Web of Being: The Living Network
Artists: Cai Lei, Guillermo Lorca, Jason Martin, Jonas Hödicke, Qin Qi, Rodel Tapaya, Woo Kukwon, Xu Hongxiang
Singapore Gallery Space
January 15 – February 22, 2025
Tang Contemporary Art Singapore presents "Web of Being: The Living Network," a groundbreaking exhibition featuring eight internationally acclaimed artists: Qin Qi, Cai Lei, Xu Hongxiang, Woo Kukwon, Guillermo Lorca, Rodel Tapaya, Jason Martin, and Jonas Hödicke. Opening during Singapore Art Week 2025, this exhibition explores the profound interconnections between human consciousness and the natural world, challenging traditional perspectives on existence and observation.
At its core, "Web of Being" investigates how human experience is fundamentally woven into the fabric of the broader natural world. The exhibition presents works that illuminate the complex networks binding all forms of life—from microscopic organisms to vast ecosystems, from cellular interactions to cosmic phenomena. Through diverse artistic interpretations, these artists reveal how we exist simultaneously as observers and the observed, dissolving conventional boundaries between different forms of consciousness.
The featured artists, each bringing unique cultural and sociopolitical perspectives, transform the gallery into a space where multiple realms of existence converge. Their works create immersive environments that question human-centric worldviews and reveal the hidden threads connecting human creativity with natural phenomena. The exhibition suggests that our existence is part of a larger, living network of relationships and interactions.
By highlighting these interconnections, "Web of Being" challenges viewers to reconsider their place in the universe. The exhibition suggests that human consciousness is not isolated but part of a vast, living network where every entity – human and nonhuman – plays a role in observing and being observed, influencing and being influenced, in an endless dance of mutual existence.
EXHIBITING WORKS
 Qin Qi Return Home Oil on canvas 206 x 357 cm 2023 |  Qin Qi The Lion and Duck Oil on canvas 180 x 235 cm 2024 |  Qin Qi Mangshi Oil on canvas 190 x 155 cm 2024 |
|---|---|---|
 Qin Qi Tibetan Oil on canvas 80 x 56 cm 2023 |  Cai Lei Unfinished Home 20220402 Cement 40 x 37 x 7 cm 2022 |  Cai Lei Unfinished Home 20240911 Cement 60 x 60 x 5 cm 2024 |
 Cai Lei 0207# Acrylic on canvas 100 x 83 x 4.5 cm 2023 |  Xu Hongxiang A Certain Wednesday 200 x 300 (200 x 150 x 2) 2024 |  Xu Hongxiang Language Acrylic and oil on canvas 150 x 200 cm 2024 |
 Woo Kukwon Laura Oil on canvas 227 x 546 cm (227 x 182 cm x 3) 2023 |  Woo Kukwon Eliza Oil on super mirror 200 x 140 cm 2023 |  Guillermo Lorca The Room of the Little Boy Oil on canvas 200 x 230 cm 2024 |
 Guillermo Lorca The Sheep Oil on canvas 190 x 148 cm 2024 |  Rodel Tapaya The Old Man Who Lost His Horse Acrylic on canvas 193 x 152.4 2024 |  Rodel Tapaya Bring The Fire Acrylic on canvas 152.5 x 213 cm 2023 |
 Rodel Tapaya The Messenger Acrylic on canvas 152.5 x 122 cm 2023 |  Rodel Tapaya Capital B Acrylic on canvas 193 x 152.4 cm 2017 |  Jason Martin Vital signs at the brink of surfeit Oil on aluminum 140 x 1000 cm 2024 |
 Jason Martin Thysia Mixed media on aluminium 68 x 48 x 12 cm 2015 |  Jason Martin Eclipse Gold mica and mixed media on aluminium 150 x 12 cm 2023 |  Jonas Hödicke Atlas Acrylic on canvas 230 x 200 cm 2015 |
 Jonas Hödicke Duell Acrylic on canvas 230 x 200 cm 2015 |  Jonas Hödicke Stress ohne Grund Acrylic on canvas 200 x 160 cm 2015 |  Jonas Hödicke Wald Acrylic on canvas 200 x 200 cm 2018 |
ARTISTS
Qin Qi
b.1975, Xi'an, China
Qin Qi graduated from the Department of Oil Painting at the Lu Xun Academy in Shenyang. Since Qin Qi emerged in the art world in 2002, he has created work that both negates and advances ideas and styles, forging a distinctive path for himself within a new generation of painting. He began with erotic images and allegorical narratives in the early 2000s, and then in 2004, he shifted towards pictorial experiments in painting. Later, he moved away from the event-driven and unfinished qualities of these images, engaged with a consciousness of form and structure, and developed weight, brushstrokes, and vision in images.
His works are characterized by a surreal dimension, through which he aims to depict elements drawn from a familiar context, reconfigured in their concepts. His compositions feature still life, real landscapes, dream-like situations, and sketches from nature, all of which he has carefully chosen to assemble, demonstrating the coexistence of various other worlds. Qin Qi is a visual thinker, and his compositions, despite often exuding a sense of ambiguity, manifest as subtle representations of a consciousness that transcends forms to reach their more distant meanings.
Cai Lei
b.1983, Changchun, Jilin province, China
Cai Lei’s works explore the relationship between illusion and space. From his interest in planarity, he carves out an illusory conceptual space which oscillates between the second and third dimension for his creations. Working in both painting and mixed media sculptural relief, light plays an important factor in enhancing this illusion of depth. Painted spaces of interior hallways or corners simultaneously protrude and recede depending on the viewer’s experience of the work.
Cai Lei graduated in 2009 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Sculpture at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing. An award winning young artist from the 80s generation, he has exhibited internationally including the Yangtze Art Museum (Chongqing), Foundation Taylor (Paris), Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (Taiwan), CAFA Museum (Beijing), Poly Art Museum (Beijing), Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art (USA), Today Art Museum (Beijing), and Museum of Contemporary Art Bonn (Germany). His solo exhibitions experience: “23 Square Meters”(2018), Whitestone Gallery, Taiwan; “Échelle des plans”(2016), Tang Contemporary Art, Beijing; “In Ambiguous Sight, Unaccompanied”(2016), Tang Contemporary Art, Hong Kong, China; Group Exhibitions: “Motif and material”(2017), Tang Contemporary Art, Hong Kong; “Among”(2015), Museum of Contemporary Art Bonn, Germany; CAFA Postgraduates Graduate Exhibition”(2015), CAFA Museum, Beijing, China.
Xu Hongxiang
b. 1984, Changsha, China
Xu Hongxiang's artistic practice often revolves around painting. His career is marked by two parallel creative approaches: project-based painting series with narrative content and oil paintings focused on landscapes. The overarching themes he has aimed to explore in his multimedia painting projects over the years include "image," "body," and "the relationship between painting and reality." The characteristics of his highly stylised painting—featuring a signature saturated palette—serve as fragments that reflect these themes.
Xu Hongxiang's selected solo exhibitions and projects include: "Xu Hongxiang: Ancient Posts" (Xie Zilong Photography Museum, Changsha, 2023), "Xu Hongxiang: Displaced Images" (Triumph Gallery, Beijing, 2022), "Xu Hongxiang: An Exuberant View" (Hubei Museum of Art, Wuhan, 2021), "Xu Hongxiang: One Night While Hunting for Faeries" (Loft8 Galerie, Vienna, 2019), "Not Dark Yet - Xu Hongxiang Solo Exhibition" (Triumph Gallery, Beijing, 2018), "Shuffling the Cards" (Parallel Vienna, Vienna, 2018), "Li Qiang" (Changsha, 2016), "In the Field" (Changsha, 2016), "Xu Hongxiang Solo Exhibition" (SZ Art Center, Beijing, 2014). Selected group exhibitions include: "Follow the Rabbit - Talking Stock of a Collection and Its Reception through Contemporary Chinese Art" (Museum Liaunig, Austria, 2023), "History and Reality: Contemporary Art of China" (Bulgarian National Museum of Art, Sofia, 2018), "Visual Questions" (Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangdong, 2017), "Oriental Story" (National Art Museum of China, Beijing, 2017), and "Centripetal Force" (SCA Galleries, Sydney, 2017), as well as "In Silence - China Contemporary Art" (Sydney Town Hall, Sydney, 2014).
Woo Kukwon
b. 1976, Republic of Korea
Woo Kukwon lives and works in Seoul. His work focuses on the gap between reality and fantasy, working mainly with oil paints as well as drawings on paper and installations.
Woo was exposed to the heavy subject of life and death at a far too early age, pushing him to hide away from reality and into the fantasy-filled story world. After growing up, he discovered the cruelty hidden behind seemingly beautiful fairy tales, making him re-interpret the world from a new perspective, driving him to investigate philosophy and religion. In the same vein, the Three “B” (Beautiful, Baby, Best) always co-exist with the death motif in his works. The equivocal co-existence of reality and fantasy called upon the artist to seek truth in fairy tales, humour in philosophy and freedom in the Bible.
Woo's early works mainly consisted of roughly scratched paintings, expressing the raw dangers of a wandering ego. His more recent works evolved into a more stable form expressed through the build-up of thick layers of paint into a rich material. His work combines cruel fairy tale scenes and roughly scribbled famous words with his natural gift of colour, creating a unique genre that mixes Pop Art and Figurative Art.
Selected Solo Exhibitions include “Once Upon Her Time”, Tang Contemporary Art (Beijing, China, 2023); “Joyful Experience”, Kolon Motors (Seoul, South Korea, 2023); “Carnival”, Tang Contemporary Art (Hong Kong, 2022); “I’m your Father”, Noblesse Collection (Seoul, South Korea, 2021); “It’s The Hard Knock Life”, Gallery BK (Seoul, South Korea, 2021); “JEREMIAH WAS A BULLFROG”, LOTTE Gallery Avenuel (Seoul, South Korea, 2020) etc. Selected Group Exhibitions include “L'Empire des sens”, Tang Contemporary Art (Seoul, Korea, 2022); “Duet Exhibition: Ha Jeongwoo & Woo Kukwon", 313 Cheongdam Space (Seoul, South Korea, 2022); “The Forties: Alluring Moments”, Gallery Joeun (Seoul, South Korea, 2021); “Brave New Gaze: Vision, Gaze, and Start”, ATELIER AKI (Seoul, South Korea, 2020); “Age of 40s: You were enchanted”, Gallery Joeun (Seoul, South Korea, 2020); “Dialogue”, ATELIER AKI (Seoul, South Korea, 2020) etc.
Guillermo Lorca
b. 1984, Chile
Guillermo Lorca García Huidobro is a renowned painter of classical oil. His early works have been successfully exhibited and sold at prestigious art events, including The Asprey Exhibition in London and the exhibition The Eternal Life at the most important museum in Chile. Currently, he is collaborating with the famous auctioneer Simon de Pury, as well as art galleries and museums, most of which are located in Europe. His works are currently on display at the MOCO Museum in Barcelona, Spain.
Giant yellow-eyed cats, angelic girls, and mysterious creatures populate the haunting and sensual world of Guillermo Lorca. Blending magic and realism, the young Chilean contemporary artist creates large-scale oil paintings filled with surreal narratives and dreamlike sequences. Each of his dramatic scenes carries a dark balance of power and competition between nature and humankind.
As a child, Lorca received a book of fairy tales illustrated by the Romantic painter Gustave Doré, which has since inspired his haunting world of beauty, horror, desire, fear, luxury, paranoia, and pleasure.
"My personality definitely finds its voice through paintings. It is a journey through the unconscious sensations that have been present in my life." - Guillermo Lorca
Lorca's undeniably unique style stems from the studied techniques of Old Master painters, drawing influence from the Renaissance and Baroque periods.
Rodel Tapaya
b.1980, Montalban, Philippines
Rodel Tapaya is a contemporary Filipino artist, celebrated as one of the most important painters working in Southeast Asia. His paintings are characterized by visionary narrative tableaus, melding folklore, historical and personal references into painterly figurations. By forming thought-provoking instantiations of myth and contemporary existence—such as beastly incarnations of gods beside factories and television antennas—his works are both a retelling and a continuation of the oral and pictorial tradition of his milieu. Affectingly intimate and eclectic, his process mines indigenous craft that functions as a parallel to the text and provides insight into an amalgam of pre-colonial culture and contemporary political ethos. “I just find myself looking into these folk narratives [...] which lets us see a map of the future,” he has said of his process.
Born on July 10, 1980 in Montalban Philippines, Tapaya was a student at the College of Fine Arts of the University of the Philippines when he won the Nokia Art Prize in 2001 which gave him a grant to study at the Parsons School of Design and at the University of Helsinki. After a successful series of exhibitions, he moved his home and studio to Bulacan, the Philippines in 2006 where he currently lives with his wife, the painter Marina Cruz-Garcia, and their three children. His works are held in the collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Australia, Michael and Janet Buxton Collection, Mori Art Museum, The Hori Science and Art Foundation, Singapore Art Museum, Bencab Museum, Ateneo Art Gallery, Iloilo Museum of Contemporary Art, Pinto Art Museum, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Deutsche Bank Collection, SEACO, and several international private collections. Tapaya was awarded the Cultural Center of the Philippines Thirteen Artists Award in 2012 and was the winner of the Asia-Pacific Breweries Signature Art Prize in 2011.
Jason Martin
b. 1970, Jersey, Channel Islands, UK
Jason Martin studied at Goldsmiths, University of London. He was a participant in the legendary 1997 exhibition “Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection” at the Royal Academy in London and the Museum Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin.
Known for his thickly textured, monochromatic paintings which achieve uniquely sculptural surfaces, Martin layers oil paint or acrylic gel atop a metal or Plexiglas substrate, and then drags a comb-like tool through the substance to create voluminous striations. The process-based formalism of his practice shows the influence of artists such as David Budd and Robert Ryman. “The most interesting abstraction has a source of figuration,” he reflected. “My approach is that there is a warmth of figuration that I try to affect into the movements—gestures—that I make [on the canvas].”
Jason Martin’s work is held in international private and public collections, including The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., the Albright Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, Sprengel Museum in Hanover, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary in Vienna, and more.
Jonas Hödicke
b. 1984, Berlin, Germany
Jonas Hödicke’s first verified exhibition was Art Cologne 2009 at Koelnmesse GmbH in Cologne in 2009, and the most recent exhibition was Nachtschicht at Galerie Michael Schultz in Berlin in 2016. Jonas Hödicke is exclusively exhibited in Germany. Hödicke has at least one solo show but no group shows over the last 7 years (for more information, see exhibitions). Hödicke has also been in no less than two art fairs but in no biennials. A notable show was Nachtschicht at Galerie Michael Schultz in Berlin in 2016.