Curated by James Elaine (ACC 2007), founder of Telescope, a non-profit art space in Beijing and former curator of Hammer Projects in Los Angeles and the Drawing Center in New York, the exhibition draws its title from Yang Jian’s monumental sculpture, “A Composite Leviathan.” The term “leviathan” appears in the Biblical books of Job, Psalms, Isaiah, and Amos. It’s etymological connotation of “joining” suggests the tightly knit scales of a sea dragon. Biblical literature associates this leviathan with chaotic forces which are evidently at odds with the divine, creative order. On account of its apparent etymology, Thomas Hobbes used the term “Leviathan” for the title of his famous political treatise which suggested that national government was a necessary aggregate of social power. Many of the artworks in the exhibition reflect the dynamics of the composite social structures of contemporary society.

An iteration of the exhibition was first presented at Luhring Augustine Bushwick from October 11, 2019 to February 1, 2020 and featured twelve emerging Chinese artists. In its Los Angeles iteration, the show expands with fresh examples of contemporary art in China. In A Composite Leviathan, each work emerges from the complex fissures of the artists’ own lived realities, both spiritual and political.

CHAPTER TWO: JANUARY 23, 2021 - MARCH 13, 2021

Chapter Two of A Composite Leviathan features thirteen contemporary artists from China: Deng Tai, Fan Xi, Stephen Gleadow, Li Ran, Li Zhenwei, Liu Dongxu, Lyu Zhiqiang, Xie Hongdong, Yang Jian, Ye Su, Zeng Hong, Zhang Ruyi, and Zhang Xinjun.

The second chapter of the exhibition opens January 23, 2021 and is anchored by large-scale artworks by Zhang Xinjun, Ye Su, and Liu Dongxu, among others. Zhang Xinjun’s Green Hole is a sprawling, wormlike installation that is composed of canvas and ropes that are commonly used at construction sites and temporary markets. The form of the massive yet ephemeral sculpture comes from the negative space of a worm-eaten hole in a tree trunk. With Ye Su’s The Coming Sharp No. 3, an installation of patterned, translucent silk panels creates an imaginary skyscraper cityscape within the gallery. The silk panels are printed with enigmatic fruit patterns and each have a peep hole at eye-level. Liu Dongxu’s Glistening Waves sculpture conveys a sense of ethereal space through the quality of light it reflects. The flat sculpture is made of delicate porcelain pieces coated with a metallic gold glaze resembling polished gold; the interlocking shapes lie at an angle on the floor. These artists use everyday, commonplace objects to create transcendent spaces of shared experience with their sensitive installations.