Chen: Sailing By is a solo exhibition dedicated to Chinese artist Dongfan Chen. Chen was born in 1982 in Shandong and graduated from the China Academy of Art in 2008. The artist presently works and resides between New York and Hangzhou. The artist’s easel-based painting manifests two clear practical trajectories. In the first, narrative themes and a naiveté of form are deployed to express insights into a lived reality; in the second, both expressive and abstract forms serve to uncover potentialities within painterly discourse. His practice also encompasses works produced for public space, with collaborative happenings incorporating live painting, music and performance. "Sailing By" is a short piece of light music composed by Ronald Binge in 1963, used before BBC Radio 4's Late Shipping Forecast, and the exhibition alludes to Chen’s future art venture as a ship sailing forward.

Image credits: Chen Dongfan, Into the void, 2021. Image courtesy of the artist.