Fir Gallery is pleased to present its inaugural group exhibition “The Flow” on March 26, 2022. Curated by Tang Yifei , the group exhibition invited 14 artists from diverse geographical backgrounds around the world. Through 39 varying pieces of works, a more dimensional field of contemporary art is presented. The exhibition welcomes the audience to re-evaluate the subject-object relationship between the painting object and the painting itself. Different dimensions of regional cultures and social contexts are examined in these paintings, which enable audiences to escape from linear time and fully return to art itself.

The exhibition draws inspiration from the poem by French poet René Char “Au tour du pain de rompre l’homme (It’s the bread’s turn to break the man)”, and uses it as a metaphor to re-examine the relations between the objects of painting and painting itself. By inviting 14 artists from different regions of the world, the exhibition presents their practice all with highly personal features, ranging from the classic still life, landscapes, figures and animals in art history to current scientific, technological and social events. It attempts to re-analyze the objects of painting in terms of images, reveal the transformation in the logic of painting, and map out a “flow” that does not conform to the chronological order, that is, an exploration and reflection on the hidden relationships inherent in objects and the state of continuous change. These numerous facets of the artists’ individual narrative and perception form a multi-layered expression of contemporary art and connect different dimensions of the past, present and future.

Images take on different representations in the artists’ creation, including the shaping of a single feature, patterns translated from daily items, and situations built with blended colors. These seemingly straightforward visual elements are the results of the artists’ personal review of their regional culture and social context, as well as their exploration of the production of images, the construction of a visual space and the field of painting created by the interaction with the viewers, thus promoting the emergence of new and renewable meanings.

The exhibition’s discussion on images is not about the labeling of images or symbolizing painting. Instead, it follows the logic of images in their creating process as a narrative clue, with an attempt to break off from the blind pursuit of grand social meanings or visual impact, analyze the inherent relationships in painting, and to revisit the mutual identification and transformation between painting and images. Based on this, the exhibition borrows another kind of reality to approach painting itself and return to the will and perception of art.

The participating artists include Andrés Lozano, Eser Gündüz, Galina Munroe, Haruka Makita , Iryna Maksymova, Jade Kim, Joe Iurato, Lin Liu, Maxwell McMaster, Meiying, Michael McGrath, Mogu Takahashi, Noa Ironic and Ryusuke Sano.