55

Gallery 55 is honored to announce that Yellow Ants Art Lab will present a special anniversary project titled “IT’S NOT GRAFFITI" from June the 14th to July the 6th, 2025. The participating artists for this special project include NIT (Qi), FREEMANN (Chu Sixian), and P ShanRen (Wang Shuzhong).

Gallery 55 was founded in the M50 Art District of Shanghai in 2005. Over the past two decades, Gallery 55 has been committed to supporting emerging artists and new art forms, by providing a platform for emerging artists, new artistic attempts, and experimental projects within a progressive curatorial framework. It aims to discover and promote young artists with independent and innovative spirits, and through the implementation of challenging artistic practices, to question, reflect on, criticize, explore, and expand the boundaries of art itself. "Yellow Ants Art Lab" is an independent project initiated by Gallery 55 in 2013. It aims to systematically present experimental focused programs and provide a practical field for artists to sort out their artistic creation trajectories.

From 2013 to 2016, the artists who presented projects in the Yellow Ants Art Lab included Li Binyuan, Hu Qingtai, Bridegroom Xu, Cai Dongdong, Yesu, Zheng Jing, He Ling, Li Gang, Li Liao, Yu Ying, Gao Yuan, Wang Rui, Liu Weiwei, Su Xiangpan, Bu Yunjun, and Zhang Yehong. The “It’s Not Graffiti" project, through the collaborative creation practices of NIT and FREEMANN, FREEMANN and P ShanRen in pairs, re-examines traditional graffiti, signature writing, ink play, Western-style freehand brushwork, individual in-depth thinking, and the reconstruction of individual culture.

NIT 👉 FreeMann & NIT

In the autumn of 2024, we met at the UP-ON Performance Art Archive. Through the box, we exchanged contact information and began chatting together, discussing the artworks and talking about life. During the winter, we started creating with spray paint. I shared my spray painting graffiti method with Freeman, and suggested that the two spellings, FREEMAAN and FREEMANN, be used as Freeman’s graffiti code name. In street writing, Freeman chose FREEMANN as his graffiti code name.

Our collaboration involved dialogic spraying on wooden frame canvas. I first applied NIT Throw-up bubble letters on the canvas, and then FREEMANN covered them on top of me. There were also several rounds where he first used his color and line combinations, and then I used NIT Throw-up to cover his colors and lines.

FREEMANN came to my studio, which was located in a container. Due to my perception of "imported items".’, I believed that art, materials, acrylics, graffiti, and hip-hop culture were all imported goods transported by ships from Europe and America. And the container is the carrier for transporting imported items. The container holds symbolic meaning of carrying imported cultures. I shared this feeling with FREEMANN. In my mind, these imported cultures, after our further creation, will become new cultures, new products, forming new awareness and generating new impulses. And living, reading, working and producing in the container, the works created will become "imported items" and drift to America and Europe...

At the beginning of 2025, we created graffiti on the containers together. Then we chose to create again on the wooden frame painting board. FREEMANN chose to use acrylic paint and painted the green container base. Then we continued the conversation between him and me about the spray painting. After the Spring Festival, we gathered again. I proposed the idea of covering our first works. It was opposed. I thought our graffiti creation needed an examination and reflection, and FREEMANN had become so obsessed with the hand-cranked automatic spray paint can that he was feeling a sense of sensibility and joy, and told me that his graffiti was very exciting, and could anyone stop him from being excited.

I propose the following suggestion: Separate and juxtapose the works we have created. We used partitions made of storage steel frames. The inherent usage marks of the partitions and the sprayed content that we researched and considered were used together in a set of color gradations, while maintaining the form of separation of the images. We also attempted to use this dialogue on the wooden frame canvas again.

We all see the self that is approaching from here.

FREEMANN👉 Rome of Graffiti

Graffiti, whether in the contemporary art field or within their own culture, has long transcended simple visual expression and have become a vibrant carrier of dialogue based on street spirit and other cultures. Today, the inclusiveness and firmness of the subjectivity inherent in graffiti is just like a "Rome City’. • Just as the proverb on the Roman roads goes, "All roads lead to Rome", nowadays, the rebellious core and individualistic form language of graffiti keep emerging in various artworks from different cultural backgrounds.

In this exhibition, "graffiti" is given interpretations that incorporate both Chinese and Western cultures. However, first and foremost, it is necessary to clearly distinguish the significant differences between "graffiti" in the Eastern and Western contexts. Traditionally, in the West, graffiti is the signature writing within street culture that embodies the rebellious spirit. It emphasizes that the "rebellion" in the streets is the active occupation of "public space" discourse rights by the "individual space”. " In the East, it is the "writing" of the scholar-official class’s rebellion against "Confucianism" emphasizing that the randomness of "writing" is the "mental learning" symbiosis between the body and the brush and ink in the present field. The key point of this exhibition is not the blind cultural blending, but rather allowing the traditions of "graffiti" in the East and the West to establish their own positions through collision.

Just as Rome welcomed all roads leading to it, the "Rome" of graffiti lies in its respect for diverse traditions, and more importantly, in the emergence of new creative paths from the convergence points, making the “rebellious" "psychology" a current evidence connecting the past and the future cultures.

P山人👉 ⬜️🔺⭕️

Freemann’s latest article, "Three Directions of Chinese Graffiti" clearly states that the second one is the similarity between graffiti and calligraphy. This is quite insightful. Recalling this period, we have been discussing the various relationships between Western abstraction, Chinese painting (ink painting), freehand brushwork in calligraphy, and graffiti from both the Eastern and Western cultures. I think this might be a trend in the current Chinese art scene, or perhaps in some other regions outside of China. I would like to add something to this, and also express my agreement with this viewpoint.

Or rather, the problem we aim to solve leads to new possibilities in contemporary Chinese painting. I chose to approach it from the perspective of graffiti. Indeed, the guiding logic behind these current "Chinese" creations is not very clear, and we need to simplify the situation and return to the original point to think about it again.

In Chinese thought, there has always been the phenomenon that, under the influence of external forces, new power continuously emerges, which is neither the original native element nor beyond the inherent nature of the external force. For instance, during the late Han and early Jin dynasties, Buddhism entered China and combined with Confucianism and Taoism, giving rise to a new "philosophy of mystery" and landscape (painting).

This was the initial stage, but it was centered around Tao Yuanming as the spiritual existence, which remained prominent and has had an impact to this day. Later, under the influence of Chan Buddhism, there emerged Zhang Qu, Dao Fen, Shi Ke, Wang Qia’s "splashing ink" techniques, as well as the later "logical thought" landscape (ink wash) paintings, including the peak of logical thought - the emergence of Zhu Xi. Before and after this, Su Dongpo, Mi Fu, especially Liang Kan and Fazhang, exhibited reverse behaviors in their paintings, resulting in works such as "Deadwood and Bamboo Stone Painting", "Splashing Ink Immortal Painting", and "Six Persimmons Painting". These were the "ink plays" (as described by Huang Tingjian). On the one hand, this marked the completion of the internal history of Chinese painting itself, and shifted from scholar painting to literati painting; on the other hand, it was an early manifestation of the extensiveness of graffiti with modern Western significance. This included during the Ming and Qing dynasties, Wang Yangming and Li Zhuowu, "Mind School" paintings by Xu Wei, and Fu Shan’s calligraphy. These were conceptual echoes, a refulgent combination of "ink play" (graffiti spirit) and calligraphy and painting, becoming the benchmarks of today’s bold and free style and ugly calligraphy. Subsequently, inscriptions and seals were incorporated into paintings, marking a new round of conceptual influence of external forces on the paintings themselves. This round was practical, almost like the "freedom" of our Western counterparts who came later. , “Pop" leads to figures like Qi Baishi. Of course, at the same time, there is another other’s intervention, which is the emergence of Western civilization and our going abroad. This is the main other we face today. How should we deal with it?

I would like to stress once again that this is not to say that our "artistic performance” "Ugly calligraphy" is (the Western) "graffiti". I am presenting it like an instruction manual, a label. Today, I will continue along the "ink play”. Since the emergence of "ugly calligraphy", the only way to achieve freehand style is through graffiti-like presentation. This is how it has been throughout the process. Facing the lack of understanding between the East and the West and the superficiality of their integration, we cannot and should not return to Su Dongpo of "ink games”, ", Xu Wei of freehand style, or Fu Shan of "ugly calligraphy". Instead, we can better uncover the mystery and correctly view our current creative landscape through the logic of today’s Western graffiti (spiritual) style. (Since Qi Baishi’s time.)

Today (since Qi Baishi’s time), the world images embodied by graffiti (spirit) still remained merely as regional sections of China within the global perspective. Conversely, we might actually need a China-centric world image. Thus, it is not merely for inheritance, learning and integration, but rather a primary recreation with a historical perspective.

👉NIT

Born in Chongzhou, Sichuan Province in 1989; started creating with the "NIT" theme at the age of 15, using both English "NIT" and Chinese”气”. The rotation of "NIT" and the visual structure of "QI" are the same. Under globalization, a Chinese person is seeking a three-dimensional path to understand who they are.

👉FREEMANN (Chu Sixian)

Chu Sixian, a.k.a. Freeman, was born in Luzhou, Sichuan province in 1993. He graduated from the Department of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Urbino, Italy with a B.A. in 2016. Then he studied for one year in the Department of Architecture at the Third University of Rome from 2017 to 2018. In 2019, he graduated from the Department of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Urbino, Italy with a M.F.A. Currently, he lives and works in Luzhou and Chengdu.

Chu Sixian’s work is dedicated to becoming a painter who builds courage for contemporary painting. He takes deviation as the core of my artistic thinking, shifting focus from merely achieving a final result to deeply exploring the process of painting itself. This approach breaks the inertia of conventional visual perception through deviation, allowing authentic personal differences to emerge - these differences hold the unique value of painting. Each deviation is not just a challenge to existing models but a process of self-discovery within the unconscious. This method transforms painting from a static result into a layered generative process, enabling viewers to experience an escape from fixed ways of seeing. Chu Sixian believes painting is not only an expression of visual beauty but a profound spiritual exploration. Through deviation and self-reconstruction, it reveals the redemptive potential of painting.

👉P ShanRen (Wang Shuzhong)

Wang Shuzhong was born in LIngbi, Anhui province, China in 1987. He graduated from the Art Insttute, Shanghai University with a M.F.A. in Art History in 2012. He won John Moor Painting Award in the category of Contemporary Chinese Ink & Colour in 2025.

Starting from ink and wash, Wang Shuzhong dissects its traditional grammar and releases its potential as a tool for spatial perception. Amid the delicate tension between paper and ink, he no longer depicts landscapes but evokes the flow of qi and the generation of space. His paintings are like "cross-sectional diagrams of qi fields" - immeasurable, unreplicable, and temporary perceptual compositions. In his practice, "emptiness" is both the blank space in form and the openness of perception. He integrates abstract expression with Eastern spatial philosophy to construct a non-linear, non-solid visual system: lines trace the trajectory of qi, color layers weave rhythms, and blank spaces serve as mediators. He rejects image-based representation and instead captures and translates relationships. Technology in his works is not an addition but an "invisible social perception". His paintings are like the weaving of the body against algorithmic logic, attempting to reshape human perception of the hidden dimensions. Here, "emptiness" is not negation but a form of emergent existence, a folding of time, and an indeterminate state of perception.