55

Opening：2023.3.11 · 15:00 ~ 18:00

Dates：2022.3.11 ~ 4.23

Gallery 55 is pleased to announce that Yu Aijun’s individual exhibition "I would like to be a torrent" will open on the 11th of March, 2023. Comprising embroidery works on canvas/satin created over the past two years, the show will continue through the 23rd of April. This is Yu Aijun’s second solo presentation at the Gallery since 2018.

Cloth (satin) embroidery is a separate project derived by Yu Aijun from his practice of "tree-like growth". It is based on "painting at night" that lasted for several years (the inner page of the black-skinned book made on the A5 folio, 50 pages each, a total of 12 books so far). The artist tries to use them to present "imaginary density" and boundaries by putting some of the achievements and viewing methods of Chinese folk art in an open context for reflection and use. "Painting at night" made him a creator who was self-separated. Yu Aijun tried to convert it into silk thread embroidery on satin. With the help of the basic embroidery skills of folk craftsmen, the feeling of chaos and confusion was clearly and quantified on canvas or satin. As a result, the artist creates a work that is "incolumn" or has a compound atmosphere -- both improvised painting, fibre, a lot, knitting and even a needle tingling -- and aesthetic characteristics.

Yu Aijun was born in Taling, Liaoning Province in 1971. He graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Luxun Academy of Fine Arts in 2004. Currently, he lives and works in Shenyang. His special project "They confessed that they cheered but they shouted loudly" was presented at the Art Basel Show in Hong Kong (Insights) in 2018.

Yu Aijun is a sceptic and adheres to a firm "uselist" in his artistic work. He believes that every creative individual is the visual end of the comprehensive sports landscape of the times. Freedom is subject, and the ego is others. His practice is mainly painting, including painting as tentacles and objects touching a variety of media fields. His work involves "sketch" rethinking, ready-made use, (temporary) installations, images and poetry writing. Over the years, he has been focussing on the problems and conflicts between individuals and groups in many fields in practice, extracting images or images from our era, merging matter and perceptions, physical objects and virtual, so as to carry out political commentary and media imagination. All of this is based on his personal temperament and work logic when he encounters actions, scenes, materials and traditional resources, and hopes to derive his personal sense of language, skills and methods from it.