Andrew Kreps Gallery is pleased to announce The Radiance of Liberty, an exhibition of new work by He Xiangyu at 22 Cortlandt Alley.
Drawing on the artist’s own relocation to China in 2023, He Xiangyu’s new works continue his interest in utilizing traditional craft to explore social, and political themes, as well as the ways in which material itself carries cultural signifiers. Working in Jingdezhen, a region that has been a major site for ceramic production in China for over one thousand years, He builds his sculptures using the coil method, a technique in which repeated coils are stacked to build form. Undergoing an intensive, weeklong firing process, the resulting works take the form of anonymous dwellings.
Combined with elements made of poured, molten aluminum throughout the gallery, their uncanny architecture is defined by what they lack, as the singular, carved windows are isolated on the facades of each structure. Available light seeps into each work’s open void, dissipating by the time it can reach the bottom, casting light as an increasingly finite resource. In turn this becomes a reflection of an uncertain future, especially as cities continue to swell around us. And as with other resources, the question of access gains more urgency as they begin to dwindle, as well as what barriers are put in place to control them, and who gets to decide who they are for. These works are shown alongside Hazy Windows, an installation of scattered ceramic plates, whose individual pieces mimic the color of the sky as it has been depicted in both Eastern and Western painting and cinema. Stacked and arranged, their forms suggest an inventory of the windows missing from his architectural forms, a meditation on what can be made from what is lost.
The Radiance of Liberty is He Xiangyu’s second exhibition with the gallery. In 2023, He’s work was the subject of an exhibition at the Sifang Art Museum, Shanghai, and in 2021 He was shortlisted for the 4th edition of the Mario Merz Prize. Other past solo exhibitions of He’s work include House of Nations, CCA, Berlin, 2022, Low-hanging Fruits, Tao Art Space, Taipei, 2022, New Directions: He Xiangyu, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, 2015, and Cola Project, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney, 2012, among others. In addition, He has participated in numerous group exhibitions which include: Facing the Collector, The Sigg Collection of Contemporary Art from China, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Turin, 2020, Terminal 3, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2019, Tales of Our Time (Film Program), Guggenheim Museum New York, New York, 2017, Chinese Whispers, Paul Klee Zentrum, Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, 2016, and Fire and Forget: On Violence, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2015, among others. He Xiangyu has additionally participated in the 5th Ural Biennale, Yekaterinburg, 2019, Everything We Create is Not Ourselves, the 58th Venice Biennale Chinese Pavilion, Venice, 2019, the 13th Lyon Biennale, Lyon, 2015, the 10th Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai, 2014, the 5th Yokohama Triennale, Yokohama, 2014, as well as the 8th Busan Biennale, Busan, 2014. He Xiangyu was named as a finalist for the Future Generation Art Prize in 2014, and won the 10th CCAA Best Young Artist Award in 2016. His recent interdisciplinary research publication “Yellow Book” 2019 was awarded as one of “The Most Beautiful German Books in 2020”. His works have been collected by a number of public and private collections such as Asymmetry Art Foundation, London, Boros Collection, Berlin, Castello Di Rivoli, Turin, KADIST Art Foundation, Paris; San Francisco, Long Museum, Shanghai, M+ Sigg Collection, Hong Kong, New Century Art Foundation, Beijing, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, White Rabbit Collection, Sydney, and others.
