Cool! New Chinese Talents Up Close and in Dialogue with Important International Names

The halls of the Perrotin Gallery in Shanghai host a collective that brings together big names in international art, such as Paola Pivi, Daniel Arsham and Jean-Michel Othoniel with an impressive group of new Chinese talents, including Yang Guangnan, Chen Tianzhuo, Na Buqi, Chen Ke, Su Yixin and Wei Jia. It’s a sort of visual transposition of a choral reflection on the means utilised by diverse generations to regenerate projectual and poetic approaches considered, to a certain extent, outdated, making them, once again, visually and conceptually intriguing or, to use a term from the exhibition’s poster - cool. This slang term not only indicates assent and approval, it’s also an attitude, a predisposition to do extraordinary things. Just as this term stands out for its semantic fluidity, so do the works on display as examples of creativity in continuous evolution and metamorphosis, adapting to the spirit of the times and new aesthetic challenges.