http://www.shanghart.com/galleryarchive/feeds/lists ShanghART Gallery RSS0.92 feed en_US Copyright 2005, ShanghART Gallery. press@shanghartgallery.com webmaster@shanghartgallery.com http://www.shanghartgallery.com/galleryarchive/feeds/detail/4706 Duration: 22 January – 28 February 2021 Singapore, January 2021 – ShanghART Singapore is pleased to kickstart 2021 with a solo presentation of David Diao (b. 1943, lives and works in New York). This will be the Chinese-American artist’s first showcase in Southeast Asia, featuring paintings made between 1999 and 2018. Diao’s artistic practice, spanning more than 50 years, draws on inspirations and motifs from predecessors such as Kasimir Malevich, El Lissitzky, and Barnett Newman, among others. Recurring motifs from their paintings can be identified in Diao’s works, employed in his own ways and sometimes combined to tell a visual story. His return to China in 1979, after more than three decades, prompted a shift in his practice as he began incorporating biographical elements such as his own career histories, themes of his Chinese heritage, emigration, and displacement. Diao’s paintings possess several layers of interpretations for their viewers as he superimposes text and images with common symbols. Paying homage to the history while simultaneously raising questions about it, Diao borrows, appropriates, and translates content as forms, reflecting on his ancestry and legacy through minimal compositions. Referencing both personally and culturally significant themes, the works featured in this exhibition string together a conceptually distinctive narrative portrayed in Modernist aesthetics. About Artist New York School abstract painter David Diao’s early works of the 1960s and 1970s are characterized by an earnest desire to contribute to the Modernist canon, while questioning its lineage and theoretical underpinnings. Early influences were Barnett Newman, a significant figure through Diao's career, and the hard-edge painter Al Held. By the early seventies, Diao's formalism was inflected with the social, cultural, and political. This has remained the primary preoccupation of Diao's work ever since. However, in the mid-eighties, Diao's style shifted radically, as he began incorporating silkscreened images, vinyl lettering, hand-drawn marker, and painted words, detailing his personal life and practice. Combining his radical formalism with avant-garde iconography, identity politics, and autobiography - namely, his Chinese identity as perceived by Western audiences, and his formative years as a boy in China, despite coming of age in America - Diao confronts the complexity of histories, whether they are canonised, global, or private, all of which are deeply personal to him. Recent exhibitions include: Bauhaus: Utopia in Crisis, Camberwell Space, Camberwell College of Arts, London, U.K. (2019); David Diao: Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, ShanghART Gallery, Beijing (2018); David Diao, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2015); Front to Back, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT, U.S.A. (2014); Whitney Biennial 2014, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, U.S.A. (2014); David Diao / Two Generations of Color Painting (1970) in ICA@50, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, U.S.A. (2014). Diao’s works are included in the collection of Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, U.S.A., the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, U.S.A., the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, U.S.A., the Fonds National d’art contemporain, Paris, France, the M+ Collection, Hong Kong, and the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, among others. 2021-01-15 17:54 ShanghART/Gallery/PressRelease http://www.shanghartgallery.com/galleryarchive/feeds/detail/4568 Opening: 4 pm - 9pm, 8 Nov. 2020 Duration: 8 Nov. 2020 - 24 Jan. 2021 (11am-6pm, Mon. Closed) Location: ShanghART Gallery, West Bund, Bldg.10, 2555 Longteng Avenue, Xuhui District, Shanghai, China ShanghART Gallery is pleased to announce that Yang Fudong’s solo exhibition “Endless Peaks” will open on 8th November at the gallery’s Westbund space. “Huihua dianying” or “Painting as a film”, a concept that Yang Fudong has been developing for years, evolves in this exhibition as the main way to investigate the spiritual landscape of people. Works on display span painting, photography to video installation, and intend to reconstruct the narrative structure of viewing. The exhibition will run through 24 January 2021. The title of the exhibition, Endless Peaks describes the continuous mountain ranges lying in an endless sea of clouds appearing when looking into the far distance from the top of a mountain. Developing from the concept, the artist draws figures and stories from traditional paintings in different dynasties as the source of his works. The textures exuding from materials allow the artist to re-portray contemporary spirituality with his re-creation implied in the ancient classics. Painting as the accumulative history of observation presents the influential correlations of “Huihua dianying” （or “Painting as a film”） between the “sensory” and “imagery” through the commonality of individual cognitive traces and distinctive creation. Exhibited works closely collaborate with the gallery’s two-storey characteristic architecture, which creates layered viewing dimensions for audience to interact with works and immerse themselves in the space.  Yang Fudong’s works are known for his signature temperament and avant-garde perceptions of moving images. In recent years, his works endeavour to practice and challenge multi-boundaries and limits of creation including the definition of film itself, the critical point between viewing and the viewed, relationships between medium and narrative etc. Inspired by “sense”, the crucial range of Chinese aesthetic thinking as the core trajectory, the artist unearths and recreates from the fragments of history and culture to continually query the essence of human’s spiritual life. About the Artist Yang Fudong was born in Beijing in 1971, and now lives and works in Shanghai. He graduated from the Department of Oil Painting, China Academy of Art in Hangzhou. He is among the most successful and influential Chinese artists today. Yang Fudong has participated in prestigious international art exhibitions including Su Zhou Museum (2019); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (2017); Foundation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France (2016); The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2013); Tate Liverpool (2007); Tate Modern (2004); Centre Pompidou (2003). His works also included in La Biennale de Lyon (2013); Sharjah Biennial 11 (2013); 17th Biennale of Sydney (2010); 52nd International Art Exhibition Venice Biennale (2007); The 5th AsiaPacific Triennial (2006); FACT Liverpool Biennial (2004); 50th International Art Exhibition Venice Biennale (2003); Documenta 11 (2002); 4th Shanghai Biennale (2002); 7th International Istanbul Biennial (2001) etc. His solo exhibitions widely held at the most acclaimed institutions and galleries, including Dawn Breaking, Long Museum (West Bund), Shanghai (2018); Moving Mountains, Shanghai Center of Photography, Shanghai (2016); Twin Tracks: Yang Fudong Solo Exhibition, Yuz Museum, Shanghai (2015); The Light That I Feel, SALT outdoor video installation, Sandhornoya, Norway (2014); Yang Fudong: Estranged Paradise, Works 1993-2013, The Kunsthalle Zurich, Switzerland (2013); Quote Out of Context, Solo Exhibition of Yang Fudong, OCT Contemporary Art Terminal, Shanghai (2012); One Half of August, Yang Fudong Solo Exhibition, Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, London, U.K. (2011); Yang Fudong: Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest and Other Stories, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece (2010); Dawn Mist, Separation Faith, Yang Fudong's Solo Exhibition, Zendai Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai (2009); Yang Fudong: the General's Smile, Hara Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2008); Yang Fudong: Don't worry, it will be better..., Kunsthalle, Wien, Austria (2005) ; Yang Fudong, Castello di Rivoli Museo d'arte contemporanea, Torino, Italy (2005); Five Films, The Renaissance Society, Chicago, U.S.A (2004) etc. 2020-11-12 11:53 ShanghART/Gallery/PressRelease http://www.shanghartgallery.com/galleryarchive/feeds/detail/4567 ShanghART M50 is honored to present video installations by three female artists from Guangzhou, Qin Jin, Chen Dandizi, and Lin Yuqi in the first exhibition "Under the Sign of Saturn" in 2020. Chen Dandizi and Lin Yuqi studied under Qin Jin and developed their own unique style and content. This exhibition borrows its title from contemporary American writer Susan Sontag's work "Under the Sign of Saturn". Sontag uses the phrase "saturnine temperament" to depict the spiritual portrait of intellectuals such as Benjamin. Saturn is "the planet of detours and delays". It carries the characteristics of patients with depression and autism, indulged in the vortex of loneliness in the universe, drifting alone, fantasizing, and relying on dreams... The exhibition aims to discuss how the artist's extremely gloomy and saturnine characteristics have a decisive influence on his work. This “Saturnine” keenness is infiltrated in the creations of the three artists. The melancholic person will become the biggest addict, because the truly addictive experience is always a lonely experience. They project such desire into the zeal of "Turning Back to Self-reading", "Capturing the Senses of Nature" and "Chasing the Truth of Self". In Qin Jin's narrative, memory, as a reappearance of the past, turns the ordinary moments in every scene of the journey into pictures. Time has become a constraint and deficiency in memories, compressing the memories of the self into space and a precursory structure, creating a pure scene of failure. Chen Dandizi still brings the alienation of the self into the work, Incarnating as a lonely person or a bird in the city, and discusses each other's desires and deficiencies in the tight state between the urban and nature. She gradually generated a lot of emotions from the fickle, keen, and delicate relationships between cities, and got lost in it. Lin Yuqi has been unable to imagine the faces of the people in her films because it is also impossible for her to depict the appearance of "myself". These faces are eaten by life, filled with loneliness, altered by others at will, and repaired with time. After all, loneliness is the only protagonist, and time is the only photographer. Time will eventually frame a person's face and make it a legacy of time. 2020-10-24 15:17 ShanghART/Gallery/PressRelease http://www.shanghartgallery.com/galleryarchive/feeds/detail/4566 Artists: Han Feng, Hu Liu, He Wei, Liu Weijian, Ouyang Chun, Sun Xun, Yan Bing, Zhao Yang Opening: 4 PM, 16 October, 2020 Duration: 16 October – 20 December, 2020 (11:00-18:00, Monday Closed) Location: ShanghART Beijing, 261 Cao Chang Di, Airport Side Rd., Chaoyang District, Beijing, China Contact: + 86 10 6432 3202 | infobj@shanghartgallery.com Opening on 16 October, 2020, ShanghART Gallery is pleased to present "Winding Time", the second exhibition this year at its Beijing location. On view will be works by eight artists, including Han Feng, Hu Liu, He Wei, Liu Weijian, Ouyang Chun, Sun Xun, Yan Bing and Zhao Yang. Time seems to have become more unpredictable in the year 2020. It is at times bent and folded, like a music box with failed dampers playing a familiar yet untuned song. At others it turns into a firm rubber band that has been stretched for a long time. While released all of a sudden, it should have snapped back to the original shape but stopped halfway with wrinkles. This makes people reconsider "time" and "space" from different perspectives, as well as what they bring to us. Things that have always been controllable, objective, and even overlooked become winding, thus pushing boundaries and blurring picture planes; after getting rid of space, time struggles to appear as a chain of fragments, which reconnects in a sinuous way. 2020-10-14 17:00 ShanghART/Gallery/PressRelease http://www.shanghartgallery.com/galleryarchive/feeds/detail/4546 ShanghART Gallery is pleased to present Zhu Jia's solo exhibition "Recent Paintings" on 5 September, 2020. The recent paintings are documents of daily life. They depict social situations—picnics, parties, dinners—in which friends, acquaintances and strangers gather. The scenes take place in familiar settings such as the Barbican Estates in London; or in personal, domestic ones like the garden of a friend’s home. The figures are often part of the artist’s own social circle and what is depicted are collaged from real life. In each of the paintings, the artist is pictured slightly outside of the main action or frame. While the paintings have the grandeur of history paintings, they present everyday activities of leisure and play, from the celebratory to the mundane. Made during a time when the artist was living abroad, these paintings come out of the practicalities and necessities of working in a solitary manner, being dependent only on oneself. They also come out of the desire to acknowledge one’s place in the world, despite how transitory or fleeting. The works aim to make concrete a precarious space of being both inside and outside; familiar and foreign; of being part of something, but not quite belonging. 2020-09-05 11:17 ShanghART/Gallery/PressRelease http://www.shanghartgallery.com/galleryarchive/feeds/detail/4533 Opening: 2020/05/16 Duration: 2020/05/16-2020/06/30 (11am-6pm, Mon. Closed) Location: ShanghART Beijing, 261 Cao Chang Di, Airport Side Rd., Chaoyang District, Beijing, China Contact: infobj@shanghartgallery.com | + 86 10 6432 3202 Opening in 16 May, 2020, ShanghART is pleased to announce an exhibition of renowned artist Yu Youhan—his first solo presentation at the gallery's Beijing location. Starting in 1980, Yu Youhan has continued to explore abstraction for the past 40 years. On view in this exhibition will be eleven significant works that the artist produced in the 2010s, revealing his aesthetic track from the last decade. Yu's abstract works on canvas, which are composed of dots, lines and forms, revolve around a kind of symbiosis between self and nature, and interaction between '循' (‘xún’, cycle) and '游' (‘yóu’, freedom). 循 (xún) means following rules or recurring—Yu seeks to explore the basic laws of nature and art, while the dynamic, eternal circle of life is suggested by his abstract compositions. 游 (yóu), on one hand, is about changes and developments, which emphasises the experimental and diverse properties of Yu's work according to formal logic; on the other hand, it can also refer to as 'a lighthearted excursion'. With the artist's age, as well as his decades long career, doing abstract art has become an even more enjoyable experience for Yu Youhan. About the Artist One of the most important and influential artists in China, Yu Youhan’s artistic practice dates back to the 1970s, while the 1980s is widely considered the beginning of Chinese contemporary art. As a leading pioneer of Chinese abstract painting and political pop movement, Yu's oeuvre combines multiple perspectives, investigating the structure of cultural identity in China through various pictorial techniques. His paintings—ubiquitous yet intriguing—has had a major impact on the art scene, and inspired a younger generation of artists. Yu Youhan was born in 1943 in Shanghai, where he continues to live today. Graduating from the Central Academy of Art and Design, Beijing in 1973, Yu represented China at the 22nd São Paulo Biennale (1994), the 45th Venice Biennale (1993) and the 1st Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (1993). His work has been presented in numerous prestigious venues worldwide, including Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2018); Museum gegenstandsfreier Kunst, Otterndorf, Germany (2009); Groninger Museum, The Netherlands (2008); Museum of Contemporary Art, Marseilles (2004); National Art Museum of China, Beijing (1989) etc. Solo exhibitions include 'Yu Youhan: The Representational and The Abstract', ShanghART Shanghai (2017); 'Yu Youhan Retrospective - PSA China Contemporary Art Collection Series', Power Station of Art, Shanghai (2016); 'Yu Youhan 1973-1988', Long Museum (West Bund), Shanghai (2016); 'Yu Youhan: Yībān', Yuan Space, Beijing (2013); 'Yu Youhan's Paintings', ShanghART H-Space, Shanghai (2011); 'Yu Youhan: Landscape of Yi Meng Shan', ShanghART H-Space, Shanghai (2004); 'Yu Youhan: Ah! Us', ShanghART Fuxing Park, Shanghai (1999). 2020-05-15 17:40 ShanghART/Gallery/PressRelease http://www.shanghartgallery.com/galleryarchive/feeds/detail/4528 ShanghART Shanghai is honored to present the 2020 spring special exhibition "Cache: from B to Z" from April 12 to June 12. This exhibition brings together works from 38 artists under the theme of "cache", discussing what strategies and mindset that people could take to deal with the state of exception in life. The participating artists include BIRDHEAD, CHEN Wei, CHEN Xiaoyun, DING Yi, The Grand Voyage - GUO Xi & ZHANG Jianling, HAN Feng, HE Wei, Lynn HERSHMAN, HU Jieming, HU Liu, JI Wenyu & ZHU Weibing, JIANG Pengyi, LI Shan, LIANG Shaoji, LIANG Yue, LIN Aojie, LIU Weijian, LIU Yi, LIU Yue, LU Lei, Nabuqi, OUYANG Chun, SHAO Yi, SHEN Fan, SHI Qing, SHI Yong, SUN Xun, Melati SURYODARMO, TANG Maohong, XU ZHEN®, YAN Bing, YANG Fudong, YANG Zhenzhong, YU Youhan, ZHANG Ding, ZHANG Enli, Robert ZHAO Renhui, ZHAO Yang. The word "Cache" originated from French and originally meant "hidden place, shelter". It was later used in the field of computer engineering and became a computer technology concept, which refers to temporarily storing a part of data on designated hardware or software components so that future requests for that data can be served faster. "Cache" is not only a technology, but also a strategy commonly used by humans in the face of multiple needs, and it represents the wisdom and effort of people to find the best solution in complex situations. This exhibition is also an exploration of the "best solution" by ShanghART Gallery under the current circumstance. The exhibition carefully stores the 60 selected works of 38 artists in the "cache" of gallery space, and transforms the exhibition hall into a temporary art “database”. The works are sorted according to the initials of the artists' names and displayed in a direct and clear way to the audience. The exhibition is open to the audience in the form of reservations, and the audience can easily and freely “retrieve” the works and “request” for inspiration. The exhibition tries to propose such a question to the audience and the artists: In order to be able to "respond" as soon as spring comes, what is the most important thing you want to store in your "cache "? 2020-04-11 19:46 ShanghART/Gallery/PressRelease http://www.shanghartgallery.com/galleryarchive/feeds/detail/4509 Art China: Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest 2020-03-19 17:15 ShanghART/Gallery/PressRelease http://www.shanghartgallery.com/galleryarchive/feeds/detail/4508 LI ZHENHUA Your work explores urbanized existence through film and photography. 1999 seemed to be a transition period for you. During this time you gradually moved away from the spirituality and individual experiences from your early performances. YANG FUDONG The photo series in Shanghai was mainly about life’s transitions; after I graduated from university in 1995 I returned to Beijing. In 1997 I made my first film, An Estranged Paradise, which was completed in 2002 and premiered at Documenta 11). I had to move to Shanghai for economic reasons. At that moment, life’s realities reminded me that I couldn’t create every minute and every moment; I had to exist, to live. When I didn’t have means to shoot a film, I just shot photos. This was not creating for the sake of itself, but to show the idea that could be completed by the image. The Evergreen Nature of Romantic Stories (1999) and Don’t worry, It will be better… (2000) are about young people’s choices and concerns. They were derived from the subtle interweaving feeling between the everyday and work. Just like the unknowable aspects of “youth” that were explored in Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest, the sense of young men and women having dreams and expectations was something I hoped to show in these photos. The three month duration of the performance Other Where or Stranger’s Plan taught me to believe, it supported me in moving forward. In The Evergreen Nature of Romantic Stories (1999), both the beautiful (unreal) bonsai and the young man and woman observing it intensely, have an artificial longing and beauty to them. The Don’t worry, It will be better… (2000) series is also about life’s longings and expectations; sentiments are created through the boys’ and girls’ movements in the room and their gaze out of the window. Like when you go to a friend’s place, and you pace around and look out of the window in a moment of boredom, it might be due to some inexplicable anticipation and emotional disturbance. Some friends have said that they think these works are like an advertisement for these emotions. I don’t agree, it resembles meditation more. It’s an experience where the inner longings are very close to your eyes. It exists, but is blurry; similar to people in everyday life focusing on what’s in the distance, but not what lies in front of them. LZ Don’t worry, It will be better… and The First Intellectual (2000) are your only works with text placed onto the photo. Why are the texts in both of these works in English? YF To put it simply, the words are visible, but also invisible, they are in the details of many photos, similar to reading quietly (in meditation). English is rather simple and pretty, my English is not good, but I feel a strange kinship with those letters and foreign expressions. It is also an externalization of meaning from the Chinese, it conveys a subtle or strange emotion that cannot be felt. LZ Don’tworry, It will be better… and The Evergreen Nature of Romantic Stories can both be seen as reflecting the conditions of young people. Does The First Intellectual also address similar concerns? YF I wrote a description for this work: “An educated young person, who can be regarded as an intellectual or a cultivated person, was smashed by somebody with a brick on the street. He was helpless, unable to vent and unable to find a target, in a powerless state.” There is a part of self-catharsis, but also a sense of helplessness to it. A state of self-anger that cannot be vented anywhere. Also a bit of black humor. LZ Don’t worry, It will be better… and The Evergreen Nature of Romantic Stories were shot indoors. The gazing out of the window or the emotional relations or expectations between people all happen inside. The characters in The First Intellectual all appear in the middle of the street with buildings in the process of modernization clearly visible behind them. This kind of symbolism is obviously starting to appear in your images. YF The situations depicted in The First Intellectual are on the street or at intersections. Where does he want to smash the brick in his hand? There is no target, nor direction. I think shooting this work created some inadvertent thoughts. LZ Do you see a link between media and space? Space was completely conquered in The Nightman Cometh (2011) whereas in the photo series International Hotel (2010) there was an external space that existed independently. In order to see it, one had to explore and experience it through the photo’s space; is there a link between media and space? YF Is the mise-en-scène created by the author (artist) or is it interpreted by the audience? Both sides are free and cannot be forced. If there is an interactive and cooperative relationship between space and image, the spectator can be the second director. The ideal effect the artist wants to present can only be achieved by the unforeseen, created by the audience’s involvement with their strong self-awareness and interpretation. Seeing a filmic or photographic work, the spectator will often edit his own brief interpretation. Every spectator is a director. Everyone’s understanding is also not the same. LZ Why did you choose a classical format? Most of your photographic works maintained a width of about one meter, why did you choose this format, is this related to your needs? YF I did not deliberately limit my works to this format. It was because in the past ten years, most of my photographic works were shot digitally. There are limitations on the quality of digital photography—of course, the images can also be enlarged, but the pixels and the sharpness would be affected. Moreover, some images’ character and feeling are best expressed through a 50 to 180 centimeter format, so there would be no need to enlarge it by force. LZ Do you think a lot about technique in your creations? YF It is very hard to say what real technique is. Is it just about the exactness of light exposure, or the accuracy of time and speed or the precision of an image composition? Or is it the concept of a work? Are those the techniques you are talking about? LZ Everything you’ve just mentioned belongs to the field of analog photography, but there are already traces of Photoshop and design in the collage work and composition you did in Forest Diary, and also in the combination of text and image in Don’t worry, It will be better… and The First Intellectual. Did the impact of these two aspects on photography change anything about your creations? YF My understanding and concept of photography is broad, encompassing both photos and film. Around 2000, I had already done some experiments in this field, like Don’t worry, It will be better…, The Evergreen Nature of Romantic Stories, and Breeze (2000)— all narrative works that describe a mood or emotion. I think “technique” should be more about a concept’s understanding. My understanding of ideal photography is more inclined towards cinematic photography— auteur photography. I always shoot with film, but very often technique is understood as special effects or post-production. I prefer precision in the preliminary stage. When I shoot a film, I try to do the preparation work well and don’t rely on compensating afterwards. Post-production can help to accomplish many things, but the misconception is that it compensates for the short-comings and errors in pre-production. LZ This is also one of the characteristics for digital photography’s popularity. YF I think technology is convenient, but not the best method. Even when a lot of people use post-production to make things up and don’t create from the beginning, I think it is still not too late to remedy the situation. For my films, I don’t many special techniques for editing —they are completed by straight cuts. I don’t use Photoshop particularly often for my photographs. I insist on analog cameras for shooting films and videos. I have accepted the idea of digital photography cameras around the year 2000; their speed and real-time image processing is what I am interested in. With the advance of computers, the result can be seen immediately, you don’t have to bear the risk of the whole photo developing process. Digital cameras are faster, easier and more efficient. LZ You didn’t make any photographic work between 2000 and 2002. Was photography unimportant for you during this period? Seeing the set of Backyard—Hey! Sun is rising (2001) as a photograph, what do you think about the relation between photography and photographs of sets, video and film? YF There are not many photos left from that time. Until I shot Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest, Part 1 (2003) I took only very few set photos. A film’s main objective is not to keep a lot of documentation and material. LZ Is photography created separately? YF I changed my mind about this. I slowly learned that photos are also needed to document the creative process when you shoot film or participate in an exhibition. This helps to provide references for future exhibitions or to prepare for publications. I also began to realize the reality of photography as another form of media in my creations, as the market for video art is not very optimistic and the market is biased towards collecting photography. Photography can be seen as a sale of goods. This vague awareness started to turn into something that should be done seriously in a work. But I don’t think too much about documentation and business. Also, is a form of set photography allowed to exist in my work? 2020-03-18 12:19 ShanghART/Gallery/PressRelease http://www.shanghartgallery.com/galleryarchive/feeds/detail/4451 Opening: 15 January 2020, 6pm – 8pm Duration: 15 January – 15 April 2020 Singapore, December 2019 – ShanghART Singapore is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Robert Zhao Renhui, The Lines We Draw. Bringing together recent new work spanning photography, video and installation, this exhibition explores migration and extinction in the natural world. Drawing from narratives from Dandong and Taiwan,China, and Singapore, Zhao’s work spotlights situations of ecological interest: from the migrations of godwits and great knots over the skies of the Yalu River estuary to the eradication measures against invasive spotted tree frogs in Taipei. The exhibition is split into three parts — the first part is titled Disturbances, comprising images and objects that explore various taxonomies humankind has imposed on nature, such as native and invasive, noxious and useful. The work includes images of the spotted tree frog, an invasive species in Taipei crowding out the native white-lipped frog. These were created when Zhao joined a group of volunteers in Taipei who meet regularly on “Remove Every Frog” night hunts to capture invasive spotted tree frogs. The second section, The Lines We Draw, is a series of large-scale lightboxes depicting bird migration in Yalu River. Located between China and North Korea, the Yalu river serves as a border; a politically charged space both on and above ground. For the migratory godwits and great knots, the river carries another meaning; it is a checkpoint in their annual journey that spans across the globe from Alaska to New Zealand. During migration season in 2019, Zhao and a local researcher visited the mouth of the Yalu River to document the phenomenon. The last section of the exhibition is titled A Monument to Thresholds and explores extinctions and conservation efforts to prevent them. Gathering objects and narratives from different parts of the world, this section attests to the ambiguities of ecological conservation, and the extreme measures preventing species wipeout.  Zhao is particularly interested in threshold states, as both migration and extinction involve the crossing of boundaries. Exploring the spaces between invasives and natives, foreign and local, life and death, his works embrace a multitudinal perspective on the world. Although his images are drawn from specific locales, they are not constrained by their geographies. They remain mysterious, inviting contemplation without closing off interpretative possibilities, allowing for a position that is perpetually changing and unfolding. In humankind’s pursuit for objectivity and order, whether within the field of science or politics, they have drawn lines across landscapes, communities, and disciplines. Zhao’s practice scrutinises the scientific method by infusing it with the aesthetic sensitivity and poetics of his images. In light of the ongoing Anthropocene extinction, the beauty in Zhao’s works is fraught with tension and complexities; beneath the familiarity of animals and cabinets of curiosities lies the negotiation between humankind’s understandings of existence and the latter’s perpetual changeability. Zhao problematises the safety of anthropocentric knowledge through representations of the other; reflecting on the lines and logics demonstrated by beings other than ourselves. About Artist Singaporean visual artist Robert Zhao Renhui (b. 1983) works chiefly with photography but often adopts a multi-disciplinary approach, presenting images together with documents and objects in the form of textual and media analysis, video and photography projects. His artistic practice investigates man’s relationship with nature, utilizing convincing narratives to invoke doubts in its audience towards the concept of truth and its portrayal. His works has been exhibited globally, having held solo exhibitions in Singapore, China, Japan, Australia, and Italy, as well as participating in various biennales and photo festivals. Recent exhibitions include Singapore Biennale: Every Step in the Right Direction, Gillman Barracks, Singapore (2019); The Lines We Draw, Yalu River Art Museum, Dandong, China (2019); Effect, Orange County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, USA (2019); Observe, Experiment, Archive, Sunderland Museum and Winter Garden, London, U.K (2019); The Institute of Critical Zoologists Final Report of the Christmas Island Expert Working Group, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art, Singapore (2018); The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT9), Queensland Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Australia (2018); Hugo Boss Asia Art 2017, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai (2017). Most recently, he is named as a finalist for the Benesse Prize 2019, and the Hugo Boss Asia Art Award 2017. 2020-01-04 15:19 ShanghART/Gallery/PressRelease