In the art of Lao Lianben, Zen influence had entered the secular field and was no longer exclusively religious. Created during the 1970s wherein Lao largely practiced the process of subtraction by defacing plywood, this work transitions between the stark and the sublime, illumination and secrecy, that encourages deep contemplation in a self-reflective level. Famed for making his pieces look nostalgically weathered, the artist soon transitioned to using powdered charcoal to create such effect. This particular untitled piece is also of significant rarity and importance in relation to Lao Lianben’s canonical body of work due to the inclusion of the slit in the middle of the piece. Lao’s slit canvases were rare given that the artist only made them in limited quality, reserving the technique for only his most important and serious outings. In this regard, Lao’s works cross the conceptual divide between painting and viewer. The painting becomes not just a vehicle for the viewer’s epiphanies, but itself part of the epiphany. Generally, his artworks are often characterized by large-scale paintings that embrace sculptural qualities of materiality, textures, and depth. Often associated with Zen aesthetics, his paintings consist of organic and free-flowing forms within the four corners of the canvas. Working through intuition, he embraces stillness, minimalism, and quiet contemplation amidst layers of complex surfaces and gradients. Lao Lianben’s unique abstract style veers away from the traditional tenets of abstraction, wherein most abstract painters concern themselves with the immediacy of human expression and the veracity of the canvas. Lao’s works come from an extensive inwards search through the human psyche and soul.