David Kordansky Gallery and Leo Xu Projects are pleased to present “Please fasten your seat belt as we are experiencing some turbulence”, a collaborative group exhibition held at Leo Xu Projects, Lane 49, Building 3, Fuxing Xi Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai. The show will be on view from March 18 until April 30, 2017. An opening reception will take place on Friday, March 17 from 6:00pm until 8:00pm.

 

Featuring artists from both of the galleries’ programs, Please fasten your seat belt as we are experiencing some turbulence will examine how a wide and heterogeneous array of aesthetic positions can reflect, refract, and bear witness to an uncertain state of global affairs. The exhibition will include work by Kathryn Andrews, Andrea Büttner, Chen Wei, Heman Chong, Sam Gilliam, Zach Harris, Evan Holloway, Rashid Johnson, Gabriel Lester, Li Qing, Liu Shiyuan, Pixy Liao, Jonas Lund, Tala Madani, Chris Martin, Torbjørn Rødland, Sissel Tolaas, Tom of Finland, Wei Jia, Ming Wong, and Betty Woodman.

 

At a time when political, ecological, and spiritual values are being questioned by people from across the ideological spectrum, and disagreements and dispersion define the order of the day, the world is nonetheless more interconnected than ever before. In some cases, works on view will confront this condition directly. Other works provide a less direct, though no less intense, window onto the sheer emotional intensity of such a destabilized historical moment.

 

A crucial role played by the art of any time lies in its ability to record and crystallize the milieu that gives rise to it. The desire to enter into dialogue with forms of mass cultural production is both a means of response and the acknowledgement of a responsibility: no matter how unpredictable the present instant might be, art is made for viewers who will see it in the future. Its very existence is thus precipitated on, and inspired by, the belief that life on this planet, both as we know it and as we don’t, will continue to thrive.

 

The exhibition is following another large group exhibition “The Los Angeles Project” at Ullens Center for Contemporary Art Beijing in 2014, which is also a centralized show of the artists in Los Angeles and the creation style of today’s American West Coast.