Exhibition View of Liang Shaoji: PHANTASMAGORIA

Since 2014, Shanghai Museum of Glass has joined hands with modern artist Zhang Ding and curator Li Li to bring a ground-breaking exhibition named “Black Substance.” In 2016, Shanghai Museum of Glass has officially renamed this exhibition as“Annealing.” Annealing is an essential part in creating glass art, and also, key to its final formation. The raw materials are burnt at over 1,000 °C until they turn into molten glass, ready for formation. Then the annealing process begins by heating the formed glass, and then keeping it warm, first slowly cooling it and then quickly cooling it. Such as the uncertainty of annealing in glass creation, surprisingly and unexpectedly wonderful glass artwork in this exhibition brought together by different modern artists who contribute their own perspectives into the powerful plasticity of glass, are another form of annealing. 

Exhibition View of Liang Shaoji: PHANTASMAGORIA

In 2024, Shanghai Museum of Glass has invited Liang Shaoji to continue the“Annealing”project with “PHANTASMAGORIA.”Liang Shaoji is one of China’s prominent contemporary artists. For over thirty years, he has delved into the intersections of art and biology, installations and sculptures, new media, and performance, persistently exploring the juncture between them. His ongoing “Nature Series” revolves around the life cycle of silkworms, characterized by interaction with nature, with time and life at its core. Silkworms and their silk have become his most representative artistic language. In the “Annealing” project at the Shanghai Museum of Glass, he employs glass as the primary creative medium, adopting an experimental approach to break the constraints of craftsmanship and discover the possibilities of this entirely new material. This four-year collaborative project not only embodies the purpose of the “Annealing” project—to encourage artists to transcend material boundaries and unearth the spirituality beyond materials but also represents Liang Shaoji’s quest for re-questioning and liberating his own artistic creation.

Exhibition View of Liang Shaoji: PHANTASMAGORIA

About the Artist

Liang Shaoji was born in Shanghai in 1945, and he now works and resides in Tiantai, Zhejiang Province.

Liang Shaoji studied soft sculpture from Maryn Varbanov at China Academy of Art. For more than thirty years, Liang has been indulged in the interdisciplinary creation in terms of art and biology, installation and sculpture, new media and textile. His Nature Series sees the life process of silkworms as creation medium, the interaction in natural world as his artistic language, time and life as the essential idea. His works are fulfilled with a sense of meditation, philosophy and poetry while illustrating the inherent beauty of silk.

Selected exhibitions: A Soft Place to Land, Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, U.S.A(2023); The Quill Is Mightier than the Sword: A Duo Exhibition by Liang Shaoji and Yang Jiechang, Museum of Wu, Suzhou (2023); Liang Shaoji: A Silky Entanglement, Power Station of Art, Shanghai (2021-2022); The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China (touring exhibition), Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Smart Museum of Art (Chicago), U.S.A. (2019-2020); Liang Shaoji: As If, M Woods Art Museum, Beijing (2018); The Curitiba International Biennale, Oscar Niemeyer Museum, Curitiba, Brazil (2017); Liang Shaoji: Cloud Above Cloud, Museum of China Academy of Art, Hangzhou (2016); What About the Art? Contemporary Art from China, Al Riwaq, Doha, Qatar (2016); Liang Shaoji: Back to Origin, ShanghART Gallery, Shanghai (2015); Art of Change, Hayward Gallery, London, U.K. (2012); Cloud, Liang Shaoji Solo Exhibition, ShanghART H-Space, Shanghai (2007); The 3rd Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai (2000); The 5th Biennale d’Art Contemporain de Lyon, Lyon, France (2000); The 6th International Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey (1999); The 48th International Art Exhibition Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (1999); China/Avant-Garde Art Exhibition, National Art Museum of China, Beijing (1989) etc.

Liang was awarded the Chinese Contemporary Art Awards (CCAA) in 2002 and the Prince Claus Awards in 2009.

About the Exhibition

Curator: Cathye Yang

Duration: Jan. 14, 2024 – Jun. 30, 2024

Venue: H18, Contemporary Art Hall, Shanghai Museum of Glass

Courtesy of Shanghai Museum of Glass.