His works offer a confidence that as we sail along with our unpredictable destiny, we are still accompanied by all bright and beautiful things. Flowers, vegetables, giant mountains, white and soft clouds, sunsets, birds …… Both the dumplings and the sun can be slightly larger than the entire universe, vast and free.
Enter a flower stamen, become a white cloud, and be a dumpling.
Artist Liu Yi enters the world of ten thousand things with a unique perspective and brushstroke, a contemporary world of spirituality.
As Paul Éluard’s poem says, “There is another world, and it is in this one.”
There is light in all things, what Liu Yi paints is not the appearance of things, but the feeling and memory of the moment, which the glow of things is vibrating inside of us.
What is amazing is Liu Yi’s ability to keep himself amazed, he can always see and always be moved. He gathers and deepens the mind’s attention, acutely entering the inside world of things. These works are the moments when mental feelings and visual images collide in the mind to take shape.
Creation relies on the mind, not the medium of creation. What Liu Yi discovers is the mystery contained in things themselves, the lively and passionate outside world and the quiet and profound another one. The world he portrays also allows a new movement and focus of our attention, bringing the unnoticed back into focus and reopening the things we take for granted.
All things have walked toward me, flowed through me, and gradually become me.
By Dr. SHEN Qilan
Bright and Beautiful
Artist: Liu Yi
Curator: Shen Qilan
Opening Time: 1 Oct, 2022 15:00-18:30
Duration: 1 Oct – 3 Dec, 2022 (Tuesday-Saturday 10:30-18:30)
Venue: 1F, Block 2, No.50 Moganshan Rd, Shanghai, M ART CENTER
SHEN Qilan
Dr. Shen Qilan is curator of this exhibition.
Shen Qilan is an art critic, curator, writer and cultural scholar, receiving her Ph.D.in philosophy from the University of Münster, Germany. She is guest professor of East China Normal University. She was the editorial director of Art World magazine. She is also an editorial board member of Book Town magazine.
Dr. Shen has curated several internationally influential exhibitions and forums with domestic and international art institutions, including:“Aura of Poetry”;“A.R. Penck: Will Sign become Reality?”;“Bauhaus Class”; “Masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou 1906-1977”；“Eingedunkelt”;“Sightings: Positions of Art from Germany”;“China Pride-Contemporary as Method”; the international forum“Detour” series for the 12th Shanghai Biennale; Cultural dialogue series“The FutureS”, etc. she is curator for Jimei Arles International photo festival in 2020.
She contributes columns and catalog essays for international art media and institutions, including: Financial Times Chinese website, The Thinker Weekly, ifeng Art, Noblesse, Artnet, Shanghai Museum, Uffizi Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Australian, Skira publishing house, etc.
LIU Yi
Artist, Associate Professor, Public Art Curator
Liu Yi’s practice explores the relationships between body and space, spirits and materials, individual and public, presence and absence of culture. The unique style of combining classic figure with contemporary colors，presented in the daily digital drawing on his smart phone, has interpreted not only artist’s curiosity and mythological imagination of life, but also his personal memories and experiences. The drawings, which seemed like children’s doodling, have shared overwhelming empathy with the audiences since the works reflected vivid life experiences. Meanwhile, Liu Yi has also taken his interest in creating narratives lying between digital media, materiality and subject. Thus, his artistic practice has taken place in both graphic and spatial ways based on daily life and social scenery.
Researcher of Institute for Public Art (IPA), director of Shanghai Designer Association. Member of Shanghai Artists Association. Liu Yi is the founder of 61CREATIVE studio. Former course leader for Public Art Department in Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts (SIVA). External experts of Product Design College of Shanghai Arts & Design Academy. Visiting professor of the School of Art and Design, Ji Mei University. ABTEILUNG KULTUR UND BILDUNG Generalkonsulat der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 《Bauhaus Class 2.0》mentor. Tutor of workshop “historical heritage and public art” of Anhalt University of Applied Technology, Germany. Tutor of future lab art and Design Innovation future Education Expo workshop.
Consultant of NOTCH Nordic and China Art Festival and executive curator of “Shanghai: Re-design” of Design Shanghai . Executive curator of “Shanghai: Re-design” of Design Shanghai. Curator of “Lumiéres China” XINTIANDI Light Festival. Curator of “Design Fuelling Station” and “Local Design Beat” in Shanghai Art & Design. Shanghai Project public art project researcher. Shanghai student design art competition judges.
“Art implanted medical space professional education model practice in exploration” won the Second Prize of Shanghai-level Teaching Achievement Award.Germany BASF Material innovation workshop mentor. 2018 Japan npo S-AIR resident invited artist. Fosun Foundation resident invited artist. Chengdu A4 ART MUSEM resident invited artist.
