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Thursday, September 19, 2024 |
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Eli Klein Gallery opens an exhibition featuring works by artists Quan Wenfei, Yang Shuai, and Echo Youyi Yan |
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NEW YORK, NY.- Eli Klein Gallery is presenting At-Will Adaptation: The Exhibition, the final and climatic chapter of the Gallerys residency-then-exhibition project featuring artists Quan Wenfei, Yang Shuai, and Echo Youyi Yan. The exhibition showcases newly executed works by the three artists, each highlighting their new experiments and directions.
The Residency has cultivated insightful discussions, constructive comments, and inspiring relationships after welcoming over 100 visitors at the artists studio, which was also the gallery space throughout July and August. Throughout the process, the three artists fiercely developed their practices within their focused areas backed by research and their creation processes. These new inquiries will serve as the cornerstone of the next chapter of their practices.
Quan Wenfei, a self-proclaimed internet archeologist, is a highly skilled printmaker. Using oil and silkscreen on canvas (a printmaking method popularized by Andy Warhol), Wenfei creates unique works commenting on pleasure, nostalgia, and the formation of habits. During the residency, Wenfei zoomed into the core concept of selective looking, a derivative of the print-makers worldview. Via playful manipulation of scale and color, she futhers her Click and Win, and Shuffling series. Both series are based on the 90s Windows game Solitaire - the first generation of dopamine-feeding machines. With the ability to look at elements of images selectively (colors, shapes, formations), the print-maker Wenfei and the internet archeologist Wenfei work in unison to strip down redundant layers of information, rearranging and re-grouping them either back to their original states or into brand new abstracted imageries. Wenfei argues that selective looking has been deeply wired into our contemporary perceptive systems, and her works only summon it forth to our recognition, like wrap-texting an image in a word document.
Yang Shuais mastery in printmaking enables her to apply the principles of multiplicitythe foundation of printmakingonto other mediums. During the residency, she defines herself as the base unit of measurement. With this methodology in mind, Shuai continues to examine the relationship between one and many - repeatedly juxtaposing herself (the constant) with free-handing drawing, collages, prints, risographs, paintings, and etc. (the variables). Shuai has also developed systems to contextualize how the self is used as a measurement. Gridding, matrixing, tile-making, net-making are all examples of this formal but humanitarian approach. Shuai displays the whole spectrum of human society with an entire wall of new works, carefully systemized and laid-out.
Finally, Echo Youyi Yans works present the metamorphosis of bodies in different contexts. Inspired by artists such as Pierre Huyghe, she creates research-driven works that are based on a myriad of fields including zoology, anthropology, and eroticism. During the residency, she extended the theme of domestication to domesticity, focusing on nature being tamed and housed under everyday purposes. As a resident artist of the gallery, Echo ironically and literally inspects the aspects of residency on a universal level: how lives might be transformed into tools; how utilities might be stripped away from pseudo-household objects; how intentions of tools might be miss-purposed. Technically, Echos new progression includes scraping away portions of stain and resin which she had been applying on her wood sculptures. This act of excavation mirrors an archaeological process, unearthing layers of meaning.
At-Will Adaptation
At-will, a term commonly associated with employment status, endows equal rights for the employer to fire and the employees to quit at any time. However, this concept often conceals the inherent power imbalances between the "masters and servants". On a societal level, we are supposedly empowered with an absolute liberty in thoughts and action. In reality, however, we are not truly liberal thinkers nor free actors; we are constantly adapting against our will. AI aids social media algorithms more effectively, curtailing original thought. Certain political factions demand absolute loyalty and suppress all other opposing viewpoints. We are becoming smarter in acting senselessly. As Herbert Marcuse poignantly pointed out, The total mobilization of all media for defense of the established reality has coordinated the means of expression to the point where communication of transcending contents becomes technically impossible.
Artists are the first to recognize this struggle, as contemporary art themes have shifted from a 'human-nature' dichotomy in the 2010s to a 'subjectively human - objectively human' focus, which identifies forced adaptation as a more pressing threat in the 2020s. As recent graduates, Quan Wenfei, Yang Shuai, and Echo Youyi Yan are at the forefront of this battle, working at the intersection of anthropology, sociology, and behavioral studies.
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Today's News
September 8, 2024
The 10 most anticipated art shows this season
White Cube opens an exhibition of new paintings and works on paper by Donna Huddleston
The Kimbell Art Museum acquires recently discovered painting by Artemisia Gentileschi
Helm celebrates its 1st anniversary by transforming into a living, breathing studio environment
Jackie Winsor, 82, dies; Sculptor who hammered, drilled and chopped
Solo exhibition of recent work by Erin Shirreff on view at Sikkema Jenkins & Co.
AGO celebrates extraordinary gift of contemporary art from the Estate of Philip B. Lind
Guernsey's announces upcoming auction: The NYC Downtown Scene
Eli Klein Gallery opens an exhibition featuring works by artists Quan Wenfei, Yang Shuai, and Echo Youyi Yan
Lloyd Ziff, visionary photographer and art director, dies at 81
The Walther Collection will open "Who We Are: Portraits and Vernacular Photography"
Xavier Hufkens announces its second gallery exhibition with Giorgio Griffa
Robin Bell's Silver Footprint II: An exhibition at Lucy Bell Gallery celebrates 50 years of darkroom printing
The Oklahoma City Museum of Art announces new Board Chair, Board members
Center for Maine Contemporary Art announces i forgot to remember │ Katarina Weslien
Dance performances, festivals and more coming this fall
'Grounded': How a new opera changed on its way to the Met
Ms. Taddeo goes to Hollywood
The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art will open "Agency: Craft in Chicago from the 1970s-80s and Beyond"
Solway Gallery announces John E. Dowell's 'Pathways to Freedom: Uncovering the Past'
15 shows to see on stages around the U.S. this fall
Forum Gallery opens the first exhibition of the fall season spotlighting works new to the gallery
Generative Aesthetics: Duo exhibition of works by Gottfried Jager and Manfred Mohr to open at Sous Les Etoiles Gallery
Exhibition of eight paintings by the Lebanese-American artist Nabil Kanso opens at Martos Gallery
The Power of Art in Online Slot Games: Exploring Iconic Designs
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