Zhao Yiqian's works are based on the old black-and-white photos in the 1960s and 1970s. Some scenes in history and some elements in real life, as well as imagination and dreams are mixed and staggered with each other, and finally integrated into a minimalist neoclassicism. The work emphasizes the visual reproduction of memory, and attaches importance to the interpretation of the relationship between image and scene, time and space, past and present, metaphor and reality. Especially in the process of creation, the images he chooses and arranges in form are not isolated, but incorporated into the cultural relationship, that is, giving new meaning to the painting in misappropriation and modification.
The symbol of smiling face often appears abruptly in the religious pictures in the works. It floats in the western classic pictures like a ghost and has become a new worship totem of modern people. Behind the work lies the artist's reflection on the lack of faith of contemporary people. He said that after the industrial revolution, people are full of fear and doubt about the upcoming new world. They will try to practice smiling. The frequent smiling symbols in the work are actually the thinking of contemporary people's faith. "In this era of lack of faith, perhaps all we can believe in is smile." in today's era, smiley face has become God and what everyone pursues, but the meaning behind it and what we really pursue are shrouded in a fog.
In Zhao Yiqian's art world, the real and false are blurred, the past and present are intertwined, the time and space are distorted, and the characters in the picture are copied and collaged. The artist's reflection on the current advanced technology pursued by people, and the iteration of new technology seems to constantly refresh human visual experience, but in fact, human imagination of the future is based on the feeling of the real world and limited to what has happened in the past. No matter how the times change, the problems facing mankind are always the same, and the so-called progress often gives reasonable answers within limited experience. The current seemingly rich and prosperous state and the so-called barren state in the past tend to be similar when excavating the essence and core, which are common things that human beings can get on the basis of existing experience.
Zhao Yiqian shows fetishism and human warmth from his personal experience. He always understands and analyzes the order of things in a rational way, which is like combing and filtering in a kaleidoscope. His paintings attach great importance to the visual reproduction of memory and the interpretation of the relationship between images and scenes, time and space, past and present, metaphor and reality. The images he chose and arranged in his creation are not isolated, but incorporated them into cultural relations, that is, giving new meaning to painting in misappropriation and modification. Of course, the purpose of his "misappropriation" of images is not to copy forms, but to re encode fragmented images, excavate the internal meaning chain of historical images and realistic landscapes, connect realistic feelings with historical memory, combine personal experience with cultural fables, integrate alienated images with familiar images, and then construct a new painting narrative. His control of this visual logic and narrative structure not only strengthened the form of personal painting, but also improved the rhetoric of painting.