A Walk In Life – OUR STORY Irene Chang Art Solo Exhibition Opening Ceremony

Nov 17

Written By Gwyneth

November 16, 2022 marked the grand opening of Irene Chang’s long-awaited art solo exhibition, “A Walk In Life – OUR STORY.” The exhibition was a collaborative effort between Irene Chang Studio, Shanghai North Bund Museum, and Hurun Art Foundation.

The exhibition was curated by the seasoned writer, columnist, artist, and curator Mr. Jianyong Yang. The artist invited the viewers to walk through a visual journey looking back into our lives, our history, and our world;to slow downand explore the light and the darkness in our world; and to contemplate on our world’s future direction together. Through the visual presentations, the space provided an opportunity to deep dive into the meaning of human civilization, themeaning of our undertakings, our responsibilities, and our future pursuits.

Even in such a harsh time during the pandemic, where there were many government policy restrictions, lockdowns, and related unpredictable variables, the exhibition was well supported and received by the local government, art association, friends and families, and art lovers. At the opening ceremony, the local government and art association officials, The North Bund Museum director, the curator, and the artist gave warm welcoming speeches, followed by video presentations about the artist and her work, a curated tour of the exhibition, and a cocktail reception.

Irene explained images in her work, “Greed is like wildfire consuming the land. Humans are pursuing perfect outer appearances, fresh carnal feelings, ignoring the inner spiritual void, while the world is facing numerous manmade as well as natural disasters, wars, and extinctions.” The tsunamis, forest fires, and pandemic we have facedwere blatantly presented on her canvases. Perhaps, it is this directness and frankness in the artist’ work that rocked the viewers. Irene thought of her work as a memo to the people living in the next century. Her love for mankind, nature, animals, and trees gave her the motivation and strength to complete her work, sending messages of love and concerns for our entire human race and our mother nature.

In her work, “the world · us,” we can see the artist’s concerns and worries: dark clouds, tsunamis, floods, hurricanes, volcano eruptions, earthquakes, forest fires, dark smokes, drought, war, pollution, pandemic, etc. The entire painting worked like scenes in a movie, very powerful and moving. If you stand closely, you will see the entire painting covered with the symbols of circles and crosses in different colors, representing our world is full of judgements and choices.

The exhibition also showcased Irene’s “We Love Apples - Eve” series. In this series, the artist gave new interpretations to Eve and apples. Traditionally, in the Garden of Eden, apples represent fruit of knowledge, temptations, powers, sins, and the downfall of men. Irene’s apples represent temptations and desires. Irene explained that if there were no thoughts of desires for more and better living conditions, our human civilization would not have developed so quickly. However, when the desires became excessive, they may turn out to corrupt our minds, our bodies, and our world. Therefore, we should learn to accept our imperfections, acknowledging and accepting our shortcomings, so that we can have better views of ourselves and our world and make better decisions and changes for ourselves and our future.

Although the artist’s concerns for the challenges our world faced were heavy, but her visual presentations appeared warm and delightful. In the current unusual time, when we had to face ongoing pandemic lockdowns, the “happy” colors she used were truly therapeutic, warming and lifting our spirits, and giving the viewers the much needed hope and faith.