SGA Shanghai | Artist Introduction part 2

Shanghai Space & Gallery Association (SGA) is very pleased to announce our major exhibition—Tangle of Revolution and Political Soul, opening on 13th November 2021, 4 pm, at Three on the Bund, Shanghai. The exhibition features the works of over 31 artists and collective, ranging from painting, photography, video, performance to site-specific sculpture and installation. 

This exhibition is presented through five sections: The Book of Revelation: Descent into Darkness, Lightning and Serpent: Dialectics of Enlightenment, Robinson Crusoe’s  Dream: The Engulfment of Fear, Psyche and Firearms: Divine Violence, and finally Dancing with the Devil: The Daemon of Mephistopheles. With nonlinear narratives, each section acts as an index that invites us into a new spiritual-political world that transcends our desires.

Tangle of Revolution and Political Soul 

靡菲斯特的舞步

Vernissage: 

Saturday, 13th November 2021 from 4pm

Exhibition:  

14th  November, 2021 – 16th January 2022

Venue:                        

SGA Three on the Bund, 3F, No. 3 Zhong Shan Dong Yi Road, Shanghai

Artists: 

Ensemble | Cao Yu | Chen Ronghui | Chen Ruofan | Dürer | Gao Lei Geng Yini | Gong Jian | He Yunchang | Hu Wei | Li Jingxiong | Li Nu | Liu Yefu | Liu Yu | Lu Boyu | Ma Wenting | Miao Miao | Ni Jun | Pu Yingwei | Song Yuanyuan | Tong Wenmin | Wang Jun | Wang Ziquan | Wu Di | Xiao Kegang |  Xu Zhen® | Yang Shen | Zhao Gang | Zhang Hui | Zhang Ruyi |  Zhao Yu | Zhuang Hui

 

Curator:

Lu Mingjun

Shanghai Space & Gallery Association (SGA) is very pleased to announce our major exhibition—Tangle of Revolution and Political Soul, opening on 13th November 2021, 4 pm, at Three on the Bund, Shanghai. 

Today, when the dominating rule of platform capitalism has finally cast its demise upon our free will, Philosopher Byung-Chul Han suggests that we should perhaps “play the role of an idiot” as an adaptive form of resistance. Alluding to such feelings and thoughts, we have invited over 31 artists and collective to engage in an eccentric storm of ideological and spiritual collision under this theme. The exhibition is curated by Lu Mingjun, Ph.D. in History and Young Researcher at the School of Philosophy, Fudan University.

The exhibition will run through 16th January, 2022. 

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ARTISTS 

(part 2)

▎堡垒 ENSEMBLE

手工蜡刻版画、印刷品、综合材料

Mimeograph, print materials, mixed media

尺⼨可变 Dimensions Variable, 2018

"Ensemble" was a collaborative effort of seven artists who worked together for two months in open-air film screenings, theatre building, assembly, printing, and publishing. The print studio is deemed as the main framework of "Ensemble" and was launched to consolidate and integrate everything that the group has accomplished together. It is also the only possible visual sample of the project after its conclusion. 

Participating artists: Hu Qingtai, Lu Bei, Pu Yingwei, Qiu Shijie, Shi Qing, Zhu Ge, Zeng Hong.

▎曹⾬ CAO YU

「龙头」 Dragon Head

C-print (艺术家本人 the artist), 金属外框 metal frame 

220 × 147 cm, 2020

Cao Yu  (b.1988）BFA & MA, Sculpture, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China. 

Her works span a diverse range of media that include video, installation, performance, photography, sculpture and painting. With her distinctive interdisciplinary practice, sharp and bold artistic language, she has become one of the leading young artists in the field of Chinese contemporary art. By using her own physical self, Cao Yu pushes boundaries and articulates a bold new voice for her own and succeeding generations. Her work challenges propriety and other social conventions, questions the value and identity of current Chinese society using the way that is not only inherent but also performative, also shedding new light on relevant and timely women’s issues. In the process, the work of this free spirit and focused artist, opens up new possibilities. 

▎⾼磊 Gao Lei

「东/南：⼥祭司与先锋」 East/South: Priestess and the Forward

⾮洲⾯具，和田玉石珠，塑料网，胡桃⽊框，⼯业⽊托盘，⽹球拍，天然绿石球 African mask, Hetian jade beads, plastic net, walnut frame, industrial wooden tray, tennis racket, natural green stone ball

125 x 85 x 15 cm, 2021

Gao Lei’s art practice spans multiple media, including installation, sculpture, photography, and painting. Everyday objects and standardised industrial products are often adopted as his work’s essential components. Through extraction and synthetic manipulation, Gao tampers and adds on to the product’s original functions, properties and meanings. Ultimately transforming them to become a scale or model for measuring various domains such as the body, power, consumption, and religion. Through precise material testing and vectorization of graphics, Gao’s works, along with the objects they confront and the questions raised, alternate between spatial and conceptual dimensions, allowing the viewer to re-examine and remeasure our inherent boundaries with the world using a standard other than that of experience.

▎耿旖旎 Geng Yini

「《族群力量》-  1」 "Group Power"- 1

数字打印、丙烯以及油漆笔 Acrylic and sharpie on digital print

29.5 x 36 cm, 2020

Geng Yini (b.1982) Currently lives and works in Shenyang. Graduated with Bachelor’s Degree in 2005 and Master’s Degree in 2012 from the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts.

▎李竞雄 LI JINGXIONG

「P21-1001T」

随机材料料 Mixed media 

230 x 150 cm, 2021

Li Jingxiong (b. 1987 Wuhu, Anhui Province) currently works and lives in Shanghai. In 2010 he earned his bachelor's degree in Nanjing University of Arts, Painting department; and his art master's degree in 2013.

Li Jingxiong often draws inspiration from seemingly unrelated fields (including traditional Chinese landscape painting, calligraphic art, fantasy literature, movies by Tsui Hark, music, and subcultures).  He is fond of using industrial materials that carry an “Arte Povera” quality, such as truck canvas, aluminium, and foamed plastic. While creating, he emphasizes an interplay and balance between the coarseness embedded in DIY approach and the precision found in industrial manufacturing and endeavors to bridge aspects of Chinese traditional culture with expressionism in painting based on his own experience and research into art history. 

▎李怒 LI NU

「消失计划: 孤独图书馆」 

Disappearance Project: The Lonely Library

单频高清影像 (有声) Single channel HD video (sound)

05‘23“, 2018

Li Nu, artist, graduated with an MA in Sculpture from Royal College of Art, lives and works in Beijing.

Li Nu roots in everyday life. He subverts the perceived boundaries between documentary and fiction, representation and abstraction to explore and achieve a poetic language in art. Through capturing the details of everyday life, he aims to reflect  the  individual’s  mood  swings  and  the  menials  state  of  population  in  the evolution  of  macro--society.  The  apparently  unpromising  materials  of  everyday  life are transformed into something metaphorical, poignant, humorous, poetic and dramatic, challenging us to question our received experiences about life and see the world afresh. The concept that he wants to express is never what you have seen. It is always wandering between void and solid.

▎刘野夫 LIU YEFU

「约克新闻」 York News

双频高清录像 (彩色 & 有声） 

Double-channel HD video (colour & sound)

10‘40”, 2014

Liu Yefu (b. 1986, Beijing) currently lives and works in Beijing。

He graduated with Bachelor’s Degree from Capital Normal University, Beijing in 2009 and received Master’s Degrees from Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore in 2014. Liu distinguishes himself through his multi-media works which explore the influence of popular culture and reflect upon the disruptiveness of social realities.

▎陆博宇 LU BOYU

「蛇」 Snake 

行为、影像静帧 Performance, single channel video

50", 2016

Lu Boyu (b. 1991) Now lives and works in Shanghai. Lu Boyu graduated from Visual Communication Department, Dalian Polytechnic University, in 2014. His work often generates an intuitive emotional impact on the viewers through its succinct form and plotless narrative. Questioning daily orders with a rebellious attitude, the artist scrutinizes and investigates the reality world continuously and profoundly. The meticulous analytical approach and in-depth reflective attitude are embedded at the core of his work.

▎苗妙 MIAO MIAO

「异地恋」 Long-Distance-Love

火车票、丝带、手工缝制 Train tickets, ribbons, hand-stitched

6 x 4.5 x 2.5 cm, 2019

Miao Miao (b.1986) studied in Henan University Fine Arts Department from 2005 - 2009 and Central Academy of Fine Arts,  Experimental Art from 2010 - 2011. 

▎宋元元 SONG YUANYUAN

「康忙小猪 1」 Come On Pigs no. 1

布面油画 Oil on canvas

205 x 250 cm, 2021

Song Yuanyuan (b. Shenyang, China) Currently living and working in Shenyang，China. Graduated with B.A., Department of Photography, Luxun Academy of Fine Arts, China in 2005.

▎童⽂敏 TONG WENMIN

「芭蕉林」 Plantain Trees

单频录像 (彩色，无声), 行为，金之岛，马来西亚 

Single channel video (colour, silence), performance, Dinawan, Malaysia

06'43", 2019

(b.1989) Tong Wenmin's work often focuses on the intersection between individual perception and the external environment, stimulating visual poetry and inspiring action through behaviors that at first seem counter-intuitive. Through often simplified or regulated movements, her work hints at the allegorical character of the body and action within a semantically rich context.

▎王梓全 WANG ZIQUAN

「无题」 Untitled

泡沫、PU Styrofoam, PU 

310 x 140 x 60 cm, 2021 

Wang Ziquan (b.1993) currently lives and works between Hangzhou and Shanghai, he graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts witha B.A. degree in sculpture in 2017 and from the Royal College of Art with a M.A. degree in 2019. Wang’s practice is rooted in his unique observation and understanding of the Internet and the virtual world, exploring the threshold values between virtuality and reality, and using 3D software to imitate the absurdity in the physical world. By using narrative computer images, he copies and pastes between virtual and real spaces.

▎吴笛 WU DI

「沉默之石」Stone of Silence

⽊板油画、金箔 Oil on wood, gold leaf 

220 x 150 cm, 2020 

Wu Di (b.1979) graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2002. She's a very versatile artist with her works touching painting, installation, sculpture and other media. Her works bring together references to a variety of situations more or less familiar to daily life – life, death and war, animal rights, belief systems and emotions – which she hopes with resonate with her audience. Wu Di loves to use classic paintings as inspiration for the antecedent to her repetitions. What is worth mentioning is that, inspiration and production occur where she employs these classics and strips them away from their narrative structure. She has been constructing a theatre with her own logic system. In each scene, she produces works through repetition.

▎肖克刚 XIAO KEGANG

「2020 匿名 - 2」 2020 Anonymous - 2

布面丙烯 Acrylic on canvas

120 x 90 cm, 2020 

Xiao Kegang (b. 1986) Graduated from Fine Arts of Southwest Normal University in 1991.

▎XU ZHEN® 徐震®

「安全屋 A」Safe House A

帐篷撑杆及帆布 Tent poles and canvas fabric 

320 x 210 x 140 cm, 2012

(b.1977) XU ZHEN®, founded by artist Xu Zhen in 2013, is the flagship art brand of MadeIn Company. He is a leading Chinese artist and curator, and the founder of MadeIn Company. XU ZHEN® is committed to art creation and cutting-edge culture development.      

▎杨深 YANG SHEN

「《探险家与热带雨林》系列- 在莽林中 」

“Explorer and the Jungle” series- In the Jungle

布面油画 Oil on canvas

210 x 175 cm, 2019 

Yang Shen (b. 1973) Currently lives and works in Beijing. Graduated from the Mural Art department of Central Academy of Fine Arts. Yang Shen's paintings focus on the connection between personal memories, experiences, fantasies and historical times. Through continuous practice and unceasing exploration of painting language, Yang has gradually established a unique personal style. His paintings are profoundly narrative-oriented, using illusory imagination to transform daily scenes into absurd and surrealistic visual experiences. He excels in juxtaposing cinematic elements, science fiction scenes and characters bearing the marks of time, to create fantastical surrealistic pictures.

▎张如怡 ZHANG RUYI

「只有现在」Only Now

建筑碎⽚片、瓷砖、仙⼈掌刺、⽊、混凝土、地漏

Demolition debris, ceramic tiles, cactus thorns, wood, concrete, floor drain

60 × 70 × 38 cm (雕塑sculpture), 尺寸可变 Dimensions variable (地⾯景观 floorscape) 2018 

Zhang Ruyi (b.1985) currently lives and works in Shanghai. Zhang's artistic practice unfolds around everyday logic. Her work occupies a unique space which reconciles artifacts, the industrial experience, and urban life. The artist finds inspiration in everyday materials. In her main narrative approach, she begins with inner intuition and explores the hierarchical interactions between individuals, material, and place.  Her work mainly involves installation, sculpture, and integrated media. She uses "reality" as "model" for drawing out moments of individual perception as the city shifts around its inhabitants, planting them within the material to bestow a significance which extends beyond the material.

▎赵刚 ZHAO GANG

「北京蓝天」Beijing Blue

布面油画 Oil on canvas 

160 x 200 cm

Zhao Gang (b.1961) currently lives and works in Beijing and New York. He made his artistic debut as a member of the Stars Group, one of the first avant-garde artist groups to open the era of contemporary art in China when he was only 18 years old. After that, he pursued formal art education and lived successively in Europe and New York. Since returning to Beijing, Zhao Gang has turned his ever-expanding focus toward the entanglement of his personal past with Chinese history and his unique position, at once a native and a newcomer in China today, which led his art to the relationships between fluid individual identities, conflicting cultures, and the ruptured historical era. 

▎赵⽟ POCONO ZHAO YU

「太阳，南国梨，美丽城 」

SUN, Southern Kingdom Pear, BELLEVILLE

南国梨、PVC管、木、漆、声音 Pear, PVC pipe, wood, paint, sound, mixed media

尺寸可变 Dimensions variable

Pocono Zhao Yu (b. 1990) is an artist, curator, and writer based in Shanghai and Paris. Zhao attended the Central Academy of Fine Arts and subsequently she received her master's degree (DNSAP) from École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. Her works usually use image, video, and writing. Pocono frequently questions the authenticity of history within her works, and focuses on the identity-based and regional anxieties that stem from globalization. The neighborhood of Belleville in Paris is featured predominantly in her practice, around which she has conducted a research practice on the subtle relationship between Maghreb and France.