At Studio Rouge’s most recent exhibition, “Ruby, Roxy and the Flaming Lamborghini,” 20 Chinese and international artists meet under a simple theme: the color red.

“It’s no coincidence that we chose the holiday season for this show,” enthuses curator George Michell. “Red, of course, is associated with festivity, and festivity brings together people from different backgrounds, so it fits with the tremendous diversity of the showcased artists.”

Uncover a mixed bag of artistic expressions, with pieces in a range of mediums including canvas, paper, glass, LED and photography. Zane Mellupe’s Knitting best represents the show’s spirit. A 3-D display of needles knitting a luminescent red LED cord into a collar seems to suggest that we are trapped in―or at least led by―the digital age.

Another mixed media work that stands out is Cheng Linggong’s Heritage No. 63, a complex papier-mâché grid, of which each compartment houses a piece of red paper with the Chinese character fu (福), meaning prosperity and wealth written in gold. Unsettlingly, each of the papers has been crumpled up and stuffed into its square on the grid, leaving the character unreadable. The piece implies how our structured urban life crushes culture and jams it into set times or areas of our lives, leaving its true form or nature unrecognizable.

While the exhibition features plenty of unorthodox work, it also presents several classically beautiful photographs and paintings. Jiang Weitao's Red, for instance, displays laudable pigment variation and different overlaying intensities. Like all of the artists’ work, the abstract oil painting revolves around multiple iterations and meanings of the character kou (口), meaning mouth, window or doorway.

“Ruby, Roxy and the Flaming Lamborghini” is part of Studio Rouge’s ongoing effort to bring showcase works from underrepresented local artists. The desire falls in line with the festivity and passion their current show evokes, that, essentially, there’s hope yet for indie art.

DETAILS

What: “Ruby, Roxy and the Flaming Lamborghini”

Where: Studio Rouge

When: Now through Feb. 12

Web: www.studiorouge.cn