GALLERY WHERE is pleased to announce the opening of its new exhibition space, located deep in the Hutongs of Dongsi in Beijing on August 12, 2023. Taking "flowing water" as its theme, the exhibition will examine the role of contemporaneity in East Asian art development, especially in the context of the current changes in the world order, and rethink what "Oriental" means.
The agricultural civilization that originated and developed in the Yellow River basin has imbued “water” with a transcendent spiritual image for a long time. Water droplets falling from the sky converge into streams, flow through mountains and rivers, carry mud and sand, and rush to the estuary, before swirling back and forth between heaven and earth. From the natural behavior of water, we see it constantly gathering and dispersing, we appreciate its boundless and inclusive nature, and we learn from it its selflessness and tolerance in absorbing everything. East Asian art, rooted in Central Plains culture, has been like flowing water, converging into one place over thousands of years through intermingling with northern nomadic civilizations and continuous collisions with Western thought. "Oriental" does not mean opposition, exclusivity, or blind adherence to a single value system. Our contemporaneity should not be separated from tradition and confined to a narrow context of contemporary art. The estuary is both the destination and the starting point of flowing water. Everything is in motion. Contemporary "Oriental" means allowing everything to happen.
The group exhibition "Towards the River Mouth: Embracing the Unfettered Flow of All" features four artists, Chen Duxi, Sun Wenjia, Tang Nannan, and Nobuyuki Tanaka, whose practices explore the theme of "transformation of flowing water." In their works, we can see the artists resonating with the world's transformations and constants through observing water, using their open and non-discriminating artistic language.
Chen Duxi's (b. 1983) practice centers on the articulation of line. To the artist, line embodies spatial dimension, demarcation, and a fleeting instant of motion. In his “Chi-Yi (持颐)” series, Chen investigates aqueous movement—water's dynamic convergence across varied topographies, its stratified transparency and chromatic gradations under illumination, wind-driven undulations forming ripple patterns, and its phenomenological appearance/disappearance relative to thermal conditions and material substrates. His enduring fascination lies in capturing these myriad states while negotiating the delicate equilibrium between movement's subject and object within painterly practice.
Chen currently works and lives in Beijing, China. His works have been exhibited at the Guimet National Museum of Asian Arts in Paris, Museum of New Sino-French Institute in Lyon, Bonn Contemporary Art Center in Germany, the Himalayas Art Museum in Shanghai, and Art Museum of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing...
Sun Wenjia (b. 1986) has long been committed to pushing the boundaries of lacquer art, expanding his artistic practice into sculpture, installation, and performance. His “Evolution” series establishes a temporal dialogue between "lacquer" and "object." As both initiator and observer in this dialogue, the artist actively engages with the displacement of sculpture, inviting the river to physically transform its form.
His major exhibitions include: Limited Intentionality, ShanghART, Shanghai, CN (2024); Towards the River Mouth: Embracing the Unfettered Flow of All, Gallery Where, Beijing, CN (2023); Back to Nature, Yuan Museum, Beijing, CN (2023); Get Rid of Covering, Taihe Art Space, Beijing, CN (2023); Materiality - Intuition, Jinhua Cultural Center, Jinhua, CN (2022); Start from the Lacquer Art: The Expression of Contemporary Forms and Concepts, TCCA, Xiamen, CN (2022); "Returning to the Void and Entering the Muddy Waters" Sun Wenjia & Wang Ling Dual Exhibition, Yuan Museum, Beijing, CN (2021); Fujian Art Renaissance 2.0, Time Space, Fuzhou, CN (2021); Time Capsule, Timespace, Fuzhou, CN (2020); Square Dance at Jungle, Art Museum of Fujian, Fuzhou, CN (2015).
Tang Nannan (b. 1969) is curious about the intrinsic flow of history and time. He has long focused on core themes such as oceans and mountains, myths and epics, seclusion and responsibility, continuously contemplating the potential of ancient Chinese culture in contemporary life, especially the alienation of individuals and spiritual reconstruction through virtual reality. In recent years, he has been devoted to the study of maritime culture and has started writing for public publications. His works often employ various techniques spanning across moving images, paintings, photography, installations, sculptures, spatial interventions, showing his reflections and creations in a multidimensional manner.
NOBUYUKI TANAKA（田中信行）
Nobuyuki Tanaka (b. 1959) owns the ability to manipulate the unique qualities of lacquer to create a symbiotic interconnectivity between facades and their interiors, using the raw beauty of his material to create sculptures that are not only elegantly crafted, but represent a new way of perceiving ancient materials and techniques in the 21st century. Tanaka is widely considered to be the leading lacquer artist of his generation, and it is Tanaka who has vibrantly pushed the boundaries of what contemporary lacquer can represent: a persuasive means of Eastern expression within contemporary sculpture that is, simultaneously, a direct challenge to the hegemony of the Western narrative within modern and contemporary art.
His works have been exhibited at institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, the Ueno Royal Museum in Tokyo, the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, the Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design, the Hagi Uragami Museum, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, the Kennedy Center in Washington, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, the Münster Lacquerware Art Museum in Germany, the Saatchi Gallery in London, and the Hubei Museum of Art in China.