Morigen is a Mongolian painter whose painting style is very recognizable. His abstract painting style is exaggerated to almost absurdity, his bold and irregular use of colors, his heavy and complex characters' emotions, and his tension seems to overflow from the canvas... When you look at his work, you could never guess that he once gave up painting for more than twenty years.

01. The rebellious youth's north and south

When he was a child, Morigen was always fascinated by painting. With his father away from him and hundreds of other children his age in the office yard, he felt like a lonely boy on the edge. In his loneliness, the teenager learned to rebel, to be the kid who didn't like the teacher, and to learn the skill that would later affect his life most. At that time, his brother was a fine arts major, and together with the young Morigen had early access to foreign paintings, most of which were printed in the style of the former Soviet masters -- the dignified and shocking portraits of Repin, the pastoral landscape as beautiful as the sorrow of separation under the pen of Levitan, the grand epic moment described by Surikov... The young Morigen was impressed by the power of painting and plunged into the sea of art. Every day after class, he continued to paint at school until nine o 'clock at night, until high school, every day like this.

At the time, everyone thought he would work as a painter or an art teacher after graduation. It was hard to quiet the nomadic rebellious spirit in his bones. In 1984, he dropped his paintbrush, and from then on traveled far and wide. From the scaffolding and climbing construction in the 30-meter-high Wulaishan Power Plant, to the business in the south by the green train, and the north alone to Mongolia, jr opened a restaurant in the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar with an original ecological yurt. From boss to chef, Morigen made his way into the world.

He has been busy, he has been lonely, he has made friends, he has made misunderstandings. Twenty years have passed quickly. The young Morigen is now middle-aged, but his paintings have become a dim childhood memory.
For years he went to bookstores and art galleries, looking at the albums and tools, and thinking that if he stopped doing business in the future, maybe he would take up painting again. The day had come sooner than he had imagined.

02. Mongolians who honor their mothers

Morigen, which means "archer" in ancient Mongolian, now stands for wisdom. As a Mongolian, most of his memories of the nation come from his mother.
Morigen's mother is a typical strong, optimistic and industrious Mongolian woman. She used to sing melodious folk songs to lull him to sleep and explain the feelings and metaphors in the lyrics. She also used to pull a cart of coal home to warm her son in the cold winter wind with her thin body.
Speaking of his mother, Morrigan's voice was always full of an attachment and tenderness that did not match his bearded, tough exterior.
At the age of forty, Morigen at last crossed to great threshold of middle age.
His mother, the softest rib of his heart and the strongest support of his spirit, was gone.

At that moment, the feeling that had been silent and repressed for so many years in Morigen suddenly roared back.
He wanted to express, he wanted to make a sound, he wanted to reinterpret the mood.
He had a few drinks after dinner with a friend and sat on the curb, talking.
"I'll start painting tomorrow." He said
The friend felt speechless at once: "you are 40 years old, what painting?"
To the surprise of his friends, Morigen immersed himself in the sea of painting. He had gone from the glib businessman who used to entertain his friends to the silent painter who always had a thought to throw on his canvas.
After a gap of twenty years, Morigen finally returned to the familiar land of painting.