From 29th of May to 1st of June, 2025, the young newly opened Paris gallery Sol de Paris opened its exhibition La beauté du petit (The Beauty of Small). Curated by Hanyue Zhao and Chenyang Xu, 25 young artists from the UK, Taiwan, China and France gathered together to present this magnificent showcase. This vibrant gallery is located in 17 rue chapon, Paris-surrounded by lots of galleries and boutiques and only one block away from the Pompidou Centre, showing its warm welcome and brave attempts of curation in this famous artistic district of Paris.
The exhibition has three chapters, with each focusing on painting, installation and images accordingly.
The painting chapter invites viewers into a world where scale becomes a quiet strength. Featuring small-scale paintings and photography, it celebrates the intimacy of close observation and the quiet power of detail. These works ask us to slow down, lean in, and engage with art on a more personal level—revealing how beauty can flourish within the smallest of frames.
Xiaobin Zhang’s vibrant painting investigates the boundaries of abstract facial expression through bold forms and saturated color palettes. Set against a luminous orange backdrop, this painting fuses organic forms with vivid, high-contrast color to evoke an emotive, almost biomorphic presence. The interplay of electric blue shapes and glossy dark spheres invites interpretation—balancing between playfulness and unsettling intensity, suggestive of psychological dualities within abstract expression.
Yingying Zheng brought a delicate painting of a lady’s skirt. The Temperature of the Edge depicts a towel used in daily life - soft and undulating - yet when suspended within the rigid architecture of a room, it reveals a structural tension in contrast with its environment. The artist used a toothpick to render the fibrous texture, giving the surface a sculptural tactility at a micro level. The work captures the tension between the object and the space it inhabits, continuing the artist’s exploration of the fluid relationship between two-dimensional painting and three-dimensional spatial experience. An everyday object is thus transformed into an intimate yet quietly powerful presence.
By the entrance of the gallery, 2 marvellous small scaled paintings caught our eyes. Paradise Lost is a series of rock painting, containing Azurite, Lapis Lazuli, turquoise, Realgar, Orpiment by artist Juice Cui. She combines saturated colors and exaggerated dramatic movements highlight the tension of work.
Yizheng Liu’s abstract painting uses rich textures and expressive brushstrokes to evoke an abstract yet vibrant natural scene, reminiscent of a forest path in memory. The interplay of greens, yellows, and muted purples conveys both mystery and vitality of nature. Next to her abstract painting, Yuewan Chen made a combination of her fragmented memories in the painting called Desire, Fantasy and Oneself. Yuewan indicates a daedal experience of herself through the artistic layout of those peculiar elements. The materiality of this work creates a depth in this picture, which attracts the audience to get closer to the work, also to the artist’s inner world.
There are surprisingly two works made of paper without any frames in this exhibition. We can see Angela Zhang’s painting on paper Facial expressions reoccurring and Jichi's archival collections. Angela’s series dissects universal micro-expressions—fleeting shifts in eyes, lips, and faces—that betray hidden emotions. Abstract fragments (angular gazes, warped lips, stark silhouettes) amplify subtle tremors, probing a paradox: can microscopic deviations, like a pupil’s flicker, mirror seismic emotional shifts? Are these gestures uniquely ours, or echoes of a collective script? When Jichi Zhang's archival collections shows his every '8 pm', from the rolling paper bag to little cloth flags. He is concerned with temporary, post-industrial materials—used plastic packaging, plastic sheathing, and transparent industrial covering. These things, intended to hold or protect, are rendered purposeless and meaningless. In Jichi's practice, they are delicate conveyances of gesture, suspended in an unresolved tension between figure and decay.
Xiaoze Zhang’s work located in between the installation and painting section. She explores fragmented dreamscapes and subconscious narratives through two-dimensional collage watercolour painting. My Friend Will Never Leave Me depicts a surreal garden scene where her friends and she dance and celebrate together—an ode to companionship that transcends time and reality, evoking the ephemeral beauty of memory and the tenderness of connection.
We can also see Zhenyu Zhong’s self-portrait and Shunshun Qi’s amazing dreamy oil painting in this Chapter. Among all the paintings on paper and canvas, Tingting Xiao’s Shadowed CrossingⅡ made with handwoven textile looks different. It is a handwoven piece that foregrounds craft as a meditative act of resistance. Through delicate layers of translucent threads, the work reclaims slowness, care, and material intimacy—challenging the capitalist numbness to texture and time, and proposing sustainability not as trend, but as a lived, tactile ethic.
Chapter 2 brings together small-scale installations—modern jewellery, ceramics, and mixed media sculptures—that invite a closer, more thoughtful gaze. Each piece reveals its beauty through detail, texture, and intimacy, encouraging viewers to slow down and engage deeply. Here, the small becomes powerful, offering a quiet space for personal connection and discovery.
Yinqi Yuan’s sculpture The Correct Dinner transforms family relationships into reshaped tableware which appear like simple, organic life forms. By inverting the bowls and stemware onto their bottom rims and using pure white tones, Yuan creates a visual tension between the correct and incorrect, blurring the line between familiar and unreality.
Jewry artist Yutong Liu brought her handmade customized rings and accessories. Roaming is a concept explored by artist Yutong Liu, reflecting the fluid movement of thought through space and time. Through electroformed jewelry, she captures intuitive emotions and spatial tension, using form and texture to express a state of unconstrained wandering.
Dian Yu (Odile)’s Something Yet to be Seen is an object made of UV print acrylic. With the basic components of the postcard and the image of entangled chains being laser-engraved, the postcard is also physically linked with several chains composed of different sizes of acrylic jump rings, integrating the image with the object. Each link binds sender to receiver, echoing a quiet intimacy that stretches across distance and time.
Hui Zhang's art work When the Spores Fall is a quiet but potent resonance between the lifecycle of mushrooms and the materials used. Just as foragers tap mushroom caps to release spores that seed new growth, the artist deconstructs worn garments and rewinds them into new sculptural forms. This act of reconfiguration becomes an artistic gesture of regeneration- responding to contemporary concerns around sustainability.
Fu Hsuan Wang’s installation Mokugyo 2.0 indicated a power shifts to technological control, and perception shaped by algorithms. This piece merges the Mokyugyo with neural network-like wiring. Rhythmic strikes create tension between stillness and acceleration, reflecting on restraint and introspection in an age of evolving AI.
Specifically, Lin Cheng’s Relation is a handmade, wordless visual book that explores the emotional journey of individuals as they move from isolation toward integration within a group. Through a poetic progression from fear and helplessness to understanding and harmony, the work reflects on the fragile beauty of human connection and the invisible boundaries that both separate and unite us. The book combines painting with photographs from the installation, layering abstract and figurative imagery to express how emotions evolve when one enters a collective space. Each page represents a shifting perspective—how we see others, how we are seen, and how we come to see ourselves.
In the last Chapter, video and film works by three artists explore the theme of “small” through both content and presentation. Shown on small screens in intimate rooms, these pieces invite a focused, personal encounter. Echoing the exhibition’s celebration of scale and detail, they offer quiet, powerful narratives that unfold through close, concentrated viewing.
Yujie Yang (Yvette) carefully presents Ephemeral II which builds upon the foundational concepts of its predecessor, continuing the exploration of transient moments through spontaneous glass work. It is an evolutional dialogue with time, preservation, and the inherent contradictions within the medium.
London-based artist Jiayi Yu uses scanning as an extension of the skin to visualize the often-invisible traces of touch. By replacing the camera lens with direct physical contact, her work captures the emotional intensity and distortion created through touch, offering viewers a visceral and intimate experience.
When we walk in the last section of the exhibition, Lexiong Ying’s short video resonates with the peaceful space in the back of the gallery. It revolves around the theme of 'hypocrisy.' ‘We relentlessly partake in insincere social interactions driven by the pursuit of personal gain or achieving hidden objectives. Beneath the veneer of mutual praise, we subtly reinforce our social standing and project our perceived value, perpetuating a cycle of superficial affirmation’—Says Lexiong.
Suwen Wang’s research emphasizes the emotional power of storytelling—amplified by AI’s generative capacities—to raise public awareness about the consequences of tomb raiding, illegal trafficking, and the neglect of cultural heritage. By humanizing artifacts and highlighting their plights, the narratives aim to inspire a deeper sense of responsibility and urgency in preserving and protecting these irreplaceable cultural treasures. Ultimately, this research advocates for a shift from disconnection to reconnection, where AI-powered digital storytelling serves not only as a creative tool, but as a catalyst for cultural empathy, justice, and preservation.
The curator selected three images of Yubin which form a quiet meditation on presence, absence, and the fragile traces of love. When asked about the meaning of the work, Yubin says: ‘To love, here, is not to possess or declare. It is to notice. To witness. To stay for just a moment longer. And in that moment, to say: I saw you.’
The last piece of work in the gallery is Gao Zuwei’ photography The Gate Of Time. It is a eulogy to bygone days in the form of photography, and also a reflection of loneliness immersed in a state of aimlessness.
In conclusion, the exhibition is a brave, challenging attempt to redefine the boundaries of contemporary artistic practice. Through a bold juxtaposition of intimate, small-scale works, it disrupts traditional hierarchies of medium and scale. This revolutionary curatorial approach not only invites a more dynamic viewer experience but also encourages a deeper engagement with the works' conceptual dialogues. By embracing both the tactile immediacy of the miniature and the spatial ambition of installation, the exhibition carves out new terrain for artistic expression and curatorial innovation. Make sure you include this exhibition in the list of your things to do in Paris.
