XU ZHEN®

“SIGNAL” draws from a larger body of work, “Passion” which XU ZHEN® has been working on since 2021. The series consists of oil paintings on canvas derived from mobile devices screenshots of various social media platforms. The free-writing expressive brushstrokes and impasto work are a result of the artist’s attempts to capture the energy of online social media interactions. It is also the first time that the artist will be personally painting such a large number of works in a series, making it an exceptionally distinctive creation in his career.

An extension of this series of paintings, the pieces in the “SIGNAL” project are sized similar to handheld mobile devices. The artist will be gifting them to the global audience, creating more paintings as the project develops, while inviting each recipient to share the painting they receive on their social media accounts, resulting in a long-term, ongoing virtual art exhibition of these pieces on the Internet. This unprecedented way of disseminating art is a continuation of XU ZHEN®‘s provocative approach, inviting the audience to ponder the future of art.

Accompanying the project’s “online exhibition”, the Singapore chapter will also consist of a physical presentation of four large canvases of the same series displayed in the gallery. The larger-than-life renditions of “Passion” in the gallery will be an immersive display of XU ZHEN®️‘s “passion” as manifested on the canvases, allowing visitors to encounter the artist’s personal perceptions and experiences. Titling each painting after their physical weight, the artist explores an alternative way to quantify our online experiences. Instead of bytes and bits, the “Passion” series of paintings will become a new representation of the Internet and social media activity.