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

Materials reshaped, redesigned and reborn

Courtesy of Ni Youyu

“Woodcutter” (left) and “Olympia”

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