In Shanghai exhibitons, the city is a common theme. As much of an inspiration as it is a geographical location, the metropolis often forms the backdrop for what artists produce here. “Utopia Nowhere: Views of Progress and Nostalgia” gathers works from 12 Shanghai-based artists, ranging from arresting installations to hyper-realistic oil paintings.

Dominating the downstairs floor space is an installation by Mora Wang and Emma Fordham, in which images of Puxi and Pudong are split among canvas squares that rotate, invoking traditional lanterns. It represents the way the city is seen: a double-edged sword of modernism and history. Also worth noting is a series of circular discs depicting laboratory specimens by Tony Ng. Ng calls the piece a contemplation on the “sedimentation of thoughts.”

Image from Zhang Lehua
Upstairs, Zhang Lehua’s tongue-in-cheek poster series is the highlight. Inspired by flyers and propaganda pictures, the painted friezes crystallize urban issues of racial and cultural mixing. One poster advises on dealing with “Occidental” visitors; another teaches how to raise mixed-race children.

Cultures clash again in the hyper-realistic paintings of Li Wenfeng. A deer and a crane (ancient symbols of luck) loiter in a modern living room filled with contemporary chairs. Outside, through the window, is an old-style scholar’s garden. The modern city may be encroaching, but the past is never far behind.

Image from Francesca Galeazzi
The gallery itself becomes the subject for work by architect Francesca Galeazzi. Her series “Seal the Windows Before the Rain” imagines options for extending the gallery space upwards. One envisions a brick structure being constructed on top of the existing gallery; another places a giant glass skyscraper on it, and a third involves a three-story garden extending above the roof. Using the gallery itself as the basis for architectural musings underpins the theme of the exhibition: reworking a geographical space to make it yet more useful while redefining the past to fit with the present and the future.

DETAILS

What: “Utopia Nowhere: Views of Progress and Nostalgia”

Where: Art Plus Shanghai

When: Now through Nov. 25

Web: www.artplusshanghai.com