SUMMER DREAMS CAN’T WAIT

Viewing by appointment only. Please contact visit@70sqm.com or WeChat: _70squaremetres

SHANGHAI—70 Square Metres is delighted to present Summer Dreams Can’t Wait, a group exhibition by seven artists from China, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa. The show captures the fleeting beauty of summer through themes of intimacy, impermanence, and silent exchanges that linger between dream and daylight—enhanced by soft lighting, summer mats, and a soundscape of whispering waves and the quiet rustle of summer clothing.

Cornelius Annor’s figurative painting blends traditional Ghanaian textiles in Me Yonko (My Friend), which offers a quiet contemplation on the friendship between two young men in elegant attire.

Kingsley Dzade explores food as a cultural narrative. Can’t Wait depicts a man enjoying his meal while his watchful dog observes from beside the table. The scene hints that collective sharing is central to the values of Dzade’s native Ghana.

Isshaq Ismail’s Radiant Persona series, rendered in charcoal, employs his signature “infantile semiabstraction” style, echoing childhood memories of the medium used in his home kitchen.

Jin Junjie uses a “scrape painting” technique inspired by xieyi traditions, prioritising emotional essence over form. Works such as Like a Dream, Like an Illusion and A Village in the Distance reveal his process of layering and carving acrylic paint, while Women Sunbathing on the Beach, inspired by Picasso’s sketches, reduces figures to clean, minimalist lines.

Sphephelo Mnguni’s Izimpande: The Roots traces the tensions between traditional African culture and contemporary life, as he paints a goat standing in a sunlit yard next to a modern setting.

Deborah Segun’s Soaking It All In features fragmented female silhouettes emerging from washes of colour like midday mirages with their forms hinting at perpetual rebirth and reflection.

Kwaku Yaro, a self-taught mixed-media artist, weaves Ghanaian cultural narratives with subtle Chinese motifs inspired by his time as an artist-in-residence in Shanghai. His three works using repurposed materials—takeaway bags, iconic “Ghana Must Go” bags, and burlap—are layered on top of African nylon mats and Chinese summer rattan mats.