'Wild Grass' reveals contemporary art's vitality

Ti Gong

Gallery Bluerider Art has launched an exhibition featuring 150 artworks, including paintings, installations, sculptures and photographs, from about 50 international artists to celebrate the gallery's ninth anniversary.

It's free and open to the public until April 16.

Entitled "Wild Grass," the exhibition is inspired by the homonymous poem of the great Chinese writer Lu Xun (1881-1936) to show the vitality of contemporary art and the endless, pure pursuit of the artists.

The two-story gallery, tucked away in a century-old Shanghai villa on the Bund, is transformed into a miniature modern art museum, with works by US-based artist Jonathan Paul's life-size lollipop sculpture that pokes fun at people's addictions, German artist Willi Siber's multicolored installations and Dylan Martinez's hyper-realistic glass water bag, which compels viewers to consider whether what they are seeing is real or an illusion.

Inheriting the name "Der Blaue Reiter" (The Blue Rider), a leading art group established by the pioneer avant-garde Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), Bluerider Art was founded by Elsa Wang in 2013 in Taipei and in Shanghai in 2021.

"We're stepping into the 10th year, which is still very young for an art gallery," said Wang. "The first six years of Bluerider Art were a period of intensive clashes with traditional systems, and of significant experimental breakthroughs.

"In the future, the Taipei and Shanghai teams will continue to build a cross-regional cultural network to represent the world's artists and hold more exhibitions for our collectors and the public."

Ti Gong

Exhibition info:

Date: Through April 16 (closed on Mondays), 10am-7pm

Address: 133 Sichuan Rd M.

四川中路133号