Provisional Matters: Lv Yan, Wu Shangcong, and Xiao Wenjie

中文

Provisional Matters: Lv Yan, Wu Shangcong, and Xiao Wenjie
Group Exhibition ShanghART Beijing, Beijing

Date: 07.27, 2024 - 09.11, 2024

Opening: 27 July 2024, 16:00
Duration: 27 July - 14 September 2024 (Tue - Sun, 11:00 - 18:00, Mon Closed)
Location: ShanghART Beijing, 261 Caochangdi, Airport Side Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China, 100015

ShanghART Beijing will present a three-person exhibition titled "Provisional Matters" on 27 July, 2024, featuring works by artists Lv Yan, Wu Shangcong, and Xiao Wenjie.

The Chinese phrase "you shi" (有事, "having matters") represents a form of "provisional" Chinese linguistic expression, intertextually linked with contemporary social structures. It is composed of a series of sudden "incidents" that, when combined and rehearsed, create a kind of grotesque situational theater. "You shi" also embodies a Bergsonian concept of time, where all that is being experienced appears to undergo a theatrical out-of-tune before returning to a state of absurdity. The text here becomes a particularly "provisional" entity that is especially resistant to returning to meaning.

In the context inhabited by today's artists, long-held aesthetic, political, economic, and ecological standards have become increasingly irrelevant. Consequently, the questioning of these precarious standard forms has naturally re-emerged as a trend in painting. The three artists in this exhibition—Lv Yan, Wu Shangcong, and Xiao Wenjie—unanimously emphasise the "materiality" of their works. This is not the result of traditional painting or art historical aesthetics, but of the cessation of the artist's work itself. The undefined, interruptive traces within are presentations of "that segment" after being truncated, leaving on the painting a kind of deconstructive residue of understanding.

About the Artists

Lv Yan (b. 1981, Tangshan, Hebei Province) graduated from the Oil Painting Department, Studio 4, at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, in 2005. He currently lives and works in Beijing.

Wu Shangcong (b. 1989, Chengdu, Sichuan Province) received his BFA in Furniture Design from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, in 2015, and his MFA from the Sculpture Department, Studio 3, at the same institution in 2021. He is based in Beijing.

Xiao Wenjie (b. 1982, Hong Kong) studied at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute from 2002 to 2005. He currently lives and works in Beijing.