I Am Here & You Are Here Dual Solo Exhibitions by Chai Zhongjian & Shi Jun
Mianbu

I Am Here & You Are Here

Dual Solo Exhibitions by Chai Zhongjian & Shi Jun

Curated by Mian Bu

Preface

“I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.

Whatever I see I swallow immediately

Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.

I am not cruel, only truthful —

The eye of a little god, four-cornered.”

— Sylvia Plath, The Mirror

The mirror depicted by Sylvia Plath serves as the spiritual annotation for Chai Zhongjian’s artwork I Am Here. Employing mirror-finish stainless steel as his “canvas” and grinders and files as his “brushes,” the artist centers his philosophical thinking on the notion of Emptiness, unfolding a visual narrative of the “self” and the world at the Three-Eyed Well Hutong Art Museum, thus realizing the transformation from personal artistic experiment to public discourse. Centered on the theme I Am Here, the exhibition pursues the fundamental path of artistic experimentation. Rooted in the Western art historical context of mirror and light practices by Velázquez, Rembrandt, and others, as well as Lacan’s Mirror Stage Theory, the works integrate the Eastern wisdom of emptiness from spiritual cultivation. Twelve site-specific pieces created exclusively for the Hutong Art Museum turn the mirrored surfaces into a playful field for every visitor to inquire into the meaning of existence, balancing visual delight with profound reflection.

In the AI era, Shi Jun’s solo exhibition You Are Here responds to the ontological questions of painting. His creations are defined by two core visual languages: Post-Figurative Expression – Pipeline Series and Everyday Poetics – Works on Paper. Inheriting Kandinsky’s Spiritual in Art, the artist synthesizes the emotional narrative of Neo-Expressionism and the everyday intervention of Pop Art. With rough brushstrokes and naive figuration, he translates personal experiences and collective spiritual dilemmas into visual symbols, elevating mundane emotions and inner fantasies to the spiritual height of painting, affirming the spiritual energy of painting and the irreplaceable value of human creation. His exquisite color palette pleases the viewer, absurd humor provokes contemplation, and his anti-aesthetic, everyday-oriented narratives guide the audience toward inner introspection. This exhibition stands as an extraordinary and outstanding example of contemporary painting.

As spring unfolds in full vitality, the dual solo exhibitions by Chai Zhongjian and Shi Jun follow the rhythm of “Spring awakens existence, all things renew themselves”. Embracing the core concept of “Knowing the self through mirrors, seeing the other through painting, affirming existence through art,” the exhibitions invite every visitor to rethink the connection between the self and the world amid the vibrancy of spring, and to discover their own answer to being.

March 2026, Beijing