Explore A World Of Micro-Cities And Neon Furniture At "Glimpses" Exhibition

Jiang Pengyi's first US solo exhibition opens today at Klein Sun and showcases the beauty in decay.

by Johnny Magdaleno

May 9, 2014, 9:00pm

Everything Illuminates 1. 2012. All images courtesy Klein Sun Gallery and Jiang Pengyi

Glimpses, Chinese artist Jiang Pengyi’s first solo exhibition in the United States, is structured around two series' of photographs, both which contemplate decay. In Everything Illuminates, the images present everyday furnitures including stairs, chairs, and cushion tops, drizzled and dusted with a piercingly bright neon substance. In the photographs of Unregistered City, the crumbling corners of derelict houses and rooms form the bedrocks of miniature cities.

Opening today at Klein Sun Gallery, the bipartite exhibition forms a cohesive glimpse into the conflicts and contradictions at work in Pengyi's artwork.

Their respective subjects might feel worlds apart, but they find unity in their exploration of humanity's physical residues. When Everything’s neon syrup demarcates the trail of some liquid—blood? booze? paint?—down a series of stairs, it illuminates how even inanimate objects get injected with identities once altered by our presence. When Unregistered City births tiny metropolises out of rubble so fresh that dust is still clearing from the surrounding air, it ruminates on society’s degradation while embracing the slow-rise of new livelihoods in the wake of past ones.

It makes sense, then, that these portraits are grouped together in Glimpses. The Klein Sun Gallery expands on defines just why the name works: “A glimpse is a quick idea or understanding of something -- a partial look. The title indicates that the first thought which comes to mind as one views the works might only be a portion of the piece’s significance. Glimpses suggests that audiences examine and contemplate each photograph, continuing to search for ever-deeper meaning.”