In a time when vision is constantly intensified and information moves at accelerating speed, audiences have grown accustomed to being pulled toward brightness. Grey with a Glimmer, however, moves in the opposite direction. It refuses spectacle and rejects clarity, guiding visitors into a perceptual field composed of greyness, subtle illumination, and minute details. Upon entering the gallery, viewers are not offered immediate meaning or direction; instead, they are enveloped by an atmosphere yet to be defined — a grey condition that has not settled, a sensibility still in the process of forming.
From left to right: Un-rotted bloom (2025) — Xuya Wu. Showering with my eyes closed in the dark (2022); When teeth turn to shards (2022) — Matvei Matveev. Qu’ai-je fait? / What have I done? (2025) — Xuran Guo. Untitled (2025); Screaming butterfly (2022) — Matvei Matveev. Street food archive (2025) — Yucheng Kang. Beasts; They; Spikes of refusals (2025) — Hance Yu. Ever onward (2025) — Zongzheng Huang. My skin is made up of shadows (2023) — Gabriella Diedloff. Where we used to live (2025) — Min Pyun.
The exhibition’s theme, “Grey with a Glimmer,” is not simply a visual motif but a conceptual framework. Grey signifies looseness, hesitation, and instability — a moment when meaning is still in flux. The glimmer is a slight but consequential flicker of light, a gentle disturbance within the grey that reveals a different surface of things at an unexpected instant. Here, grey is not absence, and light is not redemption; their interdependence shapes both the emotional and spatial logic of the exhibition.
From left to right: TAI (2025) — Zhuosi Shao. The paths we take (2025) — Isabella Chiara Vicco. HABITAT (2025) — Junya Duan. The absolute Sins (2025) — Stephen Liu. Beasts; They; Spikes of refusals (2025) — Hance Yu. The mute fish (2025) — Xuran Guo. Mr. Tree No.9 (2025) — Chao Yang. It (2018) — Yao Yao. Sanctuary (2025) — Jiasheng Mai. No gazing (2025); I know you well (2025) — Xiaoxiao Song. Solitude in the shifting grove 1 & 2 (2025) — Xiwen Xu. Minute by minute (2024) — Wenxiao Lin. Silver & Aluminum (2024) — Yuze Pan. The pillow is no longer a place for singular dreaming (2025) — Darcy Inman. Good night, until we meet again (2025); Aftereffect of disillusion(2022) — Nare Joo. Unveil (2025) — Xuya Wu. Too much love (2023) — Min Pyun.
To translate this conceptual tension into an embodied experience, the curatorial team introduced a distinctive lighting system throughout the gallery. Countless small, point-like light sources are scattered across the space like star dust suspended in the grey air. They do not spotlight artworks but highlight the act of perceiving: flickering at the edge of one’s vision, disappearing up close, materializing the notion of a “glimmer.” A few directional beams sweep across certain works like muted searchlights, creating pockets of subtle dramatic tension. Together, these points and beams form a decentralized illumination structure — a network that keeps the exhibition in a constant state of vibration and renewal.
Within this interplay of light and grey, the artworks gradually come forward and the core of the exhibition begins to reveal itself. Curated by two emerging voices — Chengming Xing and Yiwen Fu — Grey with a Glimmer brings together 38 artists from a range of cultural and disciplinary backgrounds, including Angela Yan, Chao Yang, Darcy Inman, Dorrothyyyer, Gabriella Diedloff, Haoyuan Huang, Hance Yu, Hongru Zhang, Isabella Chiara Vicco, Jiasheng Mai, Jiayu Li, Jingjing Xu, Junya Duan, Matvei Matveev, Min Pyun, Nare Joo, Nuo Xu, Qishan Li, Ruoxi Zhang, Shangda Li, Shifan Xue, Stephen Liu, Wenwen Deng, Wenxiao Lin, Xiaoxiao Song, Xiwen Xu, Xuran Guo, Xuya Wu, Yang Xiao, Yao Yao, Yiling Cao, Yu Yu, Yucheng Kang, Yuhang Zhao, Yuze Pan, Ziyuan Wang, Zongzheng Huang, and Zhuosi Shao.
From left to right: Cinema L’INFERNO (2024–2025) — Stephen Liu. Verdant pulse Chapter 1 & 3 (2024) — Jiayu Li. Anatomy of a belief (2025) — Yu Yu. Ever onward (2025) — Zongzheng Huang. My skin is made up of shadows (2023) — Gabriella Diedloff. Stone shadows transcendence (2025) — Dorrothyyyer. DESIRE (2025) — Darcy Inman. Canopy (2025); Permeation (2025) — Yiling Cao. Back to 2004 (2025) — Angela Yan.
Across painting, photography, moving image, installation, sculpture, and book art, these artists form a landscape of fragments, pauses, and minute intensities. Their works do not follow linear connections; instead, they resonate through the rhythm of scattered light sources and the grey air that links them. What emerges is a sensibility characteristic of a younger generation — one that is willing to dwell in the unsaid, to let meaning ferment within ambiguity, and to trust the generative potential of the unresolved.
From left to right: Are you Narcissus (2025) — Shangda Li. The mute fish (2025) — Xuran Guo. Growth I & II (2025) — Hongru Zhang. Mr. Tree No.9 (2025) — Chao Yang. Hallway (2025) — Yang Xiao. Green world 1 & 7 (2025) — Haoyuan Huang. Viewing time through objects (2025) — Shifan Xue. The unseen the unheard (2025) — Ziyuan Wang. It (2018) — Yao Yao. Sanctuary (2025) — Jiasheng Mai. No gazing (2025); I know you well (2025) — Xiaoxiao Song. Solitude in the shifting grove 1 & 2 (2025) — Xiwen Xu. Minute by minute (2024) — Wenxiao Lin. Silver & Aluminum (2024) — Yuze Pan. The pillow is no longer a place for singular dreaming (2025) — Darcy Inman. Good night, until we meet again (2025); Aftereffect of disillusion (2022) — Nare Joo.
From left to right: Canopy (2025); Permeation (2025) — Yiling Cao. Back to 2004 (2025) — Angela Yan. I don’t aspire to triumph over this world (2022) — Yuhang Zhao. TAI (2025) — Zhuosi Shao. The paths we take (2025) — Isabella Chiara Vicco. HABITAT (2025) — Junya Duan.
From left to right: Unveil (2025) — Xuya Wu. Too much love (2023) — Min Pyun. Remembering a tree (2024) — Qishan Li. Kill all the butterflies to prevent a tornado (2025) — Wenwen Deng. Conversation of silence (2025) — Ruoxi Zhang. Flat Blues (2025) — Nuo Xu.
Rather than directing audiences toward fixed interpretations, the exhibition invites them to observe light within grey and sense grey within light — to experience how meaning forms, shifts, and dissolves. The 2,100-square-foot open structure of Indra Gallery, combined with the constellation-like lighting system, allows the space to transform continuously. It is no longer a static environment but one that is rewritten by illumination, activated by air, and reshaped through the movement of its visitors.
From left to right: Where we used to live (2025) — Min Pyun. Sisyphus (2025) — Jingjing Xu. Are you Narcissus (2025) — Shangda Li. The mute fish (2025) — Xuran Guo. Growth I & II (2025) — Hongru Zhang. Mr. Tree No.9 (2025) — Chao Yang. Hallway (2025) — Yang Xiao.
As organizer, Arklink continues to foster cross-cultural artistic exchange, with projects spanning London, Madrid, Chicago, Hong Kong, and Beijing, and collaborations with institutions such as Sotheby’s, DaQian Gallery, and UCCA. Grey with a Glimmer stands not only as an exhibition but also as a methodological inquiry: how, in a complex and uncertain era, can glimmers persist, how can grey remain open, and how can meaning surface with the lightest possible touch?
Ultimately, the exhibition places viewers within a continuously forming grey state, where glimmers drift, flare, fade, and reappear. In this ongoing rhythm, one does not “understand” the exhibition in a conventional sense but instead breathes with it — seeing the world through haze, and rediscovering oneself through flicker.
Top image credit: Presented by Arklink at Indra Gallery
