Shanghai—Pearl Lam Galleries is pleased to present Ganjiakou 303, Zhu Jinshi’s first solo exhibitionin Shanghai. The exhibition focuses on Zhu’s apartment art by incorporating installations and paintingsfrom 1979 up to the present day. Over 20 works will be divided into three sections, with each sectionoccupying its own separate yet interlinked space, including the basement of the gallery.

The concept of apartment art was brought up by art scholar Gao Minglu, who is also the curator of thisexhibition, in reference to the art activities spontaneously initiated by Chinese artists in private spacesin the mid-1990s when public contemporary art spaces were very limited. Apartment art works areoften based on an artist’s family and personal living environment and include happenings and difficult-to-preserve features. Low-cost, pocket-sized or small-scale, and ephemeral, these works retain theinseparable relationship between artists and their specific life situations, while at the same timeconsciously confront the firm rigidity of domestic and international art systems.The first part of the exhibition will, for the first time, present around ten of Zhu Jinshi’s miniatureapartment art installations from the mid-1990s, which have been restored, including pieces such asThe Ward, Clock, Temporary House, and Landscape Legal Case.

The reproduction of a room from theactual Ganjiakou 303 apartment, where Zhu first made these pieces, can be found as an independentspace inside the entrance on the right side of the gallery, and the text on the wall there will describe theartistic ideas and discussions Zhu Jinshi had with his artist friends during the period he createdapartment art.

The second part of the exhibition will be situated in the centre of the main gallery space, where ZhuJinshi’s six displayed works of apartment art will reflect Gao Minglu’s views on art history in general.Gao believes that compared to more popular large-scale contemporary artworks, especially thosefound in museums, apartment art in China provides more thought-provoking simplicity, as theessence of art dwells within an artist’s innermost being.The third part of the exhibition consists of paintings from 2017 displayed in a way that opens up thegallery’s basement space, which is about the same height as Zhu Jinshi’s current workingenvironment.

The entire display perfectly fits the physical constraints of an apartment space,encapsulating apartment art’s various changes throughout time.