GEOF OPPENHEIMER

From 23 December 2022 to 9 April 2023, UCCA presents Geof Oppenheimer, People in Reverse. The show marks Geof Oppenheimer’s (b. 1973, Washington, D.C.) first solo exhibition in China. For more than two decades, Oppenheimer has worked in mediums including sculpture, video, drawing, and photography to explore how social and political relations are embedded within images and objects. Featuring new work commissioned by UCCA, this exhibition is centered on cast statues of three archetypal figures—the businessman, the flagbearer, and the observer—placed within an immersive environment formed out of custom-made walls, floor coverings, mass-produced products, and raw materials. These artworks were presented last year as part of the Diriyah Biennale, ‘Feeling the Stones,’ which was curated by a team from UCCA, in a space specially constructed to recreate the proportions of UCCA’s Central Gallery.

The sculptures and their bespoke surroundings speak to our collective anxieties over figuration, symbolism, and archetype in contemporary art and the modern social economy. In People in Reverse the artist explores how images and characters become symbols, and how such acts of representation shape our understanding of reality. Acknowledging the loss of clarity and connection produced by this process of simplification, Oppenheimer encourages audiences to reconsider their place in contemporary society and relationship with one another. People in Reverse is curated by UCCA Curator Luan Shixuan.