[Ota Fine Arts Shanghai] Spring Encounters

In 2017, Zai Kuning (b. 1964, Singapore) represented Singapore at the 57th Venice Biennale, sharing his research on the forgotten stories of Malay culture and Southeast Asian history through a 17-metre-long skeletal ship. Presented in this exhibition are works from his abstract drawing series Prodigal Pagan Hymn (2020 - present, ongoing) which he produced in solitude during the pandemic.

"Prodigal Pagan Hymn is about resonation, voices, and broken memories of ancestral roots towards meanings and symbolic landscape." 

— Zai Kuning

The earliest work in the exhibition, a watercolor on colored paper piece by Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929, Japan), Flower, was completed in 1979. The flower has been a familiar subject matter for Kusama since her childhood as her family ran a plant nursery business. From an early age, Kusama began suffering hallucinations and everything she saw was covered by dots, nets and flowers, which became recurring motifs in her practice. Also presented here are Kusama’s prints and a large-scale flower sculpture.

Last but not least, Rina Banerjee (b. 1963, India) who has lived in multi-cultural communities as far apart as Kolkata and New York City, also chose lithography to introduce a surreal world of post-colonial diaspora and ancient mythology. Her depiction of fragmented figures, mythical creatures and mystical space on these prints, together with her poetic artwork titles, offers audience an entry to explore a “multi-faceted nature of identity” which is not based exclusively on a person's culture of origin or gender.