All Creatures Great and Small…?

Before the vastness of all things, we are small; yet when we turn inward, we become impossibly specific. As in Solaris (1960), when humankind finally approaches the distant planet wrapped in its enigmatic ocean, the colossal sphere grows ever more concrete—and what reflects back is not the cosmos but the boundless, ceaselessly sought-after terrain of the self.

The many figures that appear throughout “All creatures great and small”—some turned in quiet profile, others meeting our gaze—slow the tempo of the exhibition space. We invite you to linger. The narrative shaped by this space speaks to each of us, here and now, in our own concrete and undeniable existence within the world.

Through the faces, gazes, and even the subtle hints of voice present in the works of eight artists from diverse backgrounds, this exhibition offers something gently surreal: a brief, multi-perspectival reencounter with our relationship to the world—one that feels at once immense and minuscule.

Here, you will see Bryan’s large-scale portraits that oscillate between familiarity and estrangement, set beside Peijia’s painted gecko, Hijirou, tumbling playfully onto the floor. Near the flickering visages in Tian Hao’s dream-spaces appears a thirty-second video by Song Ziwei—an earnest, clumsy, precise attempt to grasp the truth of color, made in a time before AI. The metallic faces in Johannes carry a muted sense of violence and conflict, while the extremely neutral-toned traces of the body in Myungchan’s paintings speak a language born of the technologically accelerated urban jungle we all inhabit. Melina turns to classical, saturated hues and softened features to explore femininity; Liqing contemplates death and aging, tracing the delicate tensions and shifting desires that flow between people.

In the art industry in China, November marks the fevered pace of Shanghai’s art season, its noise and energy traveling southward along the coast. By December, the bay area becomes an afterparty to the year’s festivities. As the Gregorian calendar becomes the global measure of time, December—bound by modern systems and rhythms—evolves into a month of retrospection and of looking ahead.

See you very soon.