Opened last weekend at teeny-tiny gallery space FQ Projects, Dai Mouyu’s solo exhibit Moments at is well worth seeking out this summer. The Shanghai-based artist's abstract pen drawings are intricate and labor-intensive yet subtle and loaded with possibilities. Rhythmic and mesmerizing, Dai’s linear fixation is oddly compelling… It's an appropriately small show for such a tight space. There are only 16 pieces on display, all spread out across the lane house’s three floors. At first glance, everything looks straightforward enough: framed sheets of rice paper, monochrome in palette and nonfigurative in style. Up close, though, you see the workmanship behind the drawings. Each comprising tens of thousands of marks in needle-point pen, Dai’s painstaking approach—that concentration of lines—gives otherwise one-dimensional materials movement, depth and intensity. A Lost Thought Dai estimates that were he to work exclusively, 100% full-time on his art, each would take around one month to complete. Aside from the strain on his eyes, to mine, that seems optimistic. Completed between 2009 and 2014, the works on show fall roughly into two categories. Some comprise tightly packed, undulating lines that are reminiscent of braided hair or perhaps swaying grasses. Others incorporate seemingly geometric marks to create dizzying density. The latter includes my personal favorite, Separate. Mostly background noise of obsessive mark after obsessive mark, it evokes graph paper, my Chinese hanzi primer, or even the black and white static of a broken TV. Cutting through that density is a twisting ribbon of more sparsely marked space that, when viewed as a whole, is surprisingly beautiful. Separate Other works are more organic in style. Sinewy and flowing, they’re suggestive of windswept, grassy landscapes, or tangled hair, or even layers of muscle and vein. Punctuating each of these drawings are tiny, random spatial disruptions. Most are white, but there are also splodges of blue, red and yellow, all lending these otherwise flat works yet more complexity and depth, and demanding a closer look. Elsewhere you’ve got more figurative works—to the extent that you can almost pick out a meandering river, bamboo forest or meadowy hillside. Look for Travel With The Wind on the landing space between galleries two and three for just that loveliness. Really, though, even the most abstract of what’s on show here still proffers more than enough possibilities to read something into it. The space itself —FQ Projects—matches Dai’s work perfectly: hidden away inside a densely-packed lane right off of the bustle of Huaihai Zhong Lu, the gallery is a narrow, three-storey affair. All tastefully whitewashed floors, it’s a simple blank canvas for Dai’s intricate drawings. His work has been exhibited internationally, with Moments marking his second solo at FQ. Beyond China, recent art fair sales make him an artist worth watching, and when it comes to Moments, definitely one worth catching. Go see it. For other details click here.