Artists:
WU Jian'an, LIU Zhan, TONG Kunniao
WU Jian'an
Wu Jian’an was born in 1980 in Beijing, China. He is currently a professor and Ph.D. degree tutor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts.
In 2017, Wu Jian’an represented China in the 57th Venice Biennale. In recent years, Wu’s art works have attended Lines of Thought: Gestural Abstraction in the BAMPFA Collection (Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, USA, 2022), SUPER FUSION: 2021 Chengdu Biennale (Tianfu Art Park, Chengdu, China, 2021), Glasstress: Window to the Future (The State Hermitage Museum, Russia, 2021), KAIWU: Art et design en Chine (Musée de l’Hospice Comtesse, France, 2021), The Endless Life—the Narrative of the Yellow River (The Museum of Contemporary Art Yinchuan, Ningxia, China, 2020), Art and Archaeology (Naples National Archaeological Museum, Italy, 2019), The 7 th Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial (Echigo-Tsumari, Japan, 2018), Serpenti Form (Mori Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2019; Art Science Museum, Singapore, 2017), etc. He had held several solo exhibitions in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and New York City.
LIU Zhan
Chinese, b.1976, Luoyang, Henan, China, Liu Zhan graduated from the Department of Sculpture at Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) and established the art trio UNMASK in 2002. He lives and works in Beijing.
After leaving the artist trio UNMASK in 2011, Liu Zhan initiated a new artistic exploration as an independent artist, creating a series of installations based on his own research, which includes videos, prints, ready-mades, and sculptures. His exhibitions “The Mysteries of Animal Reproduction” and “Balcony” suggested that he attempted to pursue a new path of artistic creativity, that is, paying more attention to the scene. This way, the artist utilized and reflected on the spatial and historical dimensions of where his art projects were presented. The diversity and experimentality of his artistic expression, in addition to the internal and external multiplicity of the space, pushed the boundaries of the viewers’ experience to a degree.
Liu Zhan’s recent solo projects include “Wind from Southwest” at the Plate Space (2021), “Balcony” at DRC No.12 (2018), and “Liu Zhan: The Mysteries of Animal Production” at Magician Space (2017). His work has been exhibited at major collective exhibitions, which include “Futurism of the Past-Contemplating the Past and Future in Chinese Contemporary Art” at Inaugural Exhibition of the Culture and Art Hub of Beijing Exhibition Center (2021), “12 Artists: DRC Triennial” at DRC No.12 (2018), and “Emerging Curators Project 2015” at Shanghai’s Power Station of Art (2015).
TONG Kunniao
Chinese, b.1990, Changsha, Hunan Province, received his BFA from No.3 Studio, Department of Sculpture at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2015. In 2016, he went to graduate school and dropped out in the same year. He currently lives and works in Beijing.
Tong Kunniao’s works across installation, performance, video, sculpture, and painting. He is adept at using “excess products” generated by the modern world—a perpetual waste-making factory, and “leftovers” that have been found in resale shops, the flea markets or on the streets. He concerns about how the complex social structure has determined our social status and eaten up our individual identities. By decomposing ready-made objects and reassembling them in tandem or keeping them perfectly in balance, Tong aims to demonstrate the individual consciousness (the free spirit) behind the objects as well as the multiplicity and fragility of the system. In an era when commodity fetishism and symbol consumption are prevalent, and information is overloaded, Tong’s work extends beyond formal boundaries of reconstruction and presents it in a quirky and seemly absurd manner.
His exhibitions in the last years: Wiltopia (Hua International, Berlin, Germany, 2022), The Myth of Human Nature (Setareh Gallery, Düsseldorf, Germany, 2022), Artist’s Game (OCAT Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China, 2022), Sailing (TAG Art Museum, Qingdao, China, 2022), The Exhibition of Annul of Contemporary Art of China Shanghai 2020 (Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China, 2021), Futurism of the Past—— Contemplating the Past and Future in Chinese Contemporary Art (Beijing Exhibition Center, Beijing, China, 2021), I Am the Nature -on Vulnerability, Survival in A Society at Risk, 26th Rohkunstbau (Brandenburg, Germany, 2021), Golden Dystopia on Three Millimeters (Cc Foundation Shanghai, Shanghai, China, 2021), NIAO x KUN x TONG (Jupiter Museum, Shenzhen, China, 2020), I don’t MISS u (XPM, Changsha, China, 2019), Dans Le Ventre Du Pigenon, Il Y A Non Seulement Du Caca, Mais Du Pain Aussi (Liusa Wang Gallery, Paris, France, 2017), Over Pop (Yuz Art Museum, Shanghai, China, 2016), Why Don’t You Eat Stinky Tofu? (Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles, USA, 2016), Dreaming a Baton the Floor (Platform China Contemporary Art Institute, Beijing, China, 2016) .etc.
Director: ZHANG Zikang
Curator: WANG Jing
Duration: June 21 - August 30, 2023
Venue: Datong Ancient City, Taiping Tower South DongNanYi Historical and Cultural District
