrolls, Northern Landscapes and Gazing into the Vast Sea, are intended to be experienced according to the traditional mode of viewing handscroll paintings. The viewer unrolls the scroll with the right hand while simultaneously rolling it up with the left, revealing the image section by section from right to left. In this way, the landscape is not seen all at once but entered gradually, as if one were journeying through it.

At first glance, these works may look like paintings of Norwegian nature. Yet beneath the mountains and forests lies a way of seeing that comes from the tradition of Chinese painting. The people who appear in these landscapes are small: resting beside a stream, following a mountain path, or disappearing into the woods. They do not dominate the landscape; they belong to it. In this tradition, nature is not a backdrop, nor an object to be mastered. It is a place to live, wander, and dwell. Mountains, trees, clouds, water, and people form a shared world, each existing in relation to the others. 

About the Artist