ORIGINIS Nov8 - Dec 10 2022 GIOVANNI MOTTA A collaboration with Gallery Kiche INSTALLATION VIEWS WORKS ARTISTS According to the 3-phase iconological method of analysis of art presented by Erwin Panofsky, the symbolic meaning of a painting consists of three levels: the primary, the conventional and the intrinsic. The process of deciphering an image level by level is to probe into the cultural and social contexts behind the two-dimensional schema and to imbue it with comprehensible contents and connotations as a subject. In Giovanni Motta’s work, a little boy known as “Jonny Boy” with his peculiar facial expressions appears recurrently, turning into a core imagery of the artist’s exploration in the realm of painting. As a hyper-realistic artist, Giovanni Motta’s artistic style is under profound influence of Katsushika Hokusai and Egon Schiele. The former, being one of the most known representative artists of orientalism, exerted influence upon Motta’s way of seeing the world through unique observation of details as well as highly emotional colors; and the latter inspired the artist to embark on a path of self-discovery through emotional intensity and unique narrative approach. Born out of these sources of inspiration, “Jonny Boy” reminds people of anime in terms of style; while aesthetically it strongly alludes to “self”. “Jonny is the child of all time, the child of everyone”, Motta once said. As an anthropomorphized collective imagery, “Jonny Boy” conveys three primary types of human emotions: “wonder” (the positive), “fear” (the negative) and “amazement” (the neutral). The various objects surrounding “Jonny Boy” in different scenes imply the different mental states of the protagonist, which in turn evokes viewers’ feelings and emotions from within. The image of the kid, innocent yet with a glimpse of pain, is captured for good through the artist’s brushstrokes. Despite the colorful cartoonish images and building blocks, Jonny’s eyes always give out the impression of void. He seems to look at somewhere beyond the image, somewhere unknown; and in the meantime, he seems to be murmuring to himself, talking about uneasiness. The ambiguous and ambivalent ambience seems to denote the ever-changing reality world in which the viewers live and the illusory nature of Jonny’s very existence, which in turn stifles viewers’ expectation for “eternity”. Despite all these, the desire for staying young forever, embedded in the very depth of our soul, and for seeking for the origin of the self still persists in the collective subconsciousness. “My Jonny Boy is always alive and alert”, as the artist put it. To constantly look back upon “authenticity” constitutes the source of nostalgia in Motta’s work. Although Motta doesn’t reject the ideas of trying something novel like NFT, AI or VR, “nostalgia” remains a fundamental motif in his practice, which could be sensed from the fact that Motta entitles his upcoming exhibition “Origins”. The word “origin” is derived from Latin, referring to the beginning of everything and the moment when things are created. “My artistic research focuses on the theme of rediscovering the inner child through recovering emotional memories”. In order to go deeper into the “beginning” of consciousness or memories, Motta tries to awaken the brain to ponder upon the origin of humanity through meditation, and to explore the private narratives between memories and emotions, memories and objects by resorting to the images generated in meditation. “Nostalgia” indicates a desire to return to someone or something once we deeply cherished – a desire that will stimulate the brain by making use of everything around it: colors, ambience, objects, people or animals… It is in those instants that inspire strong emotional experience in us that we seem to more likely to feel “presence”. In this exhibition, Motta manages to demonstrate a more sophisticated mastery of this kind of emotional narrative through the further refinement of aesthetic schema. “Game over” means the end and “Origins”, the beginning. The artist seems to be in a constant state of flux, going through crisis moments of self-doubt one after another. The continuous reflection imbues artistic exploration with inexhaustible momentum it takes to carry on. One work after another, Jonny Boy leads audience onto a journey of self-awareness, letting the latter to connect and reconnect with it. “We are only at the beginning”, of all time. Text Chen Wenyi

錨點 1 G iovanni Motta b.1971 Lives in Verona, Italy. Giovanni Motta was born into an artistic family in Verona in 1971. He expresses himself through painting and sculpture. His paintings are the result of an elaborate, complex technique based on the study of colour and form. WORK OVERVIEW EXHIBITIONS ARTICLES In Motta’s poetic output, a frequent theme is memory and recollections. The paintings and sculptures do not contrast with each other. Indeed, the objective elements and perception of reality portrayed by the former tend to enhance the idea of subjective fantasy in the latter, in keeping with the alteration and transformation involved in the combined use of the two. Motta’s works border on the realm of fantasy with their high visual impact. They start with research and expansion of childhood memories. He possesses a contemporary vocabulary that is influenced by Japanese culture, cartoons and vibrant hues that are strictly produced with spot colours. ARTWORKS 錨點 2 EXHIBITION 錨點 3 0X0A9185.jpg a10c0567a229ff161e5036c490c0f2f.jpg _DSC5147.jpg DSC03975.jpg Hidden Message Nov 10 - Dec 12, 2021 GZ Contemporary Art Fair Dec 26 - Dec 29, 2021 ORIGINIS Nov 08 - Dec 10, 2022 ART021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair Nov10 - Nov 13 2022 ARTICLES 錨點 4 Giovanni-Motta-1-1.jpg.webp Jonny-Boy-1.jpg.webp NFT and meditation: Giovanni Motta and the search for the inner child @The Cryptonomist Giovanni Motta and his success in the NFT world @The Cryptonomist

錨點 1 Millie Kelly b.1993 Millie Kelly is a London-based artist, originally from Teignmouth, Devon. Her paintings are purposefully seen as ‘kitsch’ lying somewhere between figuration and abstraction. Working with oil on canvas, she has had exhibitions in galleries such as the Oxo tower in London, and won the prestigious Clyde & Co award in 2015-16. WORK OVERVIEW EXHIBITIONS ARTICLES 錨點 2 ARTWORKS 錨點 3 EXHIBITION 0X0A9185.jpg DSC04029.jpg Hidden Message Nov 10 - Dec 12, 2021 ART021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair Nov10 - Nov 13 2022

錨點 1 Hannah Wilson b.1995 Born in 1995, Hannah Wilson is a painter and draughtsperson known for their distinctive portraits of women in swimsuits. Based in Glasgow, Scotland, Hannah is currently studying for an MFA at Glasgow School of Art. Hannah completed their BA at Goldsmiths College and won the Warden’s Purchase Prize in 2016. WORK OVERVIEW EXHIBITIONS ARTICLES 錨點 2 ARTWORKS 錨點 3 EXHIBITIONS DSC03402.jpg Null Protocol Oct 7 - Nov 4 2022

Tang Shuo b.1995 Ding Hongdan, born in Guangzhou in December1995, graduated from the Third Studio of Oil Painting Department of Central Academy of Fine Arts, receiving a bachelor's degree in 2018 and a master's degree in 2021. She is currently studying a Ph.D. program at CAFA, supervised by professor Liu Xiaodong. ​ WORK OVERVIEW EXHIBITIONS ARTICLES 錨點 1 ARTWORKS 錨點 2 EXHIBITION 錨點 3 DSC03385.jpg Null Protocol Oct 7 - Nov 4 2022

錨點 1 Janes Haid-Schmallenberg b.1995 Ding Hongdan, born in Guangzhou in December1995, graduated from the Third Studio of Oil Painting Department of Central Academy of Fine Arts, receiving a bachelor's degree in 2018 and a master's degree in 2021. She is currently studying a Ph.D. program at CAFA, supervised by professor Liu Xiaodong. ​ WORK OVERVIEW EXHIBITIONS ARTICLES ARTWORKS 錨點 2 EXHIBITION 錨點 3 DSC03397.jpg Null Protocol Oct 7 - Nov 4 2022

錨點 1 LIANG Tingwei b.1990 Liang Tingwei was born in 1990 in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province and now lives in Shanghai. He graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design with a degree in Contemporary Art and works in sculpture, experimental installation, painting and video, often exploring the bestiality and divinity of human nature. His works have been collected by the Poly Museum (China), ODE TO ART (Singapore) and Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (UK). Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) WORK OVERVIEW EXHIBITIONS ARTICLES 錨點 2 ARTWORKS 錨點 3 EXHIBITIONS DSC03935.jpg ART021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair Nov10 - Nov 13 2022

錨點 1 Erkut Terliksiz b.1978 ​ Erkut Terliksiz is a Turkish designer and artist based in Istanbul. He graduated from the Graphic Design Department of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Mimar Sinan University in 2002. The artist has participated in several group exhibitions in Australia, the UK, Spain and Germany, and first exhibited his work at x-ist in the group exhibition "Intersections I" (2005)." ​ WORK OVERVIEW EXHIBITIONS ARTICLES 錨點 2 ARTWORKS 錨點 3 EXHIBITION 38b4e994f4a2655faa7c7644a15d95c.jpg 0X0A7973.jpg EXHIBITIONS ARTICLES WORK GZ Contemporary Art Fair Dec 26-Dec 29, 2021 ​ Hidden Message Nov 11 - Dec 12, 2021 OVERVIEW

Nov10 - Nov 13 2022 West Bund Art & Design 2022 INSTALLATION VIEWS WORKS ARTISTS d6dab153c999835ce480251815f481f.jpg Styma, Astrid Gut, 2022, oil color, 90 x 65 cm.jpg 8.8M.jpg out of reach, 2022 - oil, acrylic, resin and copper on canvas - 134x124cm.jpg tarravechia_rachael_itawtitawapuddytat_2022_2.jpg 1 (2).png aa72a98c658daa3f2ad5864fc8a5baf.jpg 1.png Luisa Mè Hongdan DING Astrid Styma Alexis Jang Rachael Tarravechia Vickie Vainionpää Yajing GE Ruofan CHEN

DING Hongdan & BO Sihan Curator: Miao Zijin Dec 24 2021 - Jan 18 2022 A Fund of Gifts INSTALLATION VIEWS WORKS ARTISTS 少女枪手，100_150cm,丁鸿丹，布面油画，2021.jpg e4c287afa6bc1a45eb0ee69ba74651d.jpg DING Hongdan BO Sihan Gallery Func is pleased to present"A Fund of Gifts", a duo show by Ding Hongdan and Bo Sihan, curated by Miao Zijin. The reason we are all gathered here today is not to celebrate the staying power of the "From today painting is dead" that has been cited to this day, but rather our continued fascination with the issues of painting that have been raised but not fully exchanged. "A Fund of Gifts", a two-person project by Ding Hongdan and Bo Sihan, will unfold sequentially on the three floors of the house where Gallery Func is located. ​ On the first floor, Ding Hongdan has created a theater with an absurd atmosphere and intertwined time and space. The dull Barbie dolls and little boys are like muppets manipulated by the artist; the gaze of hipster and female singer looking into the distance is full of their fantasies of the future. The saturated colors and crude silhouettes, deliberately chosen by theartist, generate a powerful visual impact, implying a violence hidden in the feminine sense of humor. In the series paintings, such as Boy with Milk Can I and Boy with Milk Can II, the portraits are being manipulated and dragged by the artist's hand and Photoshop at the same time; while YYDS or Girl Gunner create tension through composition and narrative. ​ Bo Sihan has built a meditative space for a dialogue with the journey of the past on the second floor. In contrast to the irony and disorientation of the characters portrayed by Ding, Bo attempts to orchestrate the personal memories embedded in her paintings with a relatively calm and light approach. Raindrops and starry sky are the elements that appear many times in her journey and works, reflecting the subtle and self-contained inner world. The mixed media such as plaster and acrylic panels manifest the artist’s endeavor to escape from the limitations of the plane and frame of painting, serving as a temporary proof of her distance from the overly familiar and boring reality. ​ Entering the third floor, the reception room of Gallery Func is transformed into an open archival chamber, where visitors are encouraged to take away a readable part of the exhibition: a paperapple containing a confession of the art-making process. Two artists participating in "A Fund of Gifts", two founders of the gallery, and an invited curator, have come together to share the clues of each other's practice. We are willing to hand apples out to our audience. These paper apples function as Christmas gifts and behind-the-scenes reading materials of the show. Generosity per se is the creative force that resists holiday anxiety and slightly changes the rules of a curatorial game. Text / Miao Zijin