“刘嘉宇：颜料在缩短”即将开幕 | BOXES 新展预告
第三十六期
颜料在缩短
第一次看刘嘉宇的展览，是前年六一。场地在北京顺义一个巨大而空洞的地方，是他朋友张季帮他张罗的。他画了张海报，上面是他穿裙子的自画像，用粉色写着“甜心公主不是你也是我”，发个朋友圈，叫几个朋友，事儿就算成了。
展览空间原来是板式家具厂，几百平没有柱子干扰视线，一览无余，光亮晦暗，像敞开的口腔。绘画容易被这样的空间吞吃掉。刘嘉宇把画挂墙上，高度不整齐。或者直接靠墙放画。据说，巴斯奎亚做第一个展览时，也这么布展。他的丙烯绘画有涂鸦的痕迹，又像是从暗色底子渐渐提亮的——那是文艺复兴时期意大利人常用的油画方法，常被称为“古典”的。他的绘画结构是松散的。形象和色彩是胶着的关系，彼此牵扯，不分主次。他的绘画永远在流动，在沸腾，特别欢快，又布满神经质的惊慌、疼痛与怀疑。画奇妙地与废弃厂房相处，谁跟谁也不打架，谁也没失去自己的性格。空间和艺术，都自在得很。
新展“颜料在缩短”在顺德开幕，我估计难以成行了。原本他要展上海的画，现在换作存于北京的，恰好我都看过，就来写点什么。看画这件事，要求观众亲身在场，那是因为绘画的照相在PDF的超高清扫描里，怎么都比不过一个阴霾的下午，坐车到一处没去过的地方，看一些没有见过的画。绘画是一位画家面对虚空，发起舞蹈般的行动。等绘画留下，舞步结束并藏匿起来，我们还可以通过画布上的痕迹去猜想他的行为。荧屏显形的平面，由像素组成，记录不下操作时疾徐厚薄的变化。刘嘉宇绘画时，表达意向强烈。我记得他那幅《蛋糕》，弯曲的蜡烛被点燃，摇曳在五个粉红色的饼体上。变形的蛋糕像是漂浮在混沌的背景间，又像在被这混沌挤压。伴随漂浮与挤压，观赏的眼睛能附和他业已消失的手舞足蹈，能看到那活泼舞蹈的消逝。
前年六一儿童节，一场没几名观众的展览。刘嘉宇努力促成的直接相遇，让人念念不忘。
The first time I saw Liu Jiayu's exhibition was on June 1st, 2020. The exhibition room is a huge and empty place in Shunyi, Beijing, and it was curated by his friend Zhang Ji. He drew a poster with his self-portrait in a dress, with the words "Princess Sweetheart not you or me" written in pink, and sent it to WeChat Moments, calling a few friends, and it was done.
The exhibition space used to be a panel furniture factory, hundreds of square meters without any pillars to interfere with the sight, like an open mouth. Painting will be easily engulfed by the space. Liu Jiayu hang on the paintings in different height, or just stay beside the wall. It is said that when Basquiat made his first exhibition, he also set up in this way. Graffiti also can be seen on Liu Jiayu’s acrylic paintings, gradually lighten from a dark background, while this oil painting method have commonly used by Italians during the Renaissance, and referred to "classical". His paintings are loosely structured, that images and colors are in a stalemate relationship, involving each other, regardless of priority. His paintings are always flowing, boiling, especially cheerful, and full of nervous panic, pain and suspicion. The paintings wonderfully match with the abandoned factories, no conflict with each other, but also maintained their own characteristics. Exhibition space and art are all at ease.
The new exhibition "The Paints are Shortening" opened in Shunde, and I guess I can't go there. Originally, he wanted to show the paintings in Shanghai, but now change to the paintings which stored in Beijing. Fortunately, I have seen them all and try to say something. It would be better to watch the paintings in person. Because the photos of the paintings which in the ultra-high-definition scans of the PDF can't be compared to taking a car to a place that has never been before, and seeing some things that have not been seen before in a cloudy afternoon. Painting is the artist facing the void, initiating a dance-like action. When the paintings are left, the dance are finished and hidden, we still can guess his behavior through the traces on the canvas. The plane displayed on the screen is composed of pixels, which cannot record the rapid changes during operation. Liu Jiayu expresses strong intentions when painting. I remember his work Cake, the curved candles lit and swayed over five pink cakes. The deformed cake seems to float in the chaotic background, and it seems to be squeezed by the chaos. With floating and squeezing, the spectator's eyes can echo his disappearing dance, and see the disappearance of that lively dance.
The Children's Day the year before last, there are few audiences in the exhibition. I was impressed by Liu Jiayu’s effort and directly encounter.
Yang Zi
刘嘉宇，《迷你龙》，2018，布面丙烯油画，214×176cm
Jiayu Liu, Mini Dragon, 2018, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 214×176cm
刘嘉宇
1992出生于浙江台州。
2015年毕业于芝加哥艺术学院。
目前生活工作于上海、纽约。其作品受到美国街头文化与上海宁静家庭生活的双重影响，在冲动与守成之间寻找合适而舒适的日常表达。
Jiayu Liu (b. 1992, Taizhou, China), graduated from School of Art Institute of Chicago (B.F.A., 2015), currently lives and works at Shanghai and New York. His works are affected by both the American street hip-hop culture and his Chinese traditional family life, in between pulse and conformity, seeking outlets that allow appropriate and cosy daily expression.
个展
甜心公主不是你也是我 Shawty, This is Ms.Pearl, Project 98, 北京, 2020
New works, Crude Creatures Gallery, 芝加哥, 2016
群展
饥饿如狼 Hungry like the Wolf, The LeRoy Neiman Center, 芝加哥,2015
Take Out, SUGS Gallery, 芝加哥, 2015
ASK：Y, Crude Creatures Gallery, 芝加哥, 2015
童言无忌 Enfant Terrible, Crude Creatures Gallery, 芝加哥, 2015
杨紫是来自北京的独立策展人和研究学人。他于2012至2014年担任《艺术界LEAP》杂志编辑，于2015年加入尤伦斯当代艺术中心（UCCA）任总编辑，并策划多场展览及公共项目。他于2018年任职UCCA策展人及公共项目总监，策展项目包括：“肉身：恐怖谷”、“密室”、“Pity Party”、“敢当：当代神石注疏”、“韶华”、“装饰”等群展，亦为多个艺术家策划个展。杨紫于2017年入围Hyundai Blue Prize年度艺术大奖，于2019年、2021年担任华宇青年奖评委，并在2020年获选为首届希克中国艺术研究资助计划研究学人。
Yang Zi is a Beijing-based researcher and independent curator. From 2012 to 2014, he was an editor of LEAP. In 2015, after joining the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), he acted as executive editor on a series of catalogues and curated exhibitions and public programmes; he became a curator and the head of public programmes in 2018. His curatorial projects include La Chair, Secret Chamber, Pity Party, Land of the Lustrous, In Younger Days, Zhuangshi, and numerous solo exhibitions. He was a finalist for the Hyundai Blue Prize in 2017, a judges of the Huayu Youth Award in 2019, and the recipient of the inaugural Sigg Fellowship for Chinese Art Research in 2020.