Guan Yinfu
2718 kg
2025.11.13 - 01.11
Triumph Gallery artist Guan Yinfu present his latest solo exhibition, "2718 kg," at Long Museum (West Bund) on November 13, 2025. Curated by Cui Cancan, the exhibition feature over twenty pieces created by the artist in recent years.
The exhibition “2718 kg” takes its name from the literal weight of the works it presents. It speaks of gravity not only as a physical measure but as an enduring metaphor for the essence of being and creation.
The exhibition unfolds in three sections, tracing Guan’s artistic practice over the past five years. In the Color Series, we see how he explores the fundamental questions of painting—color, form, volume, and weight—and how, upon this foundation, a spiritual dialectic between content and form, reality and imagination emerges. These universal reflections then return to his personal subjectivity—to his life, experiences, and environment, and to his conscious engagement with cultural identity. In the monumental Black and White Series, Guan draws upon his long-standing sensibilities rooted in expressionism and stage design to forge a Chinese philosophical meditation on black, gray, and white, exploring the relationships among materiality, force, emptiness, and drama. His works thus exist between painting, design, relief, and stage, blurring the boundaries among image, object, and space.
In the final section of the exhibition, Guan turns to the simplicity and essence of black, seeking to construct a perceptual system that stands in contrast to the “white” of art history. Here, he invokes the spiritual symbolism contained within color: how, from the finite substance of matter, one might reach the infinite realm of spirit. Like the nature of darkness, black renders things hidden, blurred, and mysterious. It may also be said that black is born from an older, more inscrutable history, one that always carries a sense of premonition.
The exhibition “2718 kg” takes its name from the literal weight of the works it presents. It speaks of gravity not only as a physical measure but as an enduring metaphor for the essence of being and creation.
The exhibition unfolds in three sections, tracing Guan’s artistic practice over the past five years. In the Color Series, we see how he explores the fundamental questions of painting—color, form, volume, and weight—and how, upon this foundation, a spiritual dialectic between content and form, reality and imagination emerges. These universal reflections then return to his personal subjectivity—to his life, experiences, and environment, and to his conscious engagement with cultural identity. In the monumental Black and White Series, Guan draws upon his long-standing sensibilities rooted in expressionism and stage design to forge a Chinese philosophical meditation on black, gray, and white, exploring the relationships among materiality, force, emptiness, and drama. His works thus exist between painting, design, relief, and stage, blurring the boundaries among image, object, and space.
In the final section of the exhibition, Guan turns to the simplicity and essence of black, seeking to construct a perceptual system that stands in contrast to the “white” of art history. Here, he invokes the spiritual symbolism contained within color: how, from the finite substance of matter, one might reach the infinite realm of spirit. Like the nature of darkness, black renders things hidden, blurred, and mysterious. It may also be said that black is born from an older, more inscrutable history, one that always carries a sense of premonition.
Guan Yinfu
Guan Yinfu, born in 1975 in Heilongjiang Province, China, graduated from the Department of Theatre Arts at the Central Academy of Drama in 2002. He currently lives and works in Beijing.Throughout his career, Guan Yinfu has continuously explored the multi-dimensional material properties of pigments. The sensory qualities carried by the pigments are fully manifested as he constructs spatial order through establishing color relationships. Simultaneously, the interaction of gravity and tension on the substrate results in either thin or thick patches of color. A soothing, sluggish rhythm forms a unique "aesthetics of inertia" on his canvases. This aesthetic transforms the paintings into corporeal entities. Different thicknesses of color patches resemble skin and muscle, corresponding to the two threads of lightness and heaviness in Guan Yinfu's creations. His recent explorations in "The Ontological Turn" subtly echo the forefront of "New Materialism" trends. He also endeavors to penetrate beyond the surface of painting, delving into the depths of the spiritual realm. These varied forms of color blocks step onto the stage of spiritual drama.
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Curator
Curator
Cui Cancan
Cui Cancan is an active Chinese independent curator and critic. Since 2012, he has curated over 180 exhibitions and projects, including group exhibitions like Hei Qiao Night Way (2013), Rural Wash, Cut and Blow-dry (2013), Unlived by What is Seen (2014), Between the 5th and 6th Ring Road in Beijing (2015), The Decameron (2016), Rip it Up (2017), Spring Festival Projects (2018), The Curation Workshop (2019), Nine-Tiered (2020), The Methodology of the New Generation (2021), Hometown Spring (2021), The Disconnected Generation (2022), Chengdu Hip-hop (2025), Nomads in the South (2023), Chengdu Biennale (2013), Southeast Asia Triennale (2023), Chongqing Photography Biennale (2017), among others. Cui has also worked on projects, solo exhibitions, and retrospectives with nearly 100 artists.