NEW YORK, NY.- A new contemporary exhibition at China Institute Gallery this fall will explore how artists approach issues of profound change ranging from experiencing powerful spiritual journeys to calling attention to serious environmental issues. Metamorphosis: Chinese Imagination and Transformation will be exhibited from September 10, 2025 through January 11, 2026. Many of the works are on view in the U.S. for the first time. The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue.

Metamorphosis presents work by 28 artists of Chinese descent who respond to themes of personal, cultural, environmental, and historical change in dynamic and innovative ways. Created by both established and emerging artists, the works span media with painting, sculpture, photography, installation, and video from 1974 through 2025. Artists include Xu Bing, Zheng Chongbin, Lu Yang, Yun-Fei Ji, Irene Chou, Liu Xiaodong, Yin Xiuzhen, and Fiona Lai Ching Wong. Works commissioned especially for the exhibition feature new paintings by Sun Xun and an immersive Dream Chamber installation by Bingyi. The exhibition is curated by Susan L. Beningson, an independent curator based in New York City.

"The work of these visionary artists leads the viewer to new realms of imagination, inspiration, and transformation,” said Beningson. “The exhibition showcases the work of both established and emerging artists in dialogue across different generations and backgrounds, who together reinterpret and challenge Chinese traditions in dynamic and innovative ways."

The exhibition is organized into four sections: Metamorphosis of the Body and Self, Spiritual Metamorphosis, Historical and Cultural Metamorphosis, and Environmental Metamorphosis.

Metamorphosis of the Body and Self

Lu Yang’s video light boxes from 2021 depict a journey through different stages of Buddhist enlightenment reflecting themes of metamorphosis and identity. In Ren Light Pan’s Sleep Painting-12.31.14, the artist uses the physical materiality of ink to create an impression of her body on canvas as part of her very personal spiritual and physical journey.

Spiritual Metamorphosis

Bingyi’s immersive Dream Chamber, 2025, was created specifically for Metamorphosis: Chinese Imagination and Transformation. The new commission consists of nine hanging scrolls that cover the entire surface of the walls of the gallery from the ceiling to the floor. Bingyi’s ink landscape is meant to evoke the mystery and spiritual transformation that occurs when meditating in Buddhist cave-chapels such as Dunhuang.

Historical and Cultural Metamorphosis

In a new commission, Sun Xun, as part of an artist residency at China Institute Gallery, is creating wall murals responding to the exhibition theme of Metamorphosis. In addition, in his folding book The Time Vivarium: Silk Book 2, 2021, Sun Xun reflects on how history can be manipulated as a tool to serve different goals. Su Xiaobai will exhibit the all-black paintings of his new Niao Niao series at China Institute Gallery for the first time in the United States. Niao literally means being adrift and reflects the artist’s own displacement.

Environmental Metamorphosis

Yun-Fei Ji’s Three Gorges Dam Migration, 2008, handscroll and Liu Xiaodong’s painting Wolf Smoke (Smoke Signals), 2006, are eloquent narratives about loss and the spiritual and environmental costs of material progress. In Skylines, 2014, Zheng Chongbin explores the intersections of the Chinese ink-painting tradition and Western abstraction by using materials from both, mixing black ink with white acrylic to create spontaneous effects.

Exhibition Artists

Metamorphosis: Chinese Imagination and Transformation includes the work of Chinese, Hong Kong, and Chinese-American artists. The artists are: Ah Xian, Bingyi, Bouie Choi, Chu Chu, Fiona Wong Lai Ching, Fung Ming Chip, Irene Chou, Cui Fei, Jennifer Wen Ma, Kelly Wang, Lin Guocheng, Lu Yang, Lui Shou-Kwan, Liu Xiaodong, Man Fungyi, Ming Fay, Ren Light Pan, Su Xiaobai, Sun Xun, Tao Aimin, Wang Tiande, Yin Xiuzhen, Yun-Fei Ji, Zhang Jian-Jun, Zheng Chongbin, Zheng Lu, and Zhang Yu. Artist Xu Bing will design the exhibition title in his signature “square word calligraphy.” Current or recent exhibitions by artists participating in Metamorphosis include: Zheng Chongbin: Golden State at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and Ming Fay: Edge of the Garden at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston. Sun Xun: Magic Atlas will be on view at the Guangdong Time Museum in China. Bingyi will have a solo show, The Eternal Pond of the Universe (2022-2024), at the Harvard Art Museums. Recently, works by Sun Xun and Lu Yang were featured in a landmark exhibition, China, A New Generation of Artists, at the Centre Pompidou in Paris that ended earlier this year.

Exhibition Catalogue

A fully illustrated catalogue will accompany Metamorphosis: Chinese Imagination and Transformation. The catalogue will include an essay by exhibition curator Susan L. Beningson, as well as essays on specific works by leading curators and scholars of Asian art including Jan Stuart, National Museum of Asian Art; Hiromi Kinoshita, Philadelphia Museum of Art; Owen Duffy, Asia Society Texas; Dora Ching, Tang Center for East Asian Art, Princeton University; Sarah Laursen, Harvard University Art Museums; Einor Cervone, Denver Art Museum; and Christopher Phillips, New York University.

Exhibition Programs

The curator lecture will be held on September 10, from 6:30 to 8 pm, when artists and the curator discuss their creative journey. A full-day symposium will be held on September 27 with curator Susan L. Beningson and most catalogue authors. Additional programs are being planned for November and December.

About Susan L. Beningson

Susan L. Beningson, PhD, is an independent curator based in New York City. Her most recent exhibitions include Xu Bing: Word Alchemy (with Owen Duffy) and Summoning Memories: Art Beyond Chinese Traditions (2023) at Asia Society Texas; We The People: Xu Bing and Sun Xun Respond to the Declaration of Independence (Asia Society NY Triennial 2020-2021), and Imperial Treasures: Chinese Ceramics of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties from the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, currently on view at the Asia Society Museum in New York. From 2013 through 2019, she served as a curator of Asian Art at the Brooklyn Museum. Dr. Beningson received her doctoral degree in Chinese art and archaeology from Columbia University and an MBA from New York University.