EXHIBITIONS

This 10th-anniversary special exhibition, titled “Surplus Value,” responds both to the labor time – identified by Marx as latent yet obscured within commodities – and to what Agamben describes as potentiality suspended outside institutionalized time, remaining unused. Surplus Space seeks to safeguard a zone of “surplus time” for experimentation and rupture amid an increasingly capitalized art mechanism, consistently providing fertile ground for under-recognized practices and fostering cross-disciplinary dialogue.

“Surplus” is both what is excessive and a space of exception. It is the product of structural exclusion, yet it may also become the starting point for returning to the authenticity of life and rebuilding artistic connections. It is fragile yet tenacious; it exists at the margins yet is perpetually present. In this seemingly ruinous terrain, what we strive to unearth is precisely that unquantified yet tangible value – the time that cannot be fully absorbed, the labor that cannot be fully exchanged, and the creativity that cannot be entirely captured by mainstream narratives.

Over ten years of footsteps, ”Surplus” has evolved from a concept into an ecosystem. It does not belong to the center, yet it persistently makes its voice heard from the interstices, reconstructing dignity within the remainder.

In his poem The Corona, Paul Celan takes love as an entry point to explore the ultimate questions of time, memory, language, and redemption.He acknowledges the fragmentation of human experience, yet yearns for impossible hope to sprout amid the heaviest reality.Taking his verse as a point of departure, this exhibition initiates reflections on resilience and resistance.Through concrete dimensions of reality—ecology, identity, gender, and labor—the exhibition confronts issues directly through artworks, seeking pathways and possibilities for breakthrough.

The Details (Underwear) series consists of replicas of ancient pottery.By cutting and reshaping the forms, the artist transforms these vessels into shapes strikingly resembling everyday underwear.The artist sensitively captures the connections between pottery and undergarments in form, function, and imagery, bridging—and at the same time ironizing—the grand, sublime and the mundane, everyday cultural associations.Through its distinctive artistic expression, the series creates a perspective that integrates ancient civilization and contemporary consciousness, conveying a playful and multi-dimensional aesthetic experience.

Maison Dior Beijing has officially opened at Taikoo Li Sanlitun.As a tribute to the profound friendship between Christian Dior and the artists of his era, the new Maison Dior has also been designed as an art space showcasing a wealth of exceptional artworks.Among them is The World-280IN2323 by artist Xu Zhen.

Since its launch in 2011, the oil painting series The World has become one of Xu Zhen’s most recognizable bodies of work.By squeezing oil paint out of pastry bags and applying it in the same manner as decorating cream cakes, the artist creates pieces that retain the smooth, sweet texture of real cream, while their dense visual effect and exaggerated scale produce a surreal, illusory spectacle.

Beneath its authoritative title, The World reflects the euphoria of a globalized hedonistic trend.Amid the dazzling, mouth‑watering profusion of cream‑like blooms, the work reveals a subtle structural relationship between material and support.Layers and space are subtly integrated into the artist’s reflection on painting and action.

A cream‑like world, or a world‑like cream — with an optimistic tone, it faithfully depicts a reality that is pleasurable, frenzied, and deeply sensual.

The Sentul Biennale is guided by a single question: what do biennales still have to offer us today?

The biennale as we know it finds itself overburdened and overdetermined by the structures by which it is propped up: diplomatic ties, corporate and state funding, unspoken art world networks and hierarchies, not to mention the impossible standard of internationally sanctioned “taste”. Amidst the institutional binds it has created for itself, we have forgotten the pleasure of the biennale as a site of unexpected encounters between artists, viewers, and contexts.

Audaciously calling itself a biennale, the Sentul Biennale gently pokes fun of the biennale as an institution and its own ambitions in the face of spatial, financial, and structural limitations—while being earnestly committed to the idea that biennales still have something to offer. In response to recent attempts to examine the foundational roles of friendship, kinship, and community in contemporary art, Sentul Biennale: To Our Friends turns its attention to the moment of introduction between friends as a point of consideration.

The exhibition revolves around the question:How to outline uncertain spiritual trajectories within the fixed urban grid.Through this theme, artists deconstruct contemporary individuals’ obsession with capital, technology, and sensory stimulation, and activate our collective subconscious about migration, rupture, and desire.

The Beverage series expands Xu Zhen’s attempt to reshape civilizational experience with contemporary concepts, through the cross-contextual rearrangement of distinct visual symbols.

In the sculptures and paintings of this series, ancient Greek columns—symbols of human civilization—are inserted with classic imagery from both Eastern and Western cultures, such as classical sculptures, blue-and-white porcelain vases, scholar’s rocks, and others.As the columns are themselves transformed into straws, these symbols of civilization also estrange and ironize the objects they penetrate, rendering them both anachronistic and contemporary.

Within the everyday action of “sucking”, the artist metaphorizes the various interactions between humanity and civilizations in the post-globalization era:for instance, finding the future in history, or extracting illusions about each other between Eastern and Western civilizations. It further symbolizes the uncertainty and dynamism of contemporary reality.

Day is part of the sculptures Michelangelo created for the Sacristy of the Medici Chapel between 1524 and 1534.This reclining male figure symbolizes daylight.In his work Beverage (Day), Xu Zhen inserts an ancient Greek column into the statue’s head, creating a monologue of intense dramatic tension between the two forms—perhaps self-affirmation and repetition, or self-questioning and dilution.

The work suggests a moment in the post-globalization era when a civilization must confront itself:how to break through the cognitive limitations of the subjective perspective through reflexive gazing, and extract the power of civilization.

When the Wind Turns East unfolds as a contemporary journey between two ancient civilizations, where threads of memory, nature, and imagination intertwine. Drawing spirit from the historic routes of cultural exchange, the exhibition evokes a renewed encounter between East and East, positioning Saudi Arabia and China not as distant counterparts but as regions sharing profound aesthetic sensibilities and philosophical traditions.

The exhibition brings together a generation of artists whose practices open dialogue between the tangible and spiritual, past and present, local and universal. Through painting, sculpture, installation, and media art, these works reveal subtle correspondences between cultures that have long looked to the horizon as both destination and promise. Desert and mountain, wind and water, calligraphic gesture and silent stone become metaphors of transformation and continuity. This shared cultural space does not aim to fuse identities but to allow them to resonate in proximity, reflecting one another in their distinctness. As visitors move through the exhibition, they follow a fluid itinerary recalling ancient pathways of caravans and travelers, where art, scent, and sound weave together in quiet openness.

Meme to Jam is meta‑artistic, or conversely, post‑artistic.It concerns the self‑examination of art in the age of artificial intelligence, while testing the interconnected politics of affect and its emergence.

The world is disassembled into calculable fragments of information, encoded and encapsulated in the intimate confrontation between the red monster and the blue monster gazing at each other.Every pixel, every node, begins to assume its responsibility: connecting left and right to form meaningful relationships.

In the narrative of 20th-century art history, “abstraction” has often been regarded as a form of linear evolution.

Taking Abstraction Is Attitude as its subtitle, this exhibition aims to go beyond formal analysis and explore the methodology and cultural logic behind it.

“Summoning the Divines” does not discuss the existence of God, but the fate of summoning itself: in an unresponsive world, why should art still speak out? The answer is: once summoning ceases, reality retreats into private feeling or falls entirely under the classificatory systems of technology and the market. Summoning is an act of taking place — it reserves a space for a reality that is yet undefined and undecided.

Thus, art insists on summoning the world not out of faith, but as a minimal political gesture. It upholds that reality remains open to discussion, to seeing, and to transformation; it refuses to let the world exist only as a market price, algorithmic labels, and data. The meaning of summoning may lie not in being answered, but in keeping the world open.

The Passion series takes its source from a great invention — the smartphone screenshot. All the images are translated from the mobile phone conversations we constantly forward, and from screenshots that have been cropped, edited, and redacted. Free, gestural writing pours the full spectrum of emotions from online chat into the paintings.

This series is an intense response to the mental states embedded in social media, and above all, a release and catharsis of emotion. Here, abstract expressionism finds a new battlefield and new energy. The artist creatively engages with our datafied reality.

The Songshan Lake Biennale is one of the most influential contemporary art biennales in southern China in recent years. Focusing on the relationship between contemporary art, technology, manufacturing and urban development, the biennale emphasizes the practical intervention of art in the “industry–city–society” structure. Under the theme of Traceable Interdependence, the exhibition unfolds a four‑month dialogue on technology, nature, cities and art. It is not merely an exhibition or an artistic feast, but also a profound reflection and poetic response to new pathways of urban development.

Eternity is based on headless sculptures of ancient civilizations from museums around the world. Xu Zhen recast these works to create new art pieces. On the missing heads of these originally fragmented sculptures, he grafted other headless and broken torsos also collected from museums worldwide. These works, hailed as timeless art and symbols of eternity, represent the highest achievements of human history and civilization. They also bear witness to the mutual influence and coexistence throughout human history, as well as the intricate yet symbiotic relationships between different cultures.

Xu Zhen’s creations not only refer to the awe‑inspiring history of art, and symbolize humanity’s seemingly irreconcilable Babel‑like divisions, but also embody an inclusive spirit rooted in Eastern wisdom.

The work reconstructs the narrative logic of art history by combining the torso of the Roman god Ares (1st–2nd century AD) from the Louvre with the body of a fertility goddess from the Aegean Cycladic culture (c. 4500 BC), bridging a time and geographical gap of five thousand years.

By deconstructing classics, breaking conventions and recombining them in a unique way, the work interweaves civilizational traces from different eras and regions, producing a radical visual and cultural impact and constructing a new interpretation of civilization and history. Through this fusion of classics, the public artwork also reveals that the development of human civilization is not isolated, but mutually influential and intertwined. Just as Dongguan has evolved from an ancient post town to a new city of intelligent manufacturing, it suggests that human civilization will continue in the narrative of Eternity.

Shanghai Art Museum’s annual exhibition Shanghai Modern officially opens. Through three narrative sections—Red Radiance, Metro Life, and New Wave in Shanghai—it traces the cultural evolution of the city since the 20th century. The exhibition features over 600 works (sets) across diverse media: woodcuts, posters, architecture, design, oil painting, Chinese painting, photography, film, comics, and music. It offers a comprehensive analysis of the city’s DNA of modernization and the civilizational code of people-making-history.

During the 2004 exhibition Techniques of the Visible—the 5th Shanghai Biennale—Xu Zhen modified one face of the clock tower atop the Shanghai Art Museum (formerly the Shanghai Race Club), making it run 60 times faster than normal.

“Xuan Qi” draws on the mode of existence of dark matter in the universe: though invisible, it forms the structural foundation of the cosmos and sustains the harmonious operation of galaxies. Similarly, the “dark matter” within lived experience often serves as an indispensable, silent supporting force in our individual and collective ecologies.

Tintin in Tibet has been adapted from the original color comic into black-and-white ink wash paintings. Tintin, as a symbol of Western adventure and exploration, simultaneously carries narratives of romanticization and colonial perspectives, embodying a kind of “fascination” with Tibetan culture. The artist’s use of ink wash interrupts this comic-based narrative, reshaping the viewer’s experience. This transformation reveals the tensions and explorations that arise at the intersection of different cultures and art forms.

From the mid-1990s to the 2010s, China accelerated its integration into globalization and underwent a rapid socio-economic transformation, which in turn reshaped people’s mindset and values. On the other hand, Chinese artists also made frequent appearances in international exhibitions, participating in discussions on global issues. Through their creations, they revealed observations and reflections on the changing social environment, capturing the authentic life experiences of individuals amid the sweeping tide of the times.

The exhibition “M+ Sigg Collection: Inner Worlds” takes emotion as its entry point, exploring how 38 artists have expressed complex and rich emotions—such as joy, sorrow, calmness, anxiety, doubt, and wonder—through their works. In an era of increasing interconnectedness, these pieces serve as the artists’ responses to an ever-changing nation, while also resonating emotionally with all of us who live within it. They invite viewers to engage with the works with curiosity, and to experience the sentiments articulated by the artists.

“Luminosity Reborn: Fudan Flux” draws its allusion from The Great Commentary on the Shangshu: “The radiance of sun and moon, renewed each dawn.” This not only embodies the imagery of the sun and moon cycling endlessly with enduring brilliance, but also subtly echoes Fudan University’s glorious 120-year history and its bright future. At the same time, it inspires Fudan students to be their own light, without waiting for the torch of others.

The exhibition focuses on pressing contemporary issues such as contemporary cognition, everyday spirituality, the climate crisis, and creativity in the AI era. It is divided into four sections: “Mountains and Waters Revisited,” “Renewing the Heart of Heaven and Earth,” “All Things in Return,” and “The First ‘Yang’ Returns.” These sections explore four major themes: “Ancient and Modern: Tradition and Contemporary,” “One and Many: Self and Others,” “Human and Object: Difference and Symbiosis,” and “Technique and Dao: Algorithms and Magic.”

Instead of adopting a linear or causal narrative, the curatorial team presents these issues through juxtaposition, constructing a network structure for equal dialogue. Within this structure, the audience is guided to re-examine the complex relationships between humans and time, space, others, nature, and technology, thereby stimulating deeper reflection and resonance.

“Consciousness Shapes” is the world’s first set of mental calisthenics, a fitness practice that combines cultivation, dance, and broadcast exercises with spirituality, ideology, and cultural rituals. The entire set consists of over 200 movements, more than 100 of which are drawn from typical ritual, worship, and ceremonial gestures collected by MadeIn Company throughout human history. It integrates physical movements, health preservation, and systems of human thought to explore the integration of body and soul.

Just as cultivation is always linked to meditation, dance to expression, and ritual to civilization, “Consciousness Shapes” mental calisthenics is connected to the diversity of human ideologies, achieving the dual effects of physical fitness and intellectual reflection.

“Consciousness Shapes” is divided into ten forms, or ten chapters, with a total duration of approximately 40 minutes. The rhythm is soothing and graceful, with movements progressing from easy to difficult, and the music is tranquil and relaxing. It is suitable for people of all groups: it helps strengthen children’s constitutions, invigorates blood circulation and relaxes muscles for the elderly, and calms the mind and relieves anxiety for office workers. Its overall benefits include: enhanced focus, improved physical strength, reduced fatigue, anxiety resistance, better memory retention, inner peace and joy, and the opening of wisdom.

“All About 25” brings together works by pivotal artists who have shaped the gallery’s past, present, and future. Numerous paintings, sculptures, and installations have been created specifically for this exhibition, resonating symbolically with the number 25 to celebrate the gallery’s 25th anniversary.

As a colloquial metaphor, “From Hen to Egg” alludes to the inherent nature of art: it is destined to be created. Just as “a hen can lay eggs without a rooster,” art continues to sprout new shoots in surprising forms within the context of any era. The various sections of the exhibition resemble the artist’s “eggs,” concealing a cycle of creation and transformation, from which new vitality and energy will burst forth.

Through a cross-contextual reorganization of distinctive visual symbols, the “Shan Shui — Beverage” series expands XU ZHEN®’s attempt to transform civilizational experience with contemporary concepts. In paintings from this series, an ancient Greek pillar, as a symbol of human civilization, are planted onto Chinese scholars’ rock. While isomorphically displacing themselves with straws, such pillars defamiliarize and tease whatever it is they insert into, rendering it both out of place and abreast of the times. The artist renders the everyday action of “sucking” as a metaphor for the interactive relations within humans’ cognition of civilization in the post-globalization era: for instance, a search for a future out of history, the conjuring of illusion by Eastern and Western civilizations of each other, and, not least, a symbolization of the uncertainty and dynamism of contemporary realities.

The “Enlightenment” series consists of Zen paintings based on Zen Buddhism. Zen paintings are known for their playful yet profound nature. The artist selects Buddhism-related cartoons from global news media and depicts them in the style of Zen painting. The fusion of cartoon content with a globalization perspective and the centuries-old tradition of Zen painting creates a fascinating interplay.

In response to the exhibition theme Shanghai Colors, the curator has selected artists with profound connections to the city of Shanghai: those who were born, raised, or have lived and worked in Shanghai. Spanning more than forty years, these artists were born between the 1950s and the 1990s. In terms of media, the exhibition features works across painting, photography, installation, and conceptual art, aiming to present the openness, richness, and multi-dimensional perspectives of contemporary art practice. In the mean time, it seeks to reflect the development and transformation of contemporary art in Shanghai over recent decades.

Xu Zhen’s Beverage series recombines the striking visual symbols across different contexts, extending the artist’s attempts to transform civilizational experience through contemporary concepts. In the sculptures and paintings of this series, ancient Greek columns—symbols of human civilization—are inserted into classic imagery from both Eastern and Western cultures, the latter which includes classical sculptures, blue-and-white porcelains, and scholar’s rocks, among others. As the columns themselves are reconfigured into straws, these civilizational symbols also defamiliarize and ironize the objects they penetrate, rendering them simultaneously anachronistic and contemporary. Within the everyday action of “drinking/sucking”, the artist metaphorizes the various interactions in human’s perception of civilization in the post-globalization era. For instance, finding the future in history, or extracting illusions about each other between Eastern and Western civilizations. Above all, it symbolizes the uncertainty and dynamism of reality nowadays.

“Competitive Meditation” is a phrase that appeared in Xu Zhen’s latest series of Zen Paintings. In his solo exhibition, recently held at Jebum-gang Art Center, Tibetʼs first contemporary art institution, Xuʼs work culminated in a series of pieces drawing upon the traditions of Japanese Zen painting, layered with political cartoons. Originating in the late Song-Yuan period and evolving significantly within Japanese culture, Zen painting later turned into more dynamic forms, such as manga and animation nowadays. Xuʼs practice encapsulates this complex cultural lineage, distilling it into seemingly simple yet profound “enlightenment.” Through this concept, the artist does not intend to evoke a grand significance beyond art itself but rather aims to make us aware of the fundamental presence that is always part of our lives. By stripping his work of overt mythological weight, Xu maintains a dispassionate, middle-ground stance, even suggesting a willingness to become the subject of critique rather than simply acting as the critic.

Currently (as of November 2024), Lu Pingyuan is also participating in a group show at the Centre Pompidou. Since 2012, Lu has been building a body of work that operates at the intersection of fiction and reality. In his “Best of the Best Draw” series, Lu approaches artificial intelligence as a new ideological construct, casting AI as a “god” to whom he presents his own narratives and traditional mythologies, prompting the generation of new mythic figures. By employing traditional Chinese paper-cutting techniques̶historically used to invoke deities̶he materializes these “gods” from the paper again. In engaging with the long-standing practice of depicting divine figures, Lu critiques yet simultaneously reclaims this “futile but essential” human act. His “Lingua Playful” series offers a visualization of human language, treating it as a living organism. Employing the traditional Chinese ink painting technique of “leaving space,” Lu not only represents dialogue but also the vast, unspoken territories that lie beyond languageʼs reach.

Li Hanweiʼs work, by contrast, examines how emerging technologies intervene in and increasingly dictate our perception, modes of communication, and construction of identity. In his new works from the “Witness” series, first on display at PARCEL, Li employs cutting-edge information processing technologies, including AI mapping, fingerprint recognition, CG rendering, and 3D printing. These works investigate the increasingly indistinct boundary between human and machine. Despite the apparent freedoms these technologies seem to offer, they are, in fact, subject to numerous “inevitable constraints”̶a condition Li deftly parallels with the highly mediated nature of our everyday environments. Liʼs work always shows viewers to reflect on how these limitations permeate even the most ostensibly liberating technologies.

This exhibition will mark the first public showing of Xu Zhenʼs latest works in Japan, along with all the other featured pieces. In an age when painting/drawing is confronted by the ever-evolving media that challenges its original validation, this exhibition explores the thematic tension between certainty and ambiguity across various mediums, from ink painting and paper-cutting to Zen painting, and both 2D and 3D digital prints.

Over 60 years ago, D.T. Suzuki wrote, “In the mechanistic worldview, an industrialized society, and a conceptualist-driven realm of thought, the creative instincts of humanity are stifled. Should we continue on this path, I believe we will inexorably be driven toward the tragic fate of mutual annihilation.”
In our contemporary moment, we are not confronted by a single overwhelming crisis but by a multitude of diffuse, dispersed problems. Artists and their works are continually asked to provide solutions, all while we risk forgetting that art, first and foremost, must preserve its autonomy and self-awareness. This exhibition challenges us to reconsider the concept of “Competitive Meditation,” offering an opportunity to reflect on both the artworks and ourselves within this context.

–Curator, Jin Qiuyu

At the turn of the century, a group of conceptual photography and video works emerged in China, expressing artists’ beautiful longings and utopian visions for globalization and the potential changes it could bring. Around the same time, due to the popularity of computers and the Internet, artists gradually began to use new photography and video technologies, especially Photoshop software, which greatly expanded their understanding and practice of photography, video, and images. These exhibits are part of it. They are not only a portrayal of the collective emotions of this special historical moment, but also an important witness to the revolution of technological media.
Twenty years later, photography and imaging technology have undergone multiple iterations and replacements, and globalization has entered a historical stage. Looking back at these conceptual works with “rough” technology yet strong characteristics of the times, we are certainly impressed by the profound impact of technological media on contemporary art. However, the long-lost “optimistic” mood and “comedic” feeling seem to be more worthy of our contemplation and reflection.

The first Ennova Art Biennale will be held from October 27th, 2024 to April 30th, 2025 in Langfang, located in the center of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. The Biennale is hosted by Ennova Art Museum, with internationally renowned curator and art critic Fumio Nanjo as the chief curator. The curatorial research team consists of scholars such as Miwa Kutsuna, Andrea Del Guercio, Hatanaka Minoru, and Qilan Shen.

With the theme “Multiple Future : a new visions of our life,” the biennale delves deeply into the essence of contemporary art and the infinite boundaries of human creativity, in order to break through the traditional modes of thinking and to face the multiple challenges faced by contemporary humanity.

The exhibition is divided into four chapters, the first focusing on sound as a special immaterial material, the second on creativity beyond borders, the third on the possibilities of environmental sustainability, and the fourth on exploring a post-human world.

The 1st Ennova Art Biennale brings together the wonderful works of nearly 100 artists (groups) and will be one of the most internationally influential contemporary art events in China.

(Text creidt: Ennova Art Museum)

ShanghART WB Central announce the opening of the exhibition “Growth in Motion” on 29 September 2024. The exhibition brings together works from 27 artists/groups represented by ShanghART, showcasing a “momentum” look that indicates the fundamental creative will of life, to explore the stream of vitality in the artists’ spirit, constantly overcoming the tendency towards materialization and bursting upwards with life force.

Henri Bergson’s life-philosophy sees life as a tendency, driven and developed by the vital impetus, with which humans have broken free from “torpor” and “instinct”, evolving towards “intelligence”. From the perspective of life to interpret creation, artists’ vital impetus and creative will share a wondrously interconnected core – a mysterious impulse, beyond the rational understanding, that guides pure growth and creation. The works in the exhibition are undoubtedly the material traces left by the inner impulses as they advance into the outer world. It is this impetus that allows art to transcend torpor, instinct, and intelligence, thereby unleashing infinite possibilities.

South Korean-born, German philosopher Byung-Chul Han, in his book Praise to the Earth: A Trip to the Garden, describes his philosophical exploration while tending to the genre of “blue blossom” in his gardening work, and elaborates upon its romanticized essence through color theory. As a symbol of eternal aspiration that calls to one’s passion and vocation, “blaue blume” not only embodies the metaphysical longing for the infinite, but also alludes to the lure and desire, or even nothingness – especially concerning its rare appearance. To this day, the blue flower remains an enduring motif in Western art. American poet Maggie Nelson made a similar presentation in her lyrical essay Bluets. The special part about blue is that it is solitary yet exalted, projecting a field oscillating between nostalgia for a distant memory and compassion for futurity.

Building on such imagery, “A Blue-Flowering Day” examines works by local and international artists of various generations, which brings forth some simple yet profound concepts of the elusive emotion aroused by the blue flower, or the visual threshold of the particular colour and the speculative ecologies around it.

The exhibition invites internationally renowned Chinese and French artists to participate, to explore together the similarities and differences between the arts of the two countries in the context of globalization and their origins, and to witness the “harmony and difference” between eastern elegance and French romanticism. The form of the works on display involves intertext in media, painting, photography, sculpture, devices, multimedia, new media, sound and other artistic fields, which present both interwoven chronological indices and contextual migrations of the time, but also how artists perceive the outside world, and how they choose to live in reality.

The academic organization of the exhibition revolves around three axes: The first is based on mutual learning between Chinese and French art in the artistic creation of Chinese masters who studied in France in the 20th century, represented by artists like Xu Beihong, Lin Fengmian at the beginning of the century, then Wu Guanzhong before and after the establishment of the new China, then Huang Yongping, Yang Jiechang, Shen Yuan and the young artists currently active between China and France; The second is based on the perspective of “French” artists and cultural workers, through French artists and cultural workers living in China, and Chinese artists and cultural workers living in France, to present mutual reflections and aspirations; And the third takes the Sichuan institute of fine arts and its achievements in teaching since the 20th century as an index, because the art institutes since the 20th century constitute a field of practice where Chinese and western cultures are inspired and mixed, and in the era of mutual learning of cultures, artists and cultural workers interact, in teaching and practice, Art is becoming international and constantly intertwined to produce a multitude of contemporary aspects.

START MUSEUM is pleased to present “Frontier — Inaugural Exhibition Season 3” on August 18, 2024. The exhibition, titled “Frontier” aims to explore themes related to the openness of art, freedom, and the various boundaries in creative practices.

This exhibition will feature works by 32 prominent domestic and international artists, including Luc Tuymans, Cai Guoqiang, Nam June Paik, Tracey Emin, Gordon Matta-Clark, Wu Shanzhuan, Liu Xiaodong, Matthew Barney, Yu Hong, Li Yongbin, Seth Price, Xu Zhen, Tomás Saraceno, Duan Jianyu, Nabuqi, Chen Tianzhuo, among others. The selected works span from the 1970s to the present, highlighting breakthroughs in creation, concepts, materials, ideology, societal norms, and the liberation from the constraints of individual identity politics. The exhibition also emphasizes the limitless openness and challenges to the boundaries of individual artistic freedom.

START MUSEUM inaugurates itself with a series of four consecutive exhibitions as its declarative launch. Through a more diverse and open-ended discourse, the museum strives to present its identity and value as an independent research institution. Furthermore, by transcending the constraints of reality, the museum adopts an independent and exploratory historiographical perspective to seek out new dimensions and frontiers of individuality and freedom in art.

This exhibition, following “START” and “Thus Spoke the Moment,” marks another significant exhibition research project by the museum.It also serves as the third chapter of the START MUSEUM’s four-season inaugural exhibition series.

As a special exhibition of Yuz Museum 10th anniversary, “Out of Silence” will unfold in two chapters, the first of which will open to the public from August 10 to October 7, 2024, featuring a selection of more than 20 groups of works by contemporary Chinese and international artists from the collection of Yuz Foundation. Taking sound that is represented or implied as a clue, the exhibition will present the hidden power of these artworks through listening to the subtle or forgotten voices within them, which are the very “traces” and “signs” that Yuz Foundation and Yuz Museum (YUZ) are committed to preserving.

The Artists in Chapter One:
CHEN Ke, CHEN Weimin, CHEN Zhen, Secundino HERNÁNDEZ, Shara HUGHES, Alicja KWADE, LI Xiaojing, Eddie MARTINEZ, OUYANG Chun, Elizabeth PEYTON, Katja SEIB, David SCHNELL, SONG Yige, XU Zhen / MadeIn Company, WANG Fenghua, WEI Jia, YAN Heng, Aaron YOUNG, YANG Zhenzhong, ZHENG Wei, ZHONG Jinpei

Mr. Budi Tek, the founder of YUZ, first started out in the world of collecting contemporary art from 2004-2005. With his entrepreneurial spirit of adventure, assiduous research into art, and persistent enthusiasm, he gradually expanded the collection, and developed to identify two main threads of collecting in 2008: one is “traces”, the threads, the representative works of established artists who have achieved significant positions in Chinese contemporary art history; the other is “signs”, the potential, the new works that he collected with support and expectation for young artists. These two parallel lines, focusing on the bidirectional vision of “history” and “future”, have become the source and core of YUZ’s subsequent collection and exhibition programs.

This exhibition will follow the trajectory that began in the early years of YUZ collection, to rethink the position of the collection in the process of “history” and “future” and the relative relationship between them. The selection of works is not confined to the framework of time or geography, so as to highlight YUZ’s unique color of collecting art through rational construction and emotional understanding. Most of the works in the exhibition reveal the creative process of the artists who integrate their individual thread of life with diverse historical, cultural and social backgrounds. Seemingly calm and silent, the works are nevertheless rich in ideological dimensions and expansive in spiritual world, nurturing a surge of booming power. They carry private emotions and feelings, and reflect the syndromes of society and the times, which not only condense the past, but also still apply to the present, and even foretell a certain visible future. The hidden power within the works leads us to “the deafening silence” and the experience of vigorous vitality, and at the same time alerts us to the fact that the history is not yet gone, while the future is already here.

The exhibition will also reflect on the platforms built by YUZ in its past collections and exhibitions, including 2008-2012 Yuz Museum in Jakarta, 2014-2022 Yuz Museum at West Bund, Shanghai, Yuz Project Space of Art since 2015, Yuz Museum at Panlong Tiandi, Shanghai since 2023, and many more projects, which have facilitated and realized many artists’ ambitious conceptions, with some of these site-specific practices and large-scale commissions being re-enacted. A selection of the masterpieces with breakthrough and transformative significance will also be on display for the first time to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Yuz Museum.

The change of seasons and the flow of time seem to be an irreversible process. On the stage of this eternal cycle of life and history, perhaps we could “progressus ad originem” and “regressus ad futurum”, trying to find our own roles and positions out of silence, and escape from the hustle and bustle.

The exhibition “Out of Silence” is organized by Yuz Museum and curated by Wen Shi, Curator at Yuz Museum, with its first chapter from August 10 to October 7, 2024, and the second chapter from October 19, 2024 to March 2, 2025.

Exhibitions at Yuz Museum are organized in partnership with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Qatar Museums.

ShanghART Gallery announce the opening of the special project “10 Years – ShanghART West Bund 2015-2024” on 1 June at ShanghART West Bund Bldg 8. Space. The project features more than 60 works by 53 artists, spanning the mediums of painting, photography, sculpture, installation, and video, which are selected from each of the exhibitions and projects that have taken place in ShanghART West Bund space over the past decade since its opening in 2015, as “physical evidence” to “witness” the history of the space. Moreover, the project encompasses a chronology of nearly 100 major exhibitions held at the West Bund space and elsewhere around the globe in which ShanghART artists have participated over the past decade. It also includes more than 40 volumes of related publications and representative visual materials.

Sorry, this entry is only available in 中文.

In the era of the anthropocene, change stands as the sole constant. There is an undeniably human aspect to our desire for stability in our surroundings.When faced with external forces threatening to disrupt the status quo, we are driven to question and yearn for a return to familiar realities.

Shifting Sands Still, delves into the diverse approaches artists employ to navigate environmental changes. From preserving fleeting spaces to constructing new ones, they navigate the delicate balance between nature and urbanisation. Yet, amidst this group of artists, there is a shared longing for betterment.

The experience of ‘新村’ (New Villages), characterised by the modernization process involving the demolition and displacement of low-income neighbourhoods, has been a significant influence on the work of many artists. Birdhead captures the vanishing aspects of their childhood town through spontaneous, impulsive snapshots, while Liu Weijian and Chen Wei chase scenes from an abandoned city relegated to memories, through paint and elaborately staged photographs. Wang Youshen finds himself ensnared in a tragic cycle of eviction due to gentrification, his fragmentary documentation reflecting the short-lived nature of his tenancies. These artists underscore the significance of memory in shaping a space’s identity and the erasure that accompanies urbanisation. Robert Zhao offers a reprieve from anthropocentrism by highlighting the non-human casualties of urbanisation. A discarded garbage bin amidst a jungle transforms into the core of a burgeoning ecosystem, serving as a vital water source for its new inhabitants. Contrasted against this is a colony of displaced bats in a foreign land, their original habitat disrupted by deforestation. The human drive to mould the world to fit our desires emerges as both a destructive force and a minor obstacle that nature will inevitably overcome. Xu Zhen explores the concept of space-making on a more abstract level. He challenges the notion of spirituality as an inherent quality anchored to physical location, by asserting our ability to consecrate mass-produced spaces. If the loss of spatial identity is inevitable, could these unconventional paths offer salvation?

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In response to the overarching project My boss told me to not do exhibitions, this exhibition centers around a principle that recalls of the nature of the project: inertia – albeit with a little wordplay.

The meaning of the term covers both a state of immobility and that of a superior force acting on the stagnation or mobility of a body. Transaction of Hollows, a performance by Melati Suryodarmo, embodies, among other things, the ins and outs of this term. A motionless arrow is suddenly propelled by the force of the artist towards a white wall, as are, to a certain extent, the works of art hanging on the picture rails. This is a new exhibition entitled ‘Inartia’, featuring works by Chen Xiaoyun, Chen Wei, Liang Shaoji, Melati Suryodarmo, Tang Maohong, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and Xu Zhen®.

Sometimes they are objects that have ceased to function under the effect of time or force, like the lamppost photographed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul or the camera with its broken focus staged by Xu Zhen®; sometimes they are elements – captured by Chen Wei – which, by force of circumstance, have been transformed into something else, such as candles that have become wax again, boots onto which marine elements have been grafted – as if they had remained motionless in a marsh for too long, or metal chains covered in silk. Interpretation is free, but in the last work, by Liang Shaoji, can we not see the work of silkworms on man’s industrial past and/or present?

This inertia is also that of detachment, of the separation of body and soul, which by the force of things acts. Should we see Tang Maohong’s pastel as a brain at rest? Or a brain in care? Reincarnated? Whatever the case, reflexive wandering can also be that of discovery, off the beaten track: Melati Suryodarmo’s nocturnal escapades, where the sleepwalker has only to follow the red line, and chance finds – the work of Serendipity. All in an elusive state that resonates with Chen Xiaoyun’s photograph Simple Peace without Explanation.

Curated by Zélie Chabert and put together with the help of Tian Lim and Joshua Kon.
This is the second exhibition under My boss told me to not do exhibitions.

In 2015, as part of the “Light Source” series, Xu Zhen reinterpreted the work of the artist Cornelis de Baellieur(1607-1671) titled “Intérieur d’une galerie de tableaux et d’objets d’art.” Every detail of the scene was preserved, with exotic objects displayed in a lavish interior space-shells, sculptures,and ornaments, while the walls were adorned with painting of still life,mythological and portraits. This artist followed the tradition of “art cabinet” genre established by Jan Brueghel the Elder and others in the Flemish region, making choices in the painting style.”Intérieur d’une galerie de tableaux et d’objets d’art.” seems to carry the legacy of the late Pieter Bruegel the Elder- in order to make the objects in the painting appear lively, there is a degree of deformation in the painted content, implying ahierarchy.However, fromthe result of the painting, it is evident that this artistic transformation does not stem from meticulous observation of reality, the artist’s goal is merely to complete a task. Comparatively, Xu Zhen’s reinterpretation is more vibrant, he overall lowers the brightness of the painting, making the peculiar
light source at the lower center of the composition stand out glaringly.

Xu Zhen froze the scene at the moment when a camera flash encroaches upon the painting. Using flash when taking photos is often considered damaging to oil paintings and is strictly prohibited in many occasions. The light invades from outside the artwork, yet seems as if it is reflected from within,reaching the audience. Nevertheless, the audience, or the general public who have entered the age of image with their smartphones or cameras, have forged a new relationship with art. Classical art offered “aura” ‘evoking palpitations and dizziness in the audience of its time. Nowdays, audience yearn for this kind ofdizziness, nurturing fantasies, while the traditional “aura of spirituality” gradually fades away, leaving behind records of visual experiences with physical light. How do we distinguish which of them still carry the remnants of the “aura,” and whether the “aura” is necessary in the context of contemporary Chinese art, serves as the starting point for the exhibition “You Spin Me Round like a Record.’

2023 marks Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art the 20th anniversary. Being the first public contemporary art museum founded by government in Mainland of China,Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art was also an important participant and promoter of con- temporary art in China in its infancy, and has thereafter experienced a major wave of de- velopment in the entire museum industry . In this overall background, we find the key word iteration that can sum up this changing times and the history of the museum itself. lteration not only emphasizes a Chinese phrase in its original sense of change and repeti- tion which means four seasons change, but also as a computer term for constant change.

The Noto Peninsula juts out into the Sea of Japan from central Honshu. Suzu is positioned at its very tip, surrounded by the sea on three sides. Suzu has a history as a “leading edge” location once open to the Sea of Japan, and features a rich culture including festivals and food. If you alter your perspective, even inconvenient remote land can become a “leading edge” location that opens up the future. This idea is the starting point. The Oku-Noto Triennale has attracted support from artists in Japan and abroad, who visit and express works rooted in this land of Suzu. This fall, the third Oku-Noto Triennale will begin. Contemporary art created through collaboration by artists, citizens and supporters will reverberate with the natural features of Oku-Noto, creating an experience of time and space that will stimulate the five senses.

BY ART MATTERS is proud to announce the fifth season exhibition Motion Is Action – 35 Years of Chinese Media Art, which will take place from September 22, 2023, to February 25, 2024. This groundbreaking exhibition marks the first retrospective presentation of Chinese contemporary art history from a Chinese perspective. By examining the development and transformations in Chinese media art, the exhibition aims to explore the significant role of media expansion in the evolution of contemporary art, brought about by the information age. Through this exploration, the exhibition examines a series of thought-provoking issues, including scene reconstruction, the manipulation of time and space, perceptual misalignment, the creation of new artistic languages, and reflections on social and cultural contexts.

This exhibition brings together 79 representative works by 72 artists and groups from different generations. The works encompass a variety of media, including video, installations, performance art, interactive pieces, games, and digital art. The exhibition not only reflects on the early practices of video art but also delves into the cutting-edge exploration of emerging media and art forms such as artificial intelligence and space art.

The artworks are connected in chronological order and revolve around the thematic keyword of “motion.” The exhibition is divided into three chapters: Motion as Action, Motion as Interaction, and Motion as Agency. Through the progression of these chapters, the audience can embark on a time-travel-like experience, tracing the artists’ evolving understanding of different issues and exploring the transformation of artistic creations in terms of media, forms of expression, and concepts. Additionally, visitors can gain a profound appreciation of the depth and breadth of the Chinese art world.

Beiqiu Museum of Contemporary Art is pleased to announce the inaugural exhibition of the Art and Geography Series, Someone Has Been Disarranging These Roses, co-curated by architect Naitian Yang and curator Lin Liu. This exhibition will open on September 8, 2023 and run through December 10,2023.

Someone Has Been Disarranging These Roses delves into the historical and present context of BMCA’s site – Beijige Mountain,and investigates the pivotal role it has played in the evolution of meteorological science in China. Departing from the spectral atmosphere of the museum’s locus, the exhibition brings together about 20 artists,architects,and researchers from 6 countries to create a constellation of artworks engaging with this historical lineage and offering different perspectives towards the omnipresent reality of climate crisis.Beijige serves as a point of convergence for the history and reality of Nanjing and China. It weaves together various elements, including ancient myths/Daoist traditions, solar terms/agricultural activities, modernmete- orological science/intellectual individuals inChina’s modernizationprocess(suchas Zhu Kezhen, the founder of the Central Meteorological Observatory in Beijige), as well as civil defense projects/consumer spa- ces, collectively producing a complex, ambiguous,and romantic environment. The museum’s existing spaces further consolidate this essence, blending together mountain terrain, air raid shelters,and the “white cube” gallery environment. The exhibition seeks to portray this compressed moment through image and sound, and to extract the dynamic imagery of wind, rain, cloud, etc. It evolves from the perception of such phenomenon to the intangible existence of data clouds, and ultimately to the cultural and political weather and climate at large.

Architect Naitian Yang’s choreography of the exhibition space creates an experience that negotiates with the existing concrete structure and resonates with the oscillating cadence of weather itself. In a time when weather and climate issues have transcended theoretical discourse and become an urgent reality, the exhibition endeav- ors to integrate people and weather into the same fluid,precarious,and crucial state. The artworks within the exhibition allude to what might conventionally be termed “bad weather”, yet the binary idea of “good / bad” is no longer applicable to our judgments of weather. Beyond a human-centered perspective, the synthesis of chaos emerges as the norm of weather, where “good” and “bad” coalesce. It pervades every aspect of ex- istence, whether living or not.

MadeIn Gallery is pleased to present the group exhibition “What Kind of Us Does Painting Need” on Sep 2, 2023. Curated by Xu Zhen, the exhibition invites thirteen artists from around the world to present their highly experimental and revealing paintings. Together the works on view investigate how painting might refresh and regenerate its power as a medium while being confronted with the dual challenges of algorithm and post-conceptualism. They galvanize us into thinking how we could remold ourselves and our experiences so that we can sustainably imagine, create, and view the new paintings.

“Finally, we have come to a time when the number of painters reaches its zenith on Earth.”

Someone opened ChatGPT, and a new so-called painter was born. Is this the mediocre fate of the new painting in the age of algorithms? Today’s painting is so compatible and adaptable that it loses its weight. Do we have any reason to approach a painting other than the fact that we have to look at it? Is painting still a portal in the city to an unknown universe? Why is it necessary to have so many paintings on our screens? How does the contingency of our eyes and hands duel in the picture with the inevitability of artificial intelligence? Can this many paintings justify our world? Does painting exist to drift on social media?

We are hereby honored to invite these artists to reveal their painting practice. They attempt to refresh painting and endow it with the renewed power of a medium that captivates the viewer as firmly as smartphones and constantly updated apps. After the artists bring out the painterliness of the object with their painting, the latter acts as a reminder that painting begins when we swipe our fingers over the image on the screen. It is only when we transcend our excitement over new technologies that we can truly begin to paint. In choosing to paint these objects, the artists are also manifesting their attitudes and intervening in our inertia. We can but seek fresh experiences to match these paintings.

Rather than asking what kind of painting is needed, we need to ask what kind of us such painting needs.

From July 1st to September 3rd, 2023, Le Voyage à Nantes will exhibit “European Thousand-Arms Classical Sculpture” from Xu Zhen®. Le Voyage à Nantes is a local, publicly-owned corporation it has chosen for its development as a tourist destination. From2011，Each year, the summer Voyage à Nantes enriches the permanent collection through temporary or permanent installations of contemporary artworks in the public space，with a completely new way to discover the city.This year chosed sculpture as the theme, a total of about 20 large-scale sculptures were exhibited, distributed in the squares, castles, streets and other places of the city .

The 14-metre (46 ft.) long and 5-metre (16 ft.) tall work, European Thousand-Arms ClassicalSculpture, transforms 19 archetypal Western figurative sculptures into one dancingbodhisattva.Eproduced and arranged in rows to represent the undulating, dancing arms of the thousand-armed Guanyin, they challenge the traditional idea of cultural separation, suggesting that all of humanity is part of a single, absurd celebration.

https://www.levoyageanantes.fr/en/events/the-summer-journey/

Selected from a recent major gift of works to the Hammer Contemporary Collection by the Haudenschild family, this exhibition focuses on pioneering Chinese photography and video from the 1990s and early 2000s. Cruel Youth Diary looks at a generation of artists whose work responded to a period of tremendous social, political, and economic change in mainland China. Through strategies of Conceptual art, performance, and installation, these artists reflected on and critiqued the visual culture of a burgeoning new China on the cusp of the 21st century.

Featuring works by Cao Fei, Chen Shaoxiong, Feng Mengbo, Hong Hao, Kan Xuan, Liu Wei, Shi Yong, Song Tao, Weng Fen (also known as Weng Peijun), Xiang Liqing, Xu Zhen, Yang Fudong, Yang Yong, Yang Zhenzhong, Zhao Bandi, and Zhu Jia.

Cruel Youth Diary: Chinese Photography and Video from the Haudenschild Collection is organized by Nicholas Barlow, curatorial assistant, with Aram Moshayedi, Robert Soros Senior Curator.

The 3rd China Xinjiang International Art Biennale kicks off on Tuesday, and this year’s exhibition theme is “Harmonious Symbiosis.”

The exhibition is divided into the main exhibition area and a special exhibition section. The main exhibition area has three sections, titled “Civilization and Integration,” “Symbiosis and Dialogue,” and “Homeland Narrative and Ecological Wisdom,” involving 116 works by 77 artists from 12 countries, including China, Argentina, Italy, Belgium and Germany.

The special exhibitions are “Sketched Xinjiang,” a study of Xinjiang-themed works since the 20th century, and “Between Heaven and Earth,” the tradition and representation of contemporary Chinese ink painting. There are 143 artists from 11 countries, including China, and 260 works in the special exhibition.

The “Civilization and Integration” section of the main exhibition involves both natural and urban environments, as well as the human spirit, the expression of collective human memory, emotion and desire. The “Symbiosis and Dialogue” segment presents the reflection and expression of cultural, human and spiritual characteristics. Meanwhile, the ecology and homeland section focuses on the relationship between humans and nature.

This Biennale is hosted by China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the People’s Government of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. It has become an important platform for cultural exchange on the ancient Silk Road.

This exhibition is the first chapter of the debut of Start Museum, according to the team’s plan. The entire debut consists of 4 consecutive exhibitions, or the 4 seasons of “START”, each of them will last for 5 months in the upcoming 2 years. For the sake of diversity and complexity of art, each season will be demonstrated with different undertones and perspectives.

“Signal” is a contemporary art project initiated by artist XU ZHEN in 2022. XU ZHEN gives as a gift one of his “Passion” paintings to the global audience, and each recipient is invited to display the painting they receive on their social media accounts. A long-term, unceasing “art exhibition” will thus take place on Internet media platforms. The project aims to send the signal of art to people around the world and share with them the future of art.

Art field Nanhai Guangdong, a top-level international cultural festival, will open in Nanhai, Foshan on November 18. About 70 art projects from 15 countries and regions will be invited to participate in this festival, including China, Russia, France, Israel, Japan, Spain, the United States, Australia, India and Cameroon. The main venue is located in Xiqiao Town, Nanhai, Foshan, covering an area of 176 square kilometers. At the same time, there are 8 art sub-venues in Xiqiao Mountain, Tingyin Lake, Pingsha Island, Taiping Hui, Songtang Village, Ruxi Village, and Huanggang Village.

A true-to-life reproduction of the typical convenience store in China, XUZHEN Supermarket displays a dazzling array of daily consumer goods for sale at regular prices. On a closer look, however, one finds all the commodities bereft of substance. The anomaly of inviting viewers to purchase empty containers reveals the exchange-value crisis of global capitalism. Under the aesthetic disguise of product packaging, the emptiness of commodities points to the displacement of exchange and use values under the commercial hegemony. 

In his supermarket, Xu Zhen® constructs a space that parodies the rampant global consumerism. He simultaneously creates the simulacrum of commodities and of artworks alike, thus arriving at a simulacrum of contemporary life. As Baudrillard sees it, it is not an object but a sign, a concept that is consumed in capitalism, whereas simulacrums, without having any signified, become the only reality in a postmodern society. In this sense, once it enters the capitalist system, art turns into a sign or concept that is being consumed, a form of design or packaging; it has nothing to do with the artwork itself. This explains why the artist removes the goods while retaining only their packaging.

This exhibition focuses on artificial intelligence, 3D modeling software, social platforms, games, and other technologies that participate in social governance or rewrite aesthetic standards as human partners. Artists speculate on the potential mode of communication between humans, machines, and digital species and explore the possibility in the form of an exhibition. 

Integrating technology and art provides new thinking for developing the cultural and art industry in the new era. 

The exhibition also discusses two themes. One is to examine how humans handle the labor relationship between humans and machines when technological algorithms and artificial intelligence are particularly advanced. The other direction is how algorithms, 3D modeling software, and social platforms can generate subjective or alternative electronic species. The audience will see the ten artists’ images, paintings, and installation works and their imagination of the future world.

Bangkok, 8 June 2022 – The Bangkok Art Biennale Foundation is pleased to announce twenty-three new artists and four more venues for the third edition of the Bangkok Art Biennale (BAB) taking place from 22 October 2022 to 23 February 2023. This second announcement expands the Biennale’s line-up to 43 leading regional and international artists and 11 venues across the city’s cultural and heritage sites.

This edition’s theme CHAOS : CALM invites artists to contemplate the tumultuous conditions of the world around us as communities recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, and grapple with urgent climate crises and socio-political uncertainties around the globe. By exploring the binary opposites of chaos and calm, the Biennale aims to reflect on the confusing world we live in and offer glimpses of hope through art; celebrating a diversity of identities, cultures, and histories, and mapping a shared vision for our new post-pandemic world.

https://www.bkkartbiennale.com/

XU ZHEN^®  “SIGNAL” In conjunction with ShanghART Singapore 10th Anniversary Exhibition

Following the inaugural chapter of XU ZHEN®’s international contemporary art project “SIGNAL” at Art Jakarta in August, the gallery will be launching the Singapore chapter on the occasion of ShanghART Singapore’s 10th Anniversary Exhibition “Entrance”.

“SIGNAL” draws from a larger body of work, “Passion” which XU ZHEN® has been working on since 2021. The series consists of oil paintings on canvas derived from mobile devices screenshots of various social media platforms. The free-writing expressive brushstrokes and impasto work are a result of the artist’s attempts to capture the energy of online social media interactions. It is also the first time that the artist will be personally painting such a large number of works in a series, making it an exceptionally distinctive creation in his career.

An extension of this series of paintings, the pieces in the “SIGNAL” project are sized similar to handheld mobile devices. The artist will be gifting them to the global audience, creating more paintings as the project develops, while inviting each recipient to share the painting they receive on their social media accounts, resulting in a long-term, ongoing virtual art exhibition of these pieces on the Internet. This unprecedented way of disseminating art is a continuation of XU ZHEN®’s provocative approach, inviting the audience to ponder the future of art.

Accompanying the project’s “online exhibition”, the Singapore chapter will also consist of a physical presentation of four large canvases of the same series displayed in the gallery. The larger-than-life renditions of “Passion” in the gallery will be an immersive display of XU ZHEN®️’s “passion” as manifested on the canvases, allowing visitors to encounter the artist’s personal perceptions and experiences. Titling each painting after their physical weight, the artist explores an alternative way to quantify our online experiences. Instead of bytes and bits, the “Passion” series of paintings will become a new representation of the Internet and social media activity.

The exhibition took author Wang Anyi’s lecture as a point of departure.
Wang Anyi spoke about the three tools in Ah Cheng’s novels at the online lecture “The History of Civilization in Contemporary Chinese Fiction – on Ah Cheng’s Three Kings” this May. The three tools in Ah Cheng’s novels – namely, The King of Trees, The King of Children and The King of Chess – refer to knife, literature, and art-mathematics respectively. While Wang considered each tool a symbol of civilization, he also examined the true rationale behind Ah Cheng’s creation of the works and the self-positioning within an author who led the marching of the Xúngēn, or root-searching movement. Ah Cheng’s writings is a witness of the “sent-down” which was also part of Wang’s bodily memories of Down To The Countryside Movement. Yet what could explain Ah Cheng’s obsession over the three tools in his books? Wang found his answer in Yìwénzhì, or the Treatise on Art and Letters, “lost etiquette may be found in the wilderness.” In times of undue chaos, the wilderness and wilderness alone electrifies the homo sapiens out of the centre, returning to the uncharted territories and hoping to encounter civilization again.
The exhibition, instead of merely recycling Wang Anyi’s thoughts, is an extension of his perspective, calling upon an inquiry into the proliferation, if not contamination, of the tools’ presence. While math, diction and knife are manifested as symbols of civilization, they also became instruments of violence. Zhūyě is an assemblage of such seemingly conflicting yet parallel conditions. Zhū not only stands for variety and togetherness, but also a state of in-betweeness and in-betwixtness. Yě also transcends its original meaning, beholding both the traces of civilization and the quality of violence. Therefore, zhūyě has been translated as violence at the exceptional moment, for the fine line between salvation and its opposite is another fragile earthly frame.

XU ZHEN®’s site-specific sculpture, Hello, is the newest outdoor artwork on the Stanford campus and the inaugural commission for the Stanford Plinth Project.

Xu Zhen created the 15-foot sculpture especially for Meyer Green, a 2.45-acre open space located close to several university landmarks, including Green Library, the Law School and the Graduate School of Education. He combined traditional bronze techniques with the latest digital sculpting technology to create something that looks both ancient and contemporary. Its form is based on Greek architecture pillars, symbolizing the origin and cornerstone of Western civilization. As viewers move close, they will notice that the towering column is twisted in the form of a magnified and mutated snake, observing its surroundings from its perch on a plinth surrounded by soaring cedars.

The work fuses the classical Greek column shape and the snake’s aggressive biological attitude to stimulate viewers’ perception and experience of classic civilization. The moment the viewer’s eyes come across the Corinthian capital also represents a confrontation with the depth of history and culture. With the increasingly frequent blending and impacts among global civilizations, the work constitutes both a reality and a metaphor for encountering civilizations of different times and space.

In 2019, Stanford’s Public Art Committee chose Xu Zhen to create a site-specific outdoor work of art for the Plinth Project. This new initiative places a series of temporary, commissioned public artworks in the central Meyer Green campus location where the Meyer Library stood from 1966 to 2015. The work was to be installed the following year, but due to the pandemic, the installation was delayed. Xu Zhen was chosen in part for his representation of global perspectives and his engagement with issues relevant to the university. In his statement about creating Hello, he writes: “Located in Silicon Valley, Stanford University plays an important role in terms of innovations, developments and discovery of new talent. The people of this distinguished university share similar qualities with contemporary artists: the capability to see new possibilities and the courage to explore opportunities, even though results remain uncertain.”

Making it big in an Eastern country used to be a second choice for Western rockstars. Despite its multitude, the Chinese opinion was once considered inferior to established Western tastes. Yet China’s fast-paced transformation has turned the nation into a global powerhouse. These days companies, brands, and even nations from around the world all scramble to win the favour of Chinese consumers.
What does it mean to make it Big in China? It is no easy feat to captivate the attention of over a billion wandering eyes and minds. How do we draw the focus of so many unique individuals and make them move in unison? Artist Xu Zhen® shows us how it’s done by transforming into a kind of snake-charmer — mesmerising viewers with his colossal, dancing, twisting Corinthian column. Tang Nannan submerges us with mountainous waves until we become, as the Zen saying goes, simply one drop in an endless ocean. Lin Yan humbles and unites us as mortals under her vast, textural sky. These artists show us that it is not simply brute force that drives a nation and its people. Rather, it is the grand and overarching narratives, outstanding creativity and unique art practices that have the power to move a population en masse.