Light in the Gap
缝隙流光——关伟个展

红门画廊荣幸呈现艺术家关伟个展《缝隙流光》，由谢天担任策展人。展览日期2026年11月7日至12月6日。展览将于2026年11月7日下午3点开幕，澳大利亚驻华大使吉思德阁下将为展览揭幕。

《缝隙流光》展览前言

本次展览以“缝隙流光”为线索，串联起澳大利亚华裔艺术家关伟四十余年的创作脉络，以“缝隙中透出光芒”作为贯穿始终的母题。正如马丁·海德格尔在其《艺术作品的本源》中所述，缝隙是一个充满张力的区域，是文化交流中的差异，亦是个体生存的中间地带。而流光则代表着觉醒的力量和新生的希望。艺术家关伟立足中澳双重文化语境，以持续的思辨性创作跨越地域、时代与媒介的壁垒。在缝隙中捕捉流光，于多元碰撞中探寻本真。

20世纪90年代《纸》系列创作，聚焦档案、印章等文书权力对个体的规训，洞察个体在制度夹缝中的处境。1997年作品《过山车》，以理性设定的生态蜕变，呈现人为编码下生命形态的流转。进入21世纪后，作品《镜花缘》以乌托邦式的历史想象，探索个体精神内核与人类永恒命题“本源与去向”。影像作品《变形术》，以关伟特有的幽默化叙事，演绎移民身份重塑，展现个体在跨文化缝隙里的自我调适。其新作《众相合一》与《福》，以碎片化图像矩阵装置，呈现互动与开放式解读，在个体视角下重构符号寓意。而装置作品《诞生》中带有裂隙的巨蛋不只是象征着孕育生命，更是观念、思想与艺术的原发之地，呼应本次展览主题，探寻创作哲思的源头。

从制度文书与个体存在之间的审视规训、历史想象与人类精神内核的探索、跨文化经验与身份变形，到AI时代的符号系统重构，其作品持续探寻个体在各类夹缝之中，寻找属于自身的微光与多元的意义。缝隙之中透出的，不仅是创作灵光得以显现的条件，更是在艺术家关伟敏锐的洞察力之下，一种持续追问的思考方式。

策展人 谢天

2026年10月26日

Red Gate Gallery is pleased to present Guan Wei’s solo exhibition Light in the Gap, curated by Xie Tian. The exhibition runs from November 7 to December 6, 2026. The opening will take place at 3 p.m. on November 7, 2026, and HE Scott Dewar, Australian Ambassador to China, will open the exhibition.

Foreword

This exhibition, entitled Light in the Gap, chronicles the creative artistic trajectory of Australian Chinese artist Guan Wei over a span of four decades, with a focus on the persistent motif of light emanating from a gap. Drawing on Martin Heidegger’s insights in The Origin of the Work of Art, wherein a gap is conceptualized as a space charged with tension. It represents a distinction in cultural exchange and serves as an intermediary space for individual sustenance. The flowing light symbolizes the energy of awakening and the promise of renewal. Situated within the dual cultural frameworks of China and Australia, Guan Wei’s artistic practice embodies a continuous process of critical reflection that surpasses the limitations of geography, temporality, and artistic medium. He captures the light within the gaps, and explores the essence amidst the diversified collisions.

The Paper series, produced during the 1990s, examined the regulation of individuals through archival, seal-related, and various other forms of documentary authority. This series of work provides an observation of individuals in the narrow gap between the institutional framework. In 1997, the work Roller Creature presented a conceptual exploration of ecological transformation, illustrating the dynamics of life forms governed by artificial coding systems. After entering the 21st century, the work Reflection employs utopian historical imagination to investigate the essence of individual spirit and the enduring human inquiry concerning “origin and destination.” The video work Metamorphosis adopts Guan Wei’s characteristic humorous narrative style to explore the reshaping of immigrant identity, demonstrating individual self-adjustment within cross-cultural gaps. His recent works Unity in All Forms and Blessing present interactive and open-ended interpretations through fragmented image matrix installations, reconstructing the symbolic significance from an individual perspective. In the installation work Birth, the cracked giant egg not only symbolizes the nurturing of life, but also represents the origin of ideas, thoughts and art. Consistent with the overarching theme, this work investigates the foundational origins of creative philosophy in this exhibition.

From the analysis and regulation of institutional documents in relation to individual existence, to the investigation of historical imagination and the essence of the human spirit, encompassing cross-cultural experiences and identity transformation, and extending to the reconfiguration of symbolic systems in the context of the AI era, his works continuously explore the ways in which individuals navigate a range of challenges, endeavoring to discover their own sources of hope and the meaning of diversity. What emerges from the gap is not only the necessary condition for the manifestation of creative inspiration, but also, under the acute perception of artist Guan Wei, a sustained mode of critical inquiry.

Xie Tian

October 26, 2026

关于艺术家 About the Artist

关伟出生于1957年的北京，并于1986年毕业于北京首都师范大学美术系。他于1989年首次来到澳大利亚，并在1989年至1992年期间在塔斯马尼亚大学和澳大利亚国立大学完成了艺术驻留项目。在此期间，他也是悉尼当代艺术博物馆（MCA）首位来自中国的驻馆艺术家。1993年，关伟移民澳大利亚，并于2008年在北京建立了自己的工作室。他在北京和悉尼两地生活和创作，多年来为澳大利亚和中国之间的艺术交流作出了重要贡献。

关伟在澳大利亚和国际上举办了超过85场个人展览，包括1999年在澳大利亚当代艺术博物馆（MCA）的《筑巢，或闲暇的艺术》；2006年在悉尼动力博物馆的《另一种历史：关伟为当代世界创作的寓言》；2011年在中国深圳OCAT的《魔咒——关伟个人展》；以及2019年在澳大利亚当代艺术博物馆的《关伟：MCA收藏展》，展出了他的重要作品如1989年的《二指禅》系列和2004年为澳大利亚气象总局创作的壁画《风水》。2024年，悉尼灯光音乐节（Vivid Sydney）委托关伟创作的视频作品《星辰大海》，投影在当代艺术博物馆的建筑外墙上。

关伟参与了许多重要的国际当代艺术展览，如中国的上海双年展、古巴的第10届哈瓦那双年展、澳大利亚的阿德莱德双年展和布里斯班第3届亚太地区当代艺术三年展、日本的大阪三年展以及韩国的光州双年展。

他获得了诸多重要奖项，包括2002年在澳大利亚新南威尔士州美术馆荣获的苏尔曼奖（Sulman Prize）以及2015年的亚瑟·盖伊纪念奖（Arthur Guy Memorial Prize）。关伟完成了许多公共艺术项目，包括2004年为墨尔本柯林街700号创作的120平方米壁画《风水》，以及2022至2024年在Bourke & Bowden公共艺术项目中创作的四座大型青铜雕塑《渡∙云 No. 1、2、3、4》。

为了表彰他对澳大利亚和中国当代艺术的杰出贡献，关伟于2021年被西悉尼大学授予创意艺术名誉博士学位，并于2024年获得澳大利亚艺术委员会（Creative Australia）颁发的视觉艺术大奖。2025 获得澳大利亚，中国高校同学会（ACAA）视觉艺术创作奖。

关伟是澳大利亚当代艺术界的标志性人物，并在国际上享有盛誉。他的艺术因其思想深度、艺术原创性、人文精神，以及对过去、现在、东西方的融合而备受赞誉，同时也因其敏锐的幽默感，最重要的是其独特的“关伟风格”而广为人知。通过他的艺术，他反思了我们在人类生存过程中所面临的重要当代问题，如气候变化、身份认同、迁徙与流亡。他的作品既是他丰富的文化符号库的产物，也是他对社会政治的深刻洞察和对艺术史的深厚理解的体现。

Guan Wei was born in Beijing in 1957 and graduated from the Fine Arts Department of Capital Normal University in Beijing in 1986. He first came to Australia in 1989, and from 1989 to 1992 he completed art residencies at the University of Tasmania and the Australian National University. During this period, he was also the first artist-in-residence from China at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney (MCA). In 1993 Guan Wei emmigrated to Australia and in 2008 he set up a studio in Beijing. Prior to the pandemic he lived and worked in both Beijing and Sydney and over the years has made significant contributions to art exchanges between Australia and China.

Guan Wei has held over 86 solo exhibitions in Australia and internationally, including Nesting, or Art of Idleness at MCA in 1999; Other Histories: Guan Wei’s Fable for a Contemporary World at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney in 2006; Spellbound – Guan Wei 2011 at OCAT Shenzhen, China and Guan Wei: MCA Collection in 2019 which included his major work Two-finger Exercises series from 1989 and the mural Feng Shui commissioned for the Bureau of Meteorology in Melbourne 2004. In 2024, Vivid Sydney commissioned Guan Wei’s video work Sea, Sand and Stars projection for MCA building facades.

Guan Wei has been included in many important international contemporary exhibitions, such as the Shanghai Biennial, China; the 10th Havana Biennial, Cuba; the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art; the 3rd Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Australia; the Osaka Triennial, Japan; and the Gwangju Biennial, South Korea. His significant awards include the 2002 Sulman Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW and the 2015 Arthur Guy Memorial Prize.

Guan Wei has completed many public art projects, including the 120 m² Mural painting Feng Shui for 700 Collins Street, Melbourne, 2004, and four big bronze sculptures, Salvation – Play with a Cloud No. 1, 2, 3, 4 in the BOURKE & BOWDEN PUBLIC ART PROJECT 2022 – 2024.

In recognition of his tremendous contribution to Australian and Chinese contemporary art, Guan Wei was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Creative Art from Western Sydney University in 2021. In 2024, Guan Wei received the award for visual arts from Creative Australia.

Guan Wei is an iconic figure in the Australian contemporary art scene and critically acclaimed internationally. His art is highly praised not only for its intellectual depth, artistic originality, humanity, and integration of past and present, East and West, but also for its sharp sense of humour and, above all, its unique Guan Wei style. Through his art, he reflects upon the human condition as we engage with critical contemporary issues, such as climate change, questions of identity, migration and exile. His works are equally the product of his rich cultural repertory of symbols as they are of his informed socio-political awareness and knowledge of art history.

关于策展人 About the Curator

谢天，独立策展人，艺术品投资顾问。毕业于澳大利亚新南威尔士大学(UNSW) COFA 艺术学院。Theoretical Research of Art Design 艺术与设计理论和 Curating and Cultural Leadership 策展与文化领导力双硕士学位，新南威尔士大学非物质文化遗产与当代艺术市场研究方向博士，任职艺术学院讲师研究员。研究方向侧重于非物质文化遗产的当代语言转换与传播，南岛语族当代艺术研究，以及创造性活动与游戏性在展览中的应用。曾先后工作于国内与澳大利亚的4A广告公司，美术馆等，目前生活工作于悉尼和北京。

Xie Tian is an independent curator and art investment advisor. He holds a dual master’s degree in Art and Design Theory and Curating and Cultural Leadership from the College of Fine Arts (COFA) at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia, and is currently PhD candidate in Intangible Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Art Market Research at UNSW. His research focuses on the contemporary translation and dissemination of intangible cultural heritage, studies of Austronesian contemporary art, and the application of creative practices and gamification in exhibitions. He has previously worked at advertising agencies and art galleries in both China and Australia, and currently lives and works between Sydney and Beijing.

作品 Works

过山车 Roller Creature

十联画布作品《过山车》（Roller Creature）采用仿计算机制图的视觉语言，构建一套被人为设定的虚拟生命演化链条。作品首尾以“镜花水月”“天地无常”形成呼应，XY符号暗合阴阳本源：生命从培养基肉虫，蜕变为蟑螂，在带有办公袖口的凡人之手指引下翻越人造山体，继而幻化为水中蝌蚪、飞虫，直至最终消散。
作品隐喻AI的生成逻辑：人类可以设定参数、塑造各类生命变体，编排完整的生灭叙事。但在创造与操控虚拟生命的过程中，人自身也随之异化。人类试图掌控演化路径，却滋生对未来的深层忧虑，意识到无法完全驾驭自己所创造的系统。这套精心搭建的生命循环终究只是算法幻象，指向一种存在层面的虚无，叩问数字时代人类创造行为背后的局限与宿命。

The ten-panel canvas work Roller Creature adopts a visual language mimicking computer-generated graphics to construct an artificially designed evolutionary chain of virtual life. The beginning and end of the work echo each other with the motifs “moon reflected in water, flowers in the mirror” and “the impermanence of heaven and earth”. The XY symbols allude to the origin of yin and yang: life evolves from maggots to cockroaches. Guided by a mortal hand clad in an office shirt cuff, it crosses man-made mountains, then transforms into tadpoles in water and flying insects, until it finally dissipates.
The work is a metaphor for the generative logic of AI: humans can set parameters, shape all manner of life variants, and choreograph complete narratives of birth and extinction. Yet in the act of creating and manipulating virtual life, humanity itself undergoes alienation. While attempting to control the course of evolution, humans nurture profound anxiety about the future, recognizing that they cannot fully master the systems they have brought into being. This elaborately constructed life cycle remains nothing more than an algorithmic illusion, pointing toward an existential nihilism and interrogating the limits and destiny of human creation in the digital age.

变形记 Metamorphosis

2020年影像作品《变形记》，以幽默而写实的叙事，呈现艺术家由中国移民至澳大利亚的身份蜕变的心路。影片开篇铺陈国内人事档案体系，完整记录个体自求学至工作的人生轨迹；继而展开一系列象征性身体改造：垫高鼻梁、修薄嘴唇、DNA检测、漂蓝瞳孔，最终完成外观转变，化名为David Wei，获得澳洲医保、移民证书、887签证等全套身份文件。

作品借用阿甘本“裸人”的理论视角，审视权力文书与社会规训如何塑造个体身份，展现主流社会规范带来的外在限制。在这套身份重塑的仪式背后，抛出哲学叩问：身份的转变是否代表真正的融入？个体在身份建构的夹缝之中，一面承受被社会定义的无奈，一面主动改造自我、寻求接纳，持续追问“我是谁”这一永恒命题。

The 2020 video work Metamorphosis uses a humorous, yet documentary-style narrative to trace the artist’s inner journey of identity transformation as a migrant from China to Australia. The film opens with China’s personnel file system, which fully documents an individual’s life trajectory from schooling to employment. It then unfolds a sequence of symbolic bodily modifications: a raised nasal bridge, thinned lips, DNA testing, blue-tinted pupils, culminating in a physical transformation. Under the assumed name of David Wei, the protagonist obtains a full set of identity documents including Australian Medicare, migration certification and an 887 visa.

Drawing on Giorgio Agamben’s theoretical framework of “bare life”, the work examines how bureaucratic documents and social discipline shape individual identity, revealing the external constraints imposed by dominant social norms. Beneath this ritual of identity reconstruction lies a philosophical inquiry: does a change of identity equate to genuine integration? Caught in the fissures of identity formation, the individual endures the helplessness of being defined by society while actively remaking the self in search of acceptance. The work persistently interrogates the timeless question: Who am I?

镜花缘 Reflection

Guan Wei 关伟

Reflection No. 3 镜花缘 No. 3

2016

Acrylic on canvas 布面丙烯

130 x 50 cm

《镜花缘》（Reflection），以十七、十八世纪剪影图像与青花瓷绘纹样为视觉基底，回溯英国人登陆澳洲开启殖民的历史。作品以镜式边框为载体，如明镜悬置，收纳一段乌托邦式的历史想象。镜框外缘缀以天使、异兽、星象与生灵，形成画内与画外的互文对照。借由镜像的映照、叠合与反射，异地历史与当下现实、异质文化在时空流转里交织碰撞。在这段历史叙事之下，作品叩问人类幽微、脆弱而深邃的精神内核，持续追索本源与去向的永恒命题：我们自何处来，又将往何处去。

Reflection draws on silhouette imagery and blue-and-white porcelain motifs from the 17th and 18th centuries as its visual foundation, revisiting the history of British arrival and colonisation in Australia. Framed in a mirror-like border, the work hangs like a suspended looking glass, containing a utopian historical imagination. Its outer rim is adorned with angels, mythical beasts, constellations and living creatures, creating an intertextual dialogue between the pictorial space and the world beyond. Through mirroring, superimposition and reflection, distant histories and present realities, disparate cultures intertwine and collide across the flow of time. Beneath this historical narrative, the work interrogates humanity’s subtle, fragile, yet profound spiritual core, pursuing the eternal questions of origin and destination: Where do we come from, and where are we going?

纸 Paper

创作于1990年前后的系列作品《纸》，以硬纸板与丙烯媒介，追问个体存在如何获得社会确认。在数字技术尚未普及的年代，档案、表格文书与印章，共同构成界定人的核心载体。印章作为机构权力的符号，赋予纸面文件合法性，唯有加盖印章，身份证明才能获得社会认可，它以符号形式完成权力对个体的甄别与规训。

作品将人物形象嵌入纸本图像：人物藏于文件之间，或流露被文书体系束缚的无奈，或因获得盖章认证的身份而欣喜。个体本真自我被纸面叙事覆盖，成为文件与印章共同建构的矛盾存在——这套纸张上的虚拟表征，却是具备强大效力的社会事实。作品以此探讨，社会对人的识别，依托纸件与权力印章完成，个体本真存在与被文书认证的身份持续博弈。

The series Paper, created around 1990, uses cardboard and acrylic to interrogate how individual existence gains social validation. At a time before digital technologies became widespread, archives, forms and official seals together formed the core instruments that define a person. As symbols of institutional power, seals lend legitimacy to paper documents. Only with an official seal can an identity paper be socially recognised; the symbol carries out the screening and disciplining of the individual by authority.

Human figures are embedded within the paper imagery: tucked among documents, they appear either resigned to the confinement of the bureaucratic system or elated to receive a sealed, certified identity. The authentic self is overwritten by narratives on paper, turning the individual into a contradictory being constructed jointly by documents and seals. These virtual representations on paper nonetheless constitute socially potent realities. Through this body of work, the artist explores that human recognition by society operates via paperwork and authoritative seals, in an ongoing tension between one’s intrinsic existence and the identity authenticated by documents.

众相合一 Unity in all Forms

绘画装置作品《众相合一》借鉴阿比·瓦尔堡《记忆女神图集》的图像矩阵范式，由中心锦旗与26块纸板图像共同构成开放的视觉场域。中心锦旗绘制抽象人脸，仅保留鼻部符号；周边纸板碎片化排布眼睛、口唇、面部轮廓、男女剪影、毛发、虫蝶图像与文字符号。

在这些碎片化图像之中，观者将在脑海里自主建构追问：我们究竟是谁，何为自我的身份。

作品打散图像原本的语境，以碎片重组构建跨时空关联，图像之间彼此碰撞、互文，在观者的联想中不断生成新解读，拒绝封闭的线性叙事。这一图像逻辑呼应当下AI时代的视觉生产方式：通过抓取碎片化视觉元素，重构出新的关系与意义。作品以图像矩阵映照当代碎片化感知模式，让意义在图像间隙中涌现，邀请观者参与到开放式的视觉思辨之中。

The painted installation Unity in all Forms draws on the pictorial matrix model of Aby Warburg’s Mnemosyne Atlas. It forms an open visual field composed of a central banner and twenty-six cardboard panels. The central banner bears an abstract human face reduced to only the nasal motif; the surrounding cardboard pieces are arranged in fragments, featuring eyes, lips, facial contours, male and female silhouettes, hair, insects, butterflies and textual symbols.

Amid these fragmented images, viewers are prompted to pose an inward question: Who exactly are we, and what constitutes the self?

The work dismantles the original contexts of images and forges cross-temporal connections through fragmentary recombination. Images collide and enter into inter-textual dialogue with one another, continuously generating new interpretations through the viewer’s associations and rejecting a closed linear narrative. This pictorial logic echoes the mode of visual production in the current AI era: fragmented visual elements are extracted and recombined to build new relationships and meanings. Mirroring the contemporary mode of fragmented perception, the image matrix allows meaning to emerge from the gaps between images, inviting viewers into an open-ended visual speculation.

福 Blessing

绘画装置《福》由一幅“福”字国画挂轴与28块画板共同构成，延续了矩阵式图像拼贴的创作方法。画板碎片化排布多重意象：水果、鱼、蛋糕、手、花卉、接吻、戏猫、远航、星空等图像，同时融入飞机、飞升佛像等现代符号，将传统“福”的内涵置于当代语境中重新审视。

作品摒弃线性封闭叙事，以分散的图像矩阵，围绕中心“福”字形成互文场域。依靠图像间的联想关系，邀请观者自主解读何为幸福。这件图文实验性创作，呼应当下AI时代碎片化的视觉逻辑，把“福”从固定的吉祥定义中释放。意义不再被预先限定，而是在图像碎片的碰撞、关联中不断生成，以开放的视觉结构，探讨传统符号在数字时代多元、流动的内涵。

The painted installation Blessing consists of a Chinese hanging scroll bearing the character “Fu” (福) (Blessing) and twenty-eight painting panels, continuing the artist’s matrix-based collage approach. The panels feature a fragmented arrangement of multiple motifs: fruits, fish, cakes, hands, flowers, kissing figures, cat play, voyages, starry skies, alongside modern symbols such as aeroplanes and ascending Buddha figures. The work re-examines the traditional meaning of “blessing” within a contemporary context.

Rejecting a closed linear narrative, it forms an inter-textual field around the central “Fu” (福) character through a dispersed image matrix. Relying on associative links between the visuals, the work invites viewers to interpret happiness on their own terms. This text-image experimental work echoes the fragmented visual logic of the current AI era, liberating the concept of blessing from its fixed auspicious definition. Meaning is no longer predetermined; instead, it emerges continuously through the collision and connection of image fragments. With this open visual structure, the work explores the diverse, fluid connotations of traditional symbols in the digital age.

诞生 Birth

《诞生》（又名《蛋》），两侧立着刻满穴位的中医人体木雕，薄纱笼罩带裂隙的巨蛋，氛围幽微神秘。蛋不只是孕育生命，更是观念、思想与艺术的原发之地。它和《福》《万象合一》《过山车》《纸》等作品形成一种哲学上的呼应与互文：其余作品是已经展开、显形的思索，而这件作品是思索的源头与开端，在整个展览里埋下潜能，为全部的追问提供生发的原点。

Birth (also known as Egg) features two standing wooden sculptures of the human body carved with acupuncture points on either side. A colossal cracked egg is veiled in sheer gauze, evoking a subtle, enigmatic atmosphere. The egg signifies not only the gestation of life, but also the primal site where ideas, thoughts and art originate. It enters into philosophical resonance and inter-textual dialogue with other works including Blessing, Unity in all Forms, Roller Creature and Paper. While the rest articulate unfolded, manifested reflections, this work stands as the source and inception of such contemplation. It harbors potential within the exhibition, serving as the generative origin for all inquiries.