A catalogue to accompany Joe Fan’s May 2019 exhibition, Counting Leaves.

In this new body of work, Joe embraces landscape, still life and suggested narrative, defies categorisation, but he has harnessed many influences, including Medieval tapestry, traditional Chinese painting, and the Northern European Renaissance.

His exhibition title Counting Leaves speaks to the idea of an impossible quest and perhaps one that the artist has undertaken: he is guide and mentor as he invites us to join him in a magical storybook, each painting a new chapter. Even his palette eschews the technicolour of our times for a cool, dry, mineral colour scheme close to Mantegna, Bellini or The Wizard of Oz.