What Materials Know

Shen Yongji's First Solo Show in USA and Los Angeles

Materials do not simply present a surface; they carry traces of time, craft, and transformation. In What Materials Know, Shen Yongji begins with material itself, considering how these traces are reorganized through contemporary materials and sculptural structures, and how they become visible through the act of looking.

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The works in this exhibition appear bright, dazzling, and fragile, yet hold an inward force. The fleeting and the enduring, the present and the ancient, surface lightness and interior weight form a continuing tension throughout the sculptures. Working with acrylic, crystal resin, gold, and silver, Shen organizes form through slices, matrices, grids, and translucent structures, allowing light to move and bend within the works and unfold layers of space, reflection, and color.

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Shen’s practice grows from a sustained engagement with the contemporary exploration of traditional Chinese artifacts. He introduces the ancient technique of cuo jin yin - gold and silver inlay - into a contemporary context. Rather than treating tradition as a fixed image of the past, Shen draws from it, inherits it, and integrates it with the present. In his work, traditional craft is not reproduced as ornament, but transformed through contemporary materials, expanding the expressive dimensions of sculptural space.

Presented in Southern California, the exhibition also enters an environment especially attuned to light, space, and the shifting position of the viewer. Here, light does not simply illuminate the work; as viewers approach, pause, and move, it changes the surfaces, colors, and depth of the materials. The translucent structures, reflective layers, and spatial tension in Shen’s work gradually unfold through this process of looking.

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What Materials Know does not propose material as a symbol to be explained, but as a presence through which experience is preserved and revealed. In Shen’s sculptures, traditional Chinese craftsmanship continues and transforms within contemporary art, forming a distinct visual and aesthetic language of transparency, reflection, and layered depth.

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材料并不只是外在形态，它也保存着时间、工艺与变化的痕迹。在《物有所知》中，沈泳岌从材料本身出发，关注这些痕迹如何在当代材料与雕塑结构中被重新组织，并在观看中显现。

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本次展览中的作品看似光鲜、绚烂、脆弱，却在内部蓄积着力量。短暂与永恒、当下与古老、表面的轻盈与内在的重量，在作品中形成持续的张力。沈泳岌以有机玻璃、水晶树脂、黄金与白银为材料，经由切片、矩阵、格栅与通透结构的组织，使光在作品中流动、折返，展开层层空间、反射与色彩变化。

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沈泳岌长期聚焦中国传统器物的当代探索，并将古老的“错金银”技艺引入当代语境。他并不把传统视为固定在过去的样式，而是从传统中提取、传承，并融合当下语境。在他的作品中，传统工艺并非作为装饰被复制，而是在当代材料中被重新转化，拓展了雕塑空间的表现维度。

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展览呈现于南加州，也让作品进入一个对光线、空间和观众位置变化格外敏感的环境。在这里，光并不只是照亮作品，而是在观众靠近、停留与移动之间，不断改变材料的表面、色彩与纵深。沈泳岌作品中的通透结构、反射层次与空间张力，也由此在观看中逐渐展开。

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《物有所知》所指向的，并不是对材料进行象征性的解释，而是材料在光、结构、工艺与时间之中所保存并显现出的经验。在沈泳岌的作品中，中国传统工艺在当代艺术中被延续、转化，并由此形成属于艺术家自身的视觉审美语言。

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