The Shape Salon: Wang Yi Solo Exhibition

The range of processes employed in each of Wang Yi’s works on view reveals the extraordinary depth of his artistic strategies. Starting from former, geometric simplicity, the artist painfully applies hundreds of layers of color, exploring the effects of repetition, dissolving, shading, overpainting and contrasting. In these vibrant and vital works— some finished with layered resin and all seemingly pixelated without a focal point, the initial continuities of color and shape (which the artist picks out of natural or urban landscapes) have been reconfigured to produce a new order. It represents two important facets of the artist’s practice, the solitary, independent inner seeking and his reflection on the ambiguous dynamics of China’s modern history.

‘Reflection of Shadow’—one of the artist’s longest-running series, seems to be brilliantly dark and bright at the same time. Aiming to depict a visual force “brighter than light”, Wang continues using the gridded patterns and the labour-intensive painterly techniques to establish a blurred structure with sharp edged glowing forms. Embracing philosophical elements of chance, paradox, and tension, Wang creates astonishing images with seemingly infinite reflections imbued with vibrant drama. His works challenge our understanding of Western abstraction while subverting established histories of art and culture.

The exhibition also features a commissioned series Ksana, created for TANG’s inaugural art project. In these mystic and explosive abstractions, the past and present of fast-evolving metropolis such as Shanghai and Guangzhou are interpreted on aluminium surface with meticulous brush strokes and Wang’s signature glazing technique, which draws from glazed ceramics of China’s Southern Song dynasty. Laying numerous thin, translucent layers to blur, enrich or reduce colours, shapes and forms, Wang engages in a delicate and prolonged interplay between change and stability. The resulting visual shifts continually between Western and Eastern traditions, echoing manmade and natural wonders, and material weight of time itself. The presentation also features artist’s important paintings and sculptures from his ‘Overlapping’ and ‘Floating Square’ series.

Traditionally referring to a large building for a specific purpose, TANG is designed with a unique one—it is going to house a year-round, rotating, academic (yet certainly sumptuous) art program. Organised on the occasion of the grand opening of TANG, The Shape Salon kickstarts dynamic cultural dialogues, and the inspiring pairing of creative and culinary gatherings.