Design Miami/ Podium x Shanghai 2023

8 March–12 March, 2023
                  Weihai Road No. 588 Zhangyuan, Jing’an District, Shanghai, China

Shanghai—Pearl Lam Galleries is proud to participate in the 2nd Design Miami/ Podium x Shanghai. With 24 selected works from 6 artists, designers and designer teams in the Gallery section, the program will be presented within the theme of “Transcendence”, a concept that will explore the power of design to elevate our lived experiences, expand our minds and point to the intangible. The exhibition will showcase a diverse mix of representative conceptual design pieces by André Dubreuil (1951–2022), Mr Doodle (b. 1994), Philip Colbert (b. 1979), XYZ Design, Xue Tao (b. 1975)and Danful Yang (b. 1980).

Since 1993, Pearl Lam has held a series of exhibitions in Hong Kong and is committed to promoting design as an art form. The highly acclaimed touring exhibition Awakening: La France Mandarine showed for the first time the importance of contemporary decorative art and its design concept in China. Over the years, Pearl Lam Galleries has provided artists and designers a dynamic, integrated stage to showcase Chinese and Western culture. The gallery invites artists and designers from all over the world to cooperate with traditional Chinese craftsmen to create unique limited edition works that combine traditional Chinese handicrafts with Western modern art and design concepts so that traditional Chinese art and handicrafts can be innovatively used in a new context. Meanwhile, Pearl Lam Galleries is also committed to stimulating cross-regional and cross-cultural dialogue and exchange, breaking boundaries between art and design as well as providing a new perspective for contemporary art. This exhibition continues the gallery’s vision and will focus on exploring how design and art communicate, collide, merge and create a diversified social landscape today.

Philip Colbert is often referred to as the “godson of Andy Warhol” and has garnered a global following with his iconic lobster persona and hyper-pop aesthetic paintings. In the sculpture Sitting Sunflowers (Van Gogh Chair), he continues to use his iconic lobster persona to convey his interest in contemporary pop culture and its relationship with traditional art history. Colbert’s series of furniture works reflects the vague interpretation between the aesthetics and the functionality of the works as well as expresses the collective power of the public’s perception of things.

British artist Mr Doodle’s work is usually done with his signature doodle characters that spread out smoothly in clean, neat lines and a calm rhythm. The three works on display here are done with acrylic and spray paint on canvas and feature layers of doodling. The visual system that Mr Doodle has created in his work comes from his “Doodle World”. Cartoon characters, objects and patterns proliferate infinitely and intensively to show his world view.

A leading figure in contemporary decorative art and design, French decorative artist André Dubreuil’s works are infused with fantasy and classical style characteristics through his unique way of working with various materials. The Sleeves Vase on show at the fair has a simple cylindrical form, but the design is elevated with a gentle, elegant ribbon detail. It is full of rhythmic music, revealing an implicit and poetic natural dynamic beauty.

Chinese artist Xue Tao (b. 1975), who was born in Dali, Yunnan province, has developed his own artistic language and is known for his sculptures and installation works created with discarded newspapers. His exhibited works are all made of newspaper and metal wire. Newspapers are a source of information in all aspects of human life and society; it is used for propaganda and a symbol of history. For Xue Tao, using everyday materials preserves history. Perhaps one day someone will try to unlock a mystery from this series of works, which is like discovering a new chapter in the life of the world and opening a treasure that has been forgotten for a long time.

XYZ Design is a design team led by Pearl Lam, who firmly believes that art, as an inclusive rather than exclusive medium, should give artists the freedom to experiment with new ways of expression as well as new media and new technologies. Inspired by cubism in the history of Western modern art, Cube Coffee Table features interspersed and overlapping stainless-steel cubes as the table base and constructs a futuristic urban landscape image.

Danful Yang is one of the earliest conceptual designers in Asia. She skillfully combines traditional Chinese handicrafts with Western modern materials and concepts to create dynamic and interesting works. Her Packing Me Softly series explores the attitudes between how people view contents and the process of packaging. The packaging box bound with adhesive tape has been manually embroidered and remade by craftsmen with silk thread, infusing care and love into a common object. Compared with functionality, Yang pays more attention to the narrative in her works. She combines objects and materials in a humorous and unexpected way to create interesting works.