Adventure in the Sea of Unconscious: Wang Chuan Solo Exhibition
Upcoming exhibition
Press release
The solo exhibition of Wang Chuan: Adventure in the Sea of the Unconscious will open on 21 March 2026 at the Wanxia Cultural and Arts Centre, Shenzhen. Bringing together more than forty representative works created between 1985 and 2019, the exhibition surveys nearly four decades of Wang Chuan’s artistic practice. The exhibition is organized by the Wanxia Cultural and Arts Centre, co-organized by A Thousand Plateaus Art Space, and curated by Xu Sheng.
Wang Chuan is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of contemporary abstract painting in China. Since 1985 he has pursued an independent artistic exploration through a range of media, including ink and oil painting. His practice gradually evolved from an emphasis on abstract technique and formal language toward an introspective spiritual expression, forging a distinctive and singular artistic path. Over time, his work has moved from the grand narratives of an era toward reflections on individual life. Both an exploration of the possibilities of abstraction and a distillation of the artist’s own life experience and inner journey, his paintings reveal the depth and vitality with which a humanist aesthetic has taken root in China. His works are held in numerous international collections, including the British Museum, the Finnish National Gallery, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Spanning key moments in Wang Chuan’s practice from 1985 to 2019, the exhibition traces the evolution of his artistic vision across forty years. In an accessible yet thoughtful manner, it sketches a journey of exploration within the landscape of the spirit. “The sea of the unconscious” evokes the image of a free soul, with an island rising from the vast ocean. Wang Chuan’s paintings may themselves be understood as representations of its landscape.
