Daily Pursuit

ShanghART is delighted to announce that the theme exhibition “Daily Pursuit” opens on 12 May, and will run through 9 July. Artists Chen Xiaoyun, Lu Lei, Liu Yue, Zhang Ding, and Zhao Yang will unfold their narratives respectively in five sections, presenting their new creations in recent years. Distilling clues from the studios of the five artists, the exhibition dwells on the artist's working process from conception to creation where the audience may glance at the distinct qualities of the artists and their commonalities in parallel case studies.

In recent years, each of the five artists has adapted and adjusted to their unique working methods. Chen Xiaoyun did some leisurely and piecemeal creations. He cut copper and zinc panels into pocket-sized pieces so that he could carve wherever he went. In Lu Lei's work, craft-making is an instinctive habit, and his creations always grow freely from the "unplanned" jobs. Liu Yue continues deconstructing and re-examining images by researching daily objects in an almost paranoid style. Zhang Ding gradually develops his studio into an almighty working battlefield, exploring new ways to actualize spatial ideas in his graphic works. Zhao Yang developed a 9 to 5 routine, which provided him with sufficient inertia, then brand new Zhao-style characters "birth out of nothing" from his mind……