BERLIN.- Contemporary Fine Arts announces the first solo show with the Shanghai-based artist Ni Youyu (*1984 in Ganzhou, China).

Ni Youyu’s artistic practice links Far-Eastern and Western philosophical and aesthetic perspectives. The theme of the perception of time plays a central role here, reflected in the genesis of his works, a process that sometimes takes years. His works unite historical elements with contemporary, current thinking, always paying attention to symbolic meaning.

“Big Dipper” presents work from the previous three years, many of which were recently shown at his first solo exhibition at MOCA Taipei. “Water Paintings”, which were repeatedly ‘washed’ with large quantities of water to achieve the antique and woodcut-like black contours, are by now already classics in Ni Youyu’s oeuvre, similarly to the “Coin Paintings”. The latter are coins that have been beaten continuously to form flat little plates, image carriers, upon which Ni Youyu paints supposed Zen gardens with the most delicate of brushes.

Furthermore, the show also presents the series of “shrines”. For these, the artist transformed vintage wooden pinball machines, collected all over the world during his travels, into still life objects by painting on them, adhering materials onto them, or furnishing them with other ready-mades, so that they look like a cross between science fiction games and religious devotional objects.

Ni Youyu graduated in 2007 from the Fine Art College of Shanghai University, and since then has exhibited in various exhibitions in Chinese and international institutions and galleries. In 2012, he had a solo show at the Shanghai Art Museum. In 2014, he was honoured with two solo shows at the Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts and the Hive Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing and was also awarded the CCAA Contemporary Chinese Art Award as “Best Young Artist”.