Tang Contemporary Art Center Seoul is delighted to present "The Shepherd's Touch”, a solo exhibition by Chinese artist Wu Wei. Following the success of his previous shows "Variance" and "Freedom from Resistance" in 2020, "The Shepherd's Touch" marks Wu Wei's third solo exhibition at Tang Contemporary Art Center and his second in Korea.
Featuring over 40 new works created since 2022, the exhibition showcases Wu Wei's signature paper-fur series as well as his latest series, "Cut and Substitute," which offers a fresh perspective on the history of Western imagery. Wu Wei's thought-provoking pieces explore the relationship between humanity and bestiality, civilization and nature, and domestication and feralization.
In his paper-fur pieces, Wu Wei combines paper and animal fur to revisit the primitive thinking and violence of human ancestors, inviting viewers to contemplate the dawn of time before the advent of rationality. Meanwhile, in "Cut and Substitute," Wu Wei challenges the visual dictatorship in art history by mutilating classical works of Western painting into skin, transforming the sacredness of the image into the objectivity of the installation, and building an arena for vision and sense of touch.
"The Shepherd's Touch" aims to rethink the dialectics between skin and hair, and points to the basic theme of DISCIPLINE in Wu Wei's work. Once again, Wu Wei restores the spiritual battlefield of ancient times, when the saints did not yet exist.
Artist
Wu Wei
b. 1981, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China
In 2012, Wu Wei graduated from the Experimental Art Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts with a master's degree and now lives in Beijing. Wu's works are full of sensual desires, involving topics of civilization, barbarism, and mythology, looking for new feelings and possibilities in materials and space. The artist cuts and restructures the paper, presenting furry textures. The ‘beastly pattern’ and certain kind of ‘godly creature’ with a vivid colour appear in parts, or interchangeable forms, and present new meaning with the pure, abstract formal elements. The artist contemplates and investigates contemporary culture consistently, resulting in symbolism in his works.
He won the 6th Anniversary Award for the New Artists Space Award in 2015, and won the 3rd New Star Art Festival Art Award in 2012. He participated in an international art residency in Vienna, Austria and Berlin, Germany. His works have been exhibited in Tang Contemporary Art , Beijing, Bangkok; Whitebox Art Center, Beijing, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Art, Beijing Minsheng Art Museum, Ichihara Lakeside Museum, Chiba, Japan, Leonard Pearlstein Gallery, Philadelphia, U.S.A, Asian Library, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, XC. HuA Gallery, Berlin, Germany, Migrant Bird Space, Berlin, Germany, FLUC Art Space, Vienna, Austria and many other art institutions; public collections include Minsheng Modern Art Museum, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Whitebox Art Center, Today Art Museum, Being3 Art Foundation and other institutions.