Metamorphosis: Echoes of Perception brings together female artists engaged in using painting as a site of perception, revealing how transformation materialises through visual language. This exhibition unfolds along two interwoven trajectories: one turns inward to portraiture, where artists shape and reinterpret human presence through their own perspectives; the other extends outward into nature, highlighting how perception evolves as the body interacts with the environment.
The portraiture-focused thread becomes a space of metamorphosis. Through introspective figuration and explorations of identity, the artists navigate layers of memory, desire, and psychological depth. Their works capture shifting states of being — from sensitivity to empowerment, solitude to intimacy — and reconsider how the female subject can reconstruct and reinterpret the representation of human figures, challenging and expanding beyond traditional modes of depiction.
The second trajectory turns to nature as a metaphor. Here, landscape, flora, and elemental rhythms become extensions of inner experience, not as passive backgrounds but as active agents of change. The natural world emerges as a sensorial and emotional terrain, a site where perception unfolds and where body and environment constantly intertwine.
These creations are not merely individual narratives but part of what sociologist Pierre Bourdieu calls the field of "cultural production" — a dynamic space where artistic meaning, visibility, and power are continuously negotiated. Within this field, the artists position themselves not only as participants but also as re-shapers, generating new ways of sensing and understanding.
Metamorphosis: Echoes of Perception invites viewers into a dynamic structure of transformation — a space where intimacy and openness, subject and landscape, self and world, intersect and evolve in perpetual motion.
EXHIBITING WORKS
 Diren LeeMy Name ls Pencil on paper 54 x 39 cm 2024 |  Diren LeeSmile on Your Face Oil on canvas 146 x 112 cm 2024 |  Diren LeeMelting Sky Oil on canvas 89 x 146 cm 2024 |
|---|---|---|
 Diren LeeWill You Recognize Me? Pencil on paper 54 x 39 cm 2024 |  Etsu EgamiDancing in the Rainbow Oil on canvas 198 x 152 cm 2024 |  Etsu EgamiFranz Kafka Oil on canvas 98.5 x 60 cm 2024 |
 Etsu EgamiPaul Cézanne Oil on canvas 137 x 92.5 cm 2024 |  Feng JuejiaAnonymous Masses Oil on canvas 180 x 140 cm 2025 |  Jade Ching- Yuk NgChasing What Fades Oil on canvas 155 x 195 cm 2025 |
 Jade Ching- Yuk NgThe Climb Within Oil on canvas 195 x 155 cm 2025 |  Jade Ching- Yuk NgUnsettling Gravity Oil on canvas 165 x 130 cm 2025 |  Jang KoalEphemeral Acrylic on mulberry paper mounted on wood panel 112 x 140 cm 2025 |
 Liu YouranPlay, Pond 01 Oil and acrylic on canvas 140 x 110 cm 2025 |  Sylvia OngThe Hum of Soil Oil on canvas 200 x 200 cm 2025 |  Sylvia OngMist of Early Summer Oil on canvas 150 x 150 cm 2025 |
 Sylvia OngBlush of First Light Oil on canvas 150 x 150 cm 2025 |  Tian YuanyuanGarden Tour Tempera on wood 100 x 150 cm 2025 |  Tian YuanyuanThe Dream of Shaping Tempera on wood 150 x 152 cm 2025 |
 Tian YuanyuanDance Tempera on wood 150 x 128 cm 2025 |  Vibeke SlyngstadSkagerak I Oil on canvas 120 x 100 cm 2025 |  Vibeke SlyngstadEide Oil on canvas 120 x 160 cm 2025 |
 Vibeke SlyngstadGingko Garden Oil on canvas 120 x 80 cm 2025 |  Wang MengshaFairy No.2 Ink on paper 71 x 49 cm 2025 |  Wang MengshaRed Spider Lily No.2 Ink on paper 59.5 x 97 cm 2020 |
 Wang MengshaA Clear and Sunny Spring Ink on paper 145 x 91 cm 2025 |  Xiyao WangThe Butterfly Dreaming of Becoming Zhuangzi No.3 Oil stick, charcoal on canvas 190 x 300 cm 2022 |  Wang YouStray into a Garden Acrylic on canvas 180 x 200 cm 2023 |
 Wang YouThe Castle Act II Oil on canvas 250 x 200 cm 2024 |
Artists
JANG KOAL
b.1989, South Korea
Jang Koal is a self-taught artist who has possessed a deep love for drawing from a young age. Growing up in the care of her grandparents, she was often brought along when visiting Buddhist temples. Here she became acquainted with the striking traditional art that covers the temples' exterior and interior, which sparked a fascination for their colourful depictions and enigmatic atmosphere.
These early impressions continue to reverberate in her present-day artistic practice; however, the now Seoul-based artist has pushed on to explore more contemporary themes and methods of working on hanji, a traditional Korean paper. Utilizing modern materials and techniques, she works with contrasting vivid, solid colour sections against intricate patterns and constructs elegant imagery in which female figures are immersed in an imaginary parallel world filled with cats, flowers, and nature. Sourcing positive memories from her personal life, Jang addresses seemingly mundane and peaceful scenes but simultaneously touches on subjects that she is only able to express without restrictions through painting. Mixing the surreal, often ambiguous, or mystical atmospheres with bright colours and harmonious lines and compositions, she is able to create a captivating tension in which her subjects seem to feel most comfortable.
LIU YOURAN
b. 1996, Hubei
The inspiration for Liu Youran works largely stems from the portrayal of goddess imagery and reflections on contemporary female identity. From ancient times to the present, goddess figures, brimming with vibrant vitality like nature itself, have been worshipped, mythologized, and shaped. Yet, like all deities, they are simultaneously taboo and surrounded by taboos. In the process of establishing her pictorial language, Liu Youran seeks to combine traditional Eastern aesthetics with contemporary female aesthetic characteristics, endowing her images with aesthetic value that spans greater temporal dimensions.
Liu Youran’s works frequently employ various reclining poses to depict her figures. The reclining pose is a common motif in depictions of nude women, a posture that showcases the beauty of female body lines while subtly carrying erotic undertones. From Giorgione to Titian to Manet, the image of the reclining Venus has been repeatedly reimagined—sometimes harmoniously coexisting with outdoor landscapes, other times concealed within the intimacy of a boudoir. These figures are presented as seductresses while simultaneously being objects of the gaze. The artist blends these two types of backgrounds to reveal the multifaceted identities and circumstances of the figures in her paintings.
Liu Youran seeks to explore greater possibilities for expressing female identity within the context of contemporary society, with a focus on examining issues related to the ways women are viewed and their real- world circumstances. Through her surrealist-leaning pictorial language, she presents, in a relatively gentle manner, the conflict between women’s fundamental desire to establish an autonomous, subjective identity and the demands imposed upon them by their environment.
JADE CHING-YUK NG
b.1992, Hong Kong
Jade Ching-Yuk Ng exemplifies life experience as the main material, combined with different symbolic visual vocabularies, so as to find the gap between reality and virtuality. She has worked on various mediums to challenge the possibilities of creating paintings beyond paints.
Ng obtained her BA at Slade School of Fine Art in 2016 and MA at Royal College of Art in 2018. She is a recipient of Cass Art Painting Prize in 2016 and Travers Smith Art Award in 2018. She was awarded the Abbey Major Painting Scholarship by the British School at Rome in 2018. Her work has exhibited internationally, such as Arusha Gallery (London; Edinburgh, UK), Matt’s Gallery (London, UK), San Mei Gallery (London, UK), Cornucopia Gallery (London, UK), Whitechapel 46 (London, UK), Siegfried Contemporary (London, UK), Assembly Point (London, UK), Horse Hospital (London, UK), CGP Gallery (London, UK), Canal Mills Armley (Leeds, UK), Video Pub (Jerusalem, Israel), Academia di Romania a Roma (Rome, Italy) . Part of her work has been collected by Penguin Random House.
Her solo exhibitions include “Echo of Silhouettes,” Tang Contemporary Art (Beijing, 2024); Comfort in Discomfort,” Ronchini (London, 2023); “GUSH,” Tang Contemporary Art (Hong Kong, 2022); “It's (kind of) a love story,” Natasha Arselan (London, 2022); “I is another,” Cornucopia Gallery (London, 2021)
Feng Juejia
b. 1997, Yunnan, China
Graduated from the Oil Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts with a Bachelor's and Master's Degree. Feng currently lives and works in Beijing.Feng Juejia's paintings originate from personal experiences of life. Based on the surrounding scenes and people, Feng creates frozen pictures through light and shadow, trying to give people or scenes in daily life a sense of eternality like sculptures. Feng clarifies the pictures, blurs the narrative and makes everyday objects peculiar. Influenced by the sculpture work of her parents, Feng has been very sensitive to the shape and volume of the sculpture since the day she first picked up a brush. She can express her feelings subtly with figurative painting, and explore the underlying or surging emotions and powers behind the calm appearance of the picture. Feng looks for subtle absurdities in the most familiar and ordinary scenes.
Influenced by sculpture and ancient Chinese Buddhist statues, game character modelling, etc., she uses the everyday life scenes of characters from real life and internet life as a vehicle to convey memories, visions and ineffable emotions, searching for commonalities and characteristics in the alienated characters, and entering into another dimension world created by the artist at the junction of the sense of familiarity and the sense of strangeness.
Sylvia Ong
b. 1980, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Sylvia Ong is an artist who currently lives and works in Dubai, UAE. Her solo exhibitions include 'The Light Between Us' (2024) at Almine Rech, Brussels, Belgium; 'Ouverture' (2023) at ESMB, Paris, France; 'Around The Sun All Year Long' (2022) at ESMB, Foundry, Dubai, UAE; 'How Happy Are The Flowers' (2020) at A/Gallery, Dubai, UAE; ‘La Maison' (2019) at Pullman Hotel, Dubai, UAE; and 'La Fête' (2018) at Kalwit Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand.
Ong's work has also been featured in numerous group exhibitions, such as 'The Archipelagic Imagination: Seaport' (2025) at Almine Rech, Shanghai, China, and ‘Spectrum’ (2025) at Mint Gallery, Munich, Germany. In 2024, her work was shown at prestigious events like ‘Art Basel Miami’, ‘Frieze Seoul’, ‘Art Basel Hong Kong’, and ‘Frieze Los Angeles’, all with Almine Rech. She was also part of ‘Gesture & Form: Women in Abstraction’ (2024) at Almine Rech, New York, USA. Her art is held in private collections, including the Arndt Collection Berlin, Melbourne, and Athens.
Tian Yuanyuan
b. 1987, Jinan, Shandong, China
Tian Yuanyuan is an artist with a notable exhibition history. Her solo exhibitions include "Nothingness" at 925 Gallery in Venice, Italy, in 2014.
Her work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions across various international locations. These include the Contemporary Oil Painting Exhibition at Yanhuang Art Museum in Beijing (2018), the Oriental Contemporary Art Exhibition in Florence, Italy (2018), and the Singapore Art Exhibition (2016). She has also participated in significant events such as the Shanghai International Art Exhibition (2016) and the "Walking + Witnessing" Invitational Exhibition of Outstanding Artists' Works at the Bird's Nest Cultural Center in Beijing (2015). Her installation work "Lost" was exhibited at the 70th anniversary Oil Painting Department Exhibition of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute and Chongqing Art Museum in 2011.
Wang Mengsha
b. 1982, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China
Wang Mengsha is an artist who lives and works in Beijing and Wuxi. She studied animation and graduated from the Design Department at Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts in 2006, with advanced studies at Griffith University, Australia (2004) and the University of Southampton, UK (2007).Her selected solo exhibitions include "Wang Mengsha: Borrowed Shadows" at Alisan Fine Arts, New York (2025), "Wang Mengsha: Whispering Blossoms" at Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong (2024), and "Multiverse of Montage" in Shanghai (2022). She has also had solo shows in Beijing, Taipei, Germany, and Korea.
Wang Mengsha has participated in numerous selected group exhibitions, including Art Basel Hong Kong (2025, 2021), Art SG in Singapore (2025, 2023), and shows at Alisan Fine Arts in New York, Hong Kong, London, and Paris. Other group exhibitions include venues in Shanghai, Qingdao, Beijing, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Taipei, and Edinburgh.
Her work is in the "The Women's Art Collection" at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge, UK. She has also had several publications about her work, including Wang Mengsha (2025), Events in My Universe (2021), and Wang Mengsha: Gardens (2016).
DIREN LEE
b.1983, South Korea
Diren Lee builds a view on the world that cannot be explained by just one series of works. By releasing new series, mixing, and rebuilding it with her previous one, she creates her own world. The inner world created to heal her pain now describes her unique characters and symbolism through the homage of classical myths and orientalism. All her works is painted on canvas with a single brush, and such process is also linked to her desire to give the characters a living and breathing vitality. Diren is loved by public and art lovers through many collaborations and design products with businesses in Korea.
Selected exhibitions include: “Global Song”, Tang Contemporary Art, Hong Kong, China , 2022; “Back to Work”, Waluso Gallery, UK , 2021; “Turning Point”, Gallery Doo, S. Korea , 2021; “Stay with us”, Humax art room x Open gallery, S. Korea , 2020; “Fruit”, L Gallery, S. Korea , 2019; “On those that disappear”, MIEL Gallery, S. Korea , 2018.
She has also participated in art fairs including: Kiaf, S. Korea , 2021, Affordable Art Fair Battersea, UK , 2020, One Art Taipei, China , 2020; Affordable Art Fair Singapore, Singapore; Art Expo Malaysia , 2019 , Kuala Lumpr, Malaysia; BAMA , Busan Annual Market of Art Busan, S. Korea , 2019; Asia Contemporary Art Show, Hong Kong , 2019; Art Expo Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia , 2018; Art Gyeongju, Gyeongju, S. Korea , 2016; Spoon art fair, Gallery Sein, S. Korea , 2015; Art show Busan, Busan BEXCO, S. Korea , 2015.
Wang You
b.1988, Haerbin
Wang You grew up in Shenzhen and currently lives and works in Beijing. She graduated from the Directing Department of the Shanghai Theatre Academy in 2009.
Her works are distinguished by bold use of color and a wide array of expressive techniques, seamlessly blending abstraction with figuration. Drawing much of her inspiration from daily life, Wang skillfully incorporates real-world figures and scenes into imaginative compositions. By juxtaposing elements from different times and spaces, she creates a unique visual universe between reality and fantasy. Her approach is reminiscent of cinematic montage, continuously offering viewers new visual discoveries.
Recent exhibitions include: Blame the Blazing Sun, Tang Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea (2025); Our bodys through our eyes, Qualia Contemporary Art, California, USA (2024); Unnaturdl Relaxation, Tang Contemporary Art, Hong Kong, China (2024); Coexist, Nanio Art Museum, Okinawa, Japan (2024); Seaward: The 2nd TAG-New Contemporary, TAG Art Museum, Shandong, China (2023); Kong-Fu: Form and Meaning, Yuan Art Museum, Beijing, China (2023); The Rite of Spring, MASSIMODECARLO, Beijing, China (2023); Feasting with Hemingway, TANKO CB Lab, Beijing, China (2023); Inguiry to the wall, Soul Art Center, Beijing, China (2023); Blooming in Spring, Bvlgari Hotel Space, Beijing, China (2023); Sensation of Touch: The lrreplaceability of Painting, Yongle Art Space, Beijing, China (2022); Everyone Comes for the Donut, WishinART, Beijing, China (2022); Feelings on PaPer, MASSIMODECARLO VSPACE (2021).
ETSU EGAMI
b. 1994, Tokyo, Japan
Growing up in the United States and Europe, and currently living and working in China, Etsu Egami experienced various communication barriers she encountered as a result of her cross-cultural residence. She felt that languages can “only be sensed, not explained”, thus becoming more interested in the discipline of language and communication. Etsu’s works are comprised of various mediums, such as voice, video, and drawings, through which she strives to question human instincts and the authenticity of communication.
Etsu Egami graduated with a B.F.A. from the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) specializing in Oil Painting in 2016. She obtained a P.H.D. at CAFA under the mentorship of artist Liu Xiao Dong and studied in HFG in Germany. In early 2023, Etsu was dispatched in New York as a talented artist by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japanese government. Her works have also been exhibited at important institutions including OAR Museum, Gyongju (Korea); Das Kunst Museum, Karlsruhe (Germany); New Art Center, Palo Alto, San Francisco (U.S.); OAR Contemporary Art Museum, Busan (Korea); Guggenheim Museum, New York (U.S.); the Grand Palais, Paris (U.S.), the Asian Art Institute, Chicago (U.S.), the Japan Foundation for Contemporary Art, Tokyo (Japan); the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (China); the Korea Cultural Agency, Seoul (Korea); the Tomioka Museum of Art, Tomioka (Japan); the Nanjo Museum of Art, Nanjo (Japan); the Japan-China Friendship Museum, Tokyo (Japan); the China Oil Painting Institute Museum, Beijing (China); Today Art Museum, Beijing (Korea); Para Site Art Space, Hong Kong (China), etc.
Vibeke Slyngstad
b. 1968, Ålesund, Norway
Vibeke Slyngstad currently based in Oslo, studied at the Meisterschule für Malerei, HTL Graz in Austria as well as at the National Academy of the Arts in Oslo and the Documentary/Animation class at MRDH Volda. Slyngstad has been exhibiting worldwide since the 1990s and her works are known for their high psychological complexity. Her practice is rooted in Romanticism while at the same time referring equally to contemporary photography’s critical view on the impact of the human imprint.
Solo exhibitions include (Upcoming) Kube Museum, Ålesund, Norway (2027); (Upcoming) Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, West Palm Beach, FL (2026); Wild Weeds, OSL Contemporary, Oslo, Norway (2024); Entangled Life, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK (2023); Dor Beetles Slumbering at Dusk, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London (2021); Mystery of Things, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Berlin (2020); Off Season at OSL contemporary in Oslo (2019), Hjertet er på vandring at the Kristiansand Kunsthall (2018) as well as a show in Haugar Museum in Tønsberg (2017).
XIYAO WANG
b. 1992, Chongqing, China
Xiyao Wang’s abstract painting can best be described as movement captured on canvas, as expressing a feeling of boundlessness and unbridled life energy. She combines various techniques such as oil and acrylic paint, chalk, graphite, and oil sticks, because she sees different materials as being like different people, each with its own personality and its own character.
Xiyao Wang graduated with a BA from Sichuan Fine Art Institute in 2014 and later completed her second degree at the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg in 2018. She obtained two MFAs, one from the State University of New York at Purchase in 2019 and one from the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg in 2020. Selected solo exhibitions include “Wingless Shadow,” Tang Contemporary Art, Seoul (Korea, 2025); “Lightly Floats and drifts the boat” Konig Galerie (Mexico City, Mexico 2024); “Before the Sun Goes Down,” Tang Contemporary Art, Bangkok (Thailand, 2024); “The Blue Hour,” Massimo De Carlo Gallery (Milan, 2024); “Touching the Invisible,” Song Art Museum, Beijing (China, 2024); “Do you hear the waterfall?” Perrotin, New York (US, 2024); “On the Way to Penglai Island,” König Galerie, Berlin (Germany, 2023); “The Endless Dream,” Arndt Collection, Melbourne, Cape Schanck (Australia, 2022); “Castel in the air,” Geber Stauffer Fine Arts, Zurich (Switzerland, 2021), etc.