Mirror Space is pleased to announce the group exhibition Dive into Summer Day from May 10 to July 25, 2025. Curated by WANG Yaoli, the exhibition presents over thirty recent works by six artists HE Haiyu, LIN Long, LI Feifan, Stefano Galli, WU Shucheng, and ZHAO Wei.
The summer marks a time when nights, seemingly long, pass instantly, while days, though brief, arefilled with vitality and intensity. The alternation of day and night brings extreme sensory experiences, allowing us to perceive the contrasts and harmonies of life in the cycle of nature's abundance and desolation. As Plato explores in Phaedo the love for life and the contemplation of death, the artists present profound insights into nature and existence through their diverse creative approaches, capturing the light and shadow of summer in their works.
The brightness of day is lighthearted and joyous; its dazzling radiance reflects the fervor of emotions and the peak of life. Artists employ vibrant and dynamic imagery to express human positivity and an appreciation for nature. In contrast, the quietude of night magnifies the solitude within, as its dim and ambiguous spaces invite viewers to reevaluate the meaning of existence.
Using perception and memory as catalysts, the six artists explore themes ranging from nature and urbanity to space and emotion, sensory experience and rational thought, and the qualities of the mediums. Stefano Galli employs traditional realist techniques to recreate natural landscapes, capturing the tranquility of forests. Digital fluorescent graffiti disrupts this serene imagery with dynamic intensity, creating a collision of conventional painting and digital aesthetics. His canvas becomes a visual testing ground, crafting silent tumult and exploring the coexistence of reality and the virtual. WU Shucheng's works confront the absurdity of modern life with dark humor, constructing silent theaters frozen in time. In his paintings, loneliness emerges as a collective symptom, and nihilism seeps into the fabric of everyday life like subtle cracks. Through deliberate use of negative space and tension-filled compositions, he imbues each scene with dramatic conflict, prompting viewers to reexamine their relationship with the world and uncover the complexities and truths beneath the "ordinary."
Ajar doors, static light, and weathered walls—these mundane fragments of memory gain a unique vitality in ZHAO Wei's paintings. She reconstructs the cold architecture on her canvas with sharp and precise strokes, transforming static structures into narrative spaces imbued with metaphor and emotion. These spaces become unique vessels capable of holding sensitivity and vulnerability. LI Feifan, on the other hand, reimagines the linear logic of time through his paintings, merging past, present, and future into a single frame. His figures are not specific individuals but blurred silhouettes and abstract forms that resemble fragments of memory, resonating with shared human experiences. In his works, memory ripples outward like waves, constructing a world that is at once unfamiliar yet familiar, distant yet within reach, leaving viewers oscillating between recognition and disorientation.
HE Haiyu turns her gaze to slices of daily life within the context of the digital age, capturing moments of absurdity in her canvases. Using graffiti-like lines and vivid color blocks, she creates a visual language that is both playful and sharp, reminiscent of fast-scrolling snapshots in the digital world. Behind the humorous and vibrant imagery filled with pop culture symbols lies a deep emotional texture. Her works act as a mirror, reflecting the accelerated pace of life in the digital age and the buried authentic emotions beneath fragmented information. LIN Long delves further into the human condition within the context of modernity through symbols and metaphors. Abstract sunflowers, butterfly-like pelvic bones, and nearly extinguished candles appear in surreal backdrops, portraying the struggles and temptations of individuals searching for identity. These seemingly isolated themes carry complex narratives about individual struggles, emotional alienation, and self-reconstruction in contemporary society.
