Writers’ Acquisition Committee (Shanghai)

Initiated in September 2021, Longlati Writers’ Acquisition Committee, Shanghai, is formed by four Shanghai-based writers, Jenny Chen, Zian Chen, Suchao Li, Evonne Jiawei Yuan, who are actively involved in the local art scene. It aims to promote the intellectual exchange between writers and emerging artists. They will organize monthly visits to gallery and museum exhibitions in Shanghai, conduct research into the works and develop acquisition proposals. Each of them will nominate artists and evaluate each other’s opinions, then make votes to make new additions to the Collection of Longlati Foundation every month.

Evonne Jiawei Yuan, Head of the Committee

Evonne Jiawei Yuan (b.1990, Shanghai), curator, writer, graduated from Fudan University with B.A. in Museology, The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London with M.A. in History of Art, and the Architectural Association School of Architecture with M.A. in History & Critical Thinking. From 2016 to 2020, she held positions at Don Gallery, Shanghai and Long March Space, Beijing). Curations include “Shanghai Dandy” (2017), “Steadfastly Raise the Standards in Nonproductive Construction” (2018), “Joshua Nathanson: Wildfire Delivery” (2021), “Wang Hua: help all the coldness melt into a piece of heart” (2021), etc. Contributing articles also featured in artforum.com.cn, ArtChina, LEAP, etc. Current research interests include the architectural media in-and-of contemporary art, (post)modern spatial concepts, border aesthetics and its geopolitics. She now acts as Artistic Director at hAo mArket, Shanghai.

Jenny CHEN Jiaying, Member of the Committee

Writer and curator. She is currently PhD candidate in the department of Western Philosophy at East China Normal University. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from China Academy of Art and received her Master of Arts degree from Lancaster University in the UK. She has contributed to media such as Artforum (CN), Ocula and HEICHI. Recent Projects include: “AI: Love and Artificial Intelligence”, Hyundai Motorstudio, Beijing, China (2020); “Copernicus”, E.M.Bannister Gallery of Rhode Island College, Providence, U.S.A (2019); “Li Hanwei: Liquid Health”, Goethe Space, Shanghai (2019); “First edition of the Shanghai Curators Lab”, Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, Shanghai (2018). Jenny’s other academic activities include the First Annual Conference of Network Society “Forces of Reticulation” roundtable and Huayu Forum of Art, etc.

Zian Chen, Member of the Committee

Zian Chen is a curator and co-editor of Heichi Magazine. His co-curated projects were realized at Pingpong Art Space, Taipei (2011-2012), MoCA Taipei (2011), ICC Sapporo (2013), Times Museum, Guangzhou (2018) and Long March Project, Beijing (2018-2019), among others. He has co-edited Arrow Factory: The Last Five Years (2020) and Olympic Reveries (2021). In the past two years, he has been writing on hauntologies in relation to the rapid changes in Chinese contemporary art under the serial title “Instant Retrospectives,” appeared at Heichi Magazine and LEAP. He is currently an online resident of Compost, the online platform of Institute of Contemporary Arts at NYU Shanghai (2021-22). The project is based on his recent experimental writings on racial politics titled Background Theory (Haikeiron), delivered at 2019 Asian Art Forum.

Suchao Li, Member of the Committee

Suchao Li, graduated from the University of Glasgow with a Master’s degree in History of Art, currently lives and works in Shanghai. Her writings, including critical reviews, artist profiles, interviews and essays have appeared in ARTFORUM China, LEAP, ArtCo, Ocula, The Art Newspaper China (TANC) as well as many other art publications. She was the Assistant Curator of the Future, Future – Young Artists’ Experimental Film Project (2020) launched by the artist Yang Fudong and Centre for Experimental Film (CEF). In 2019, her article Summoning the Souls of Gwangju – The Former Gwangju Armed Forces Hospital as Art Site has received the second prize of the Sixth Edition of the International Awards for Art Criticism (IAAC). In 2017, she was appointed as the translator for the jury committee of the 11th Award of Art China (AAC). Her recent research interests are on the interdisciplinary subjects connected with contemporary art, science and the philosophy of technology.

News | Longlati Foundation’s Writers’ Acquistion Committe(Shanghai) 2021.9 Collection

In September 2021, during the process of visiting new exhibitions at galleries and institutions, four members of the Longlati Writers’ Acquisition Committee (Shanghai) noticed two female artists born in the 1990s: Zhang Yibei (born in Daqing, Heilongjiang, in 1992) and Liao Wen (born in Chengdu, Sichuan, in 1994). Focusing on sculpture creation and the development of its language, they each employ conceptual or material-driven visual methodologies in their practices. However, they also incorporate elements of corporeality that exist between performance and action within the expanded field of sculpture, thereby forming an open strategy of media interchange. Based on the selection and resolution by the Longlati Writers’ Collection Committee (Shanghai), the Longlati Foundation gladly announces the acquisition of Zhang Yibei’s work “At the pinnacle of despair” (2021) and Liao Wen’s work “The Garden of Adonis” (2021).

News | Sydney Shen “Puritan Salvage Demolition Co. pencil” —— Writers’ Acquisition Committee(Shanghai) 2021 Collection

Sydney Shen (born in 1989 in New Jersey, currently based in New York) is a Chinese-American female artist who has garnered attention from the members of the Longlati Foundation’s Writers’ Acquisition Committee (Shanghai), including Chen Jiaying, Chen Xi’an, Li Suchao, and Yuan Jiawei, in their respective research practices. In her debut exhibition in Shanghai titled “Misery Whip,” presented at Gallery Vacancy in early 2021, Shen combines sculpture, installations, and immersive environments that blend human corporeal history, medical history, archaeological found objects, contemporary symbols, and science fiction narratives. These works create a mirrored reality of the real world, reflecting the tension and intricate texture of constructive practices. In her subsequent solo project titled “Cupio Dissolvi” at Liste Art Fair Basel, the artist further explores one of her signature visual languages. By magnifying and scaling ordinary everyday objects to the point of alienation and weaponization, Shen reflects on internal conflicts, divisions, and renewal within oneself.