A⁺ Contemporary is pleased to present the upcoming group exhibition “Messages from the Ruin” curated by well-known curator Sun Dongdong at Asia Art Center Taipei I+II on November 5^th, 2016. Active in the Chinese as well as international contemporary art scene, the 8 exhibiting artists include Jiang Pengyi, Ju Ting, Liu Wentao, Tao Yi, Wang Yuyang, Xu Qu, Zhao Zhao, and Zhong (Yunshu) Tant. The curator and the artists will be present on the day of reception, November 5^th, 2016 at 4pm at Asia Art Center Taipei II. The exhibition is on view through December 11^th, 2016.

The exhibition firstly dissects the definitions of “abstraction” and “representation” in both broad and narrow senses, and examines the cognitive gap between modern and contemporary art history. The curator then goes deeper into the exhibition title “Messages from the Ruins” to allude to confusions revolving around the form and definition of “abstraction” in contemporary art. As “abstraction” evolves in modern and contemporary art, overuse of the word seems to have provoked considerable debates and indeed remains the most contentious issue in recent international art scene, and yet it invites a more open-ended application and imagination of “abstraction”. The creative practices of the 8 exhibiting artists all point to observations and summaries of the counterforce projected onto the current concept of “abstraction” as proposed by the curator, demonstrating the variety of interpretations made possible by their creators.

About Curator

Sun Dongdong was born in 1977 in Nanjing. Graduated from BA in Fine Arts at Nanjing University of the Arts in 2001 and from MFA in Art History at Nanjing University of the Arts in 2005, Sun Dongdong currently lives and works in Beijing. He worked at Si Fang Art Museum, Iberia Center for Contemporary Art and LEAP. He curated exhibitions including: Messages from the Ruin (organized by A+ Contemporary, Asia Art Center Taipei I + II, Taipei, 2016), No Express: Hu Weiyi (Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, 2015), Shi Qing: Hinterland Project (Time Museum, Guangzhou, 2015), ON | OFF: China’s Young Artists in Concept & Practice (Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, 2013).