Shen Chen

Axel Vervoordt Gallery is pleased to present Shen Chen’s first exhibition with the gallery in Europe. The exhibition at Kanaal features twelve new works made between 2018 and 2021 that demonstrate the artist’s disciplined act of repetition. Shen adds depth to the canvas with layer upon layer of paint, completing each work only when the artist senses his qi (breath movement and energy) has left and when he’s reached emptiness into the void. His works are temporal; reciprocating layers of dialogue emerge in each brushstroke between opacity and translucence.

During the artist’s formative years, Shen was intrigued by the brushwork of two legendary Buddhist monks, Liang Kai and Bada Shanren. Shen was captivated by the energy between ink and white space in traditional Chinese ink paintings, which created an abstraction between fullness and nothingness. Shen is considered to be one of the leading contemporary pioneers of Chinese abstract and experimental ink painting.