Artist Ni Youyu’s first solo installation exhibition in China “∞” is being showcased at the Yuz Museum. The works were created over a decade, and many are on display for the first time.
With materials collected from flea markets, antique shops, vintage boutiques and even dumps around the world, the artist has constructed a micro museum with an archaic undertone.
Many of the collectables are reshaped, redesigned, redefined and reborn with Ni’s aesthetic logic.
“From my point of view, an artist is never a creator, but a leader of perceiving and viewing,” Ni said.
“All materials are in endless circulation, and what I do is simply interfere with a certain section of their connatural gene strand.”
He guides the audience to interpret the genetic “circulation” through a string of co-created works with his father, an architecture teacher.
Ni began his career as an artist in the late 1980s, transforming his father’s architectural models.
This is why there is a core spirit of craftsmanship behind his art.
The giant image “∞” is projected in the gallery, running through the artist’s oeuvre, connecting a philosophical discourse contextualized in history, culture as well as ties of the family.
Exhibition info
Date: Through October 20 (closed on Mondays), 10am-9pm
Tickets: Free
Venue: Yuz Museum Shanghai
Address: 35 Fenggu Rd
“Woodcutter” (left) and “Olympia”
