A Brief History - Shanghai Art Museum 2012

The first solo exhibition entitled “A Brief History” of the young artist Ni Youyu will take place in the Art Museum of Shanghai from May 5th to May 15th  2012. This exhibition will display the artist’s work from 2007 to 2012 which consist of nearly fifty pieces of different genres such as paintings, installations, sculptures and collages. Many of the pieces are borrowed from foreign art collectors and therefore are released publicly for the first time in China.

In Ni Youyu’s creations, we clearly see that he is concerned about neither big social themes nor the current trend changes; he is more focused on researching about the nuances of Art itself. Similar to the literati of the late Ming dynasty, the core of Ni Youyu's work is constructed around his concern about everyday life, exploration of artistic languages and thinkings on Art History. Among his work of this coming exhibition, either his huge installation “Galaxy”, exhibited in the Kunstmuseum Luzern in Switzerland, or the series of paintings called “The Bottom of Taihu Lake”, or sculptures such as “the Canal”, they all show close examination of the essence of objects neglected by everyday life. On the other hand, huge paintings such as “Big Waterfall” and “the Painting Academy Monument” reveal the artist's exploration of pictorial idioms and materials.