I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing artist and jeweller Wallace Chan for his exhibitions coinciding with the Venice Biennale in 2022, 2024, and 2026. Running alongside the 2026 exhibition in Venice, Chan also has a major exhibition of his works, the largest I’ve seen, at the Long Museum in Shanghai.
It can be viewed as a survey exhibition that revisits some of his earlier works, highlights his jewellery practice and wows us with his biggest sculptures to date. The exhibition saves the big reveals for later as we navigate the museum through circuitous paths and dark passages that allow us to decompress before seeing the next works; it also ensures each work lands with maximum impact.
When I asked the artists about how this exhibition interacts with the one in Venice, he told me:
“For me, Venice and Shanghai are two parts of one living project. Venice was more intimate, inward and almost embryonic. Shanghai gives the works another body. At Long Museum, the vessels expand to seven, eight and ten metres; the viewer can walk around them, and enter ‘Growth’.
So I see Shanghai not as a repetition of Venice, but as its continuation and transformation. The two exhibitions look at each other across distance, and together they complete the idea of Vessels of Other Worlds: one world opening into another”.
We start with reproductions of body parts, such as the eyes, ears, and mouth; body parts we can’t normally see without a mirror. It’s a hint at the unseen elements, both anatomical and spiritual, that make up our lives and are key to Chan’s work. It also introduces us to his choice of material – titanium. It’s a notoriously difficult material to work with, but he has chosen it because of how it’s designed to last forever, to not rust or corrode. Much like how the rebirth theme of his work will always be universal, and it ensures his art will last forever.
Some of the earliest installations are from his major Venice shows, Titans and Totem. We see elongated faces pierced by iron bars and an installation based on the layout of Totem. While the original Totem allowed us to explore and walk amidst the installation, here it’s placed behind glass as if we’re looking back on a historical dig site. This is added to by the clever touch of a glass floor that allows us to look down, between our feet, upon the installation.
There has always been a link between Chan’s sculpture and jewellery, with his faces in his sculpture resembling those from his trademarked Wallace Cut, where he engraves a gemstone to create the optical illusion that there are floating faces within the gem. However, here we get to see both displayed together, with viewers able to compare the two and see how they inspire one another.
This tie has been deepened through the introduction of colour in his sculptures this year, and the standout pieces include monumental sculptures made from hundreds of individual titanium pieces. The added bonus is we can step inside them and see all the numerological, time, natural and rebirth elements from both inside and outside.
One of the largest works slowly rotates, and it’s so smooth it’s imperceptible. It’s only by carefully looking down that we can observe the rotation. Much like how the cycle of life is easy to see when we look back on old photographs and realise how we’ve aged, yet we never feel ourselves ageing in that instant.
They are so intricate that you can come back numerous times and spot new elements, whether that be a scorpion at the base or the many references to water where only the eagle-eyed observer will manage to spot them all.
As always, the works will be interpreted differently by those with different religious or spiritual backgrounds, and when I spoke to Wallace Chan, he remains open to all paths that a viewer may take when considering his exhibition:
“Every audience enters from its own memory and culture. My task is not to give different answers to different audiences, but to create a space where each viewer can bring themselves into the work and discover their own passage”
Wallace Chan is an artist who has never shied away from ambitious projects, and this exhibition in Shanghai feels like his most ambitious to date. However, given his ability to think and dream big, I wouldn’t be surprised if he manages to go even bigger and bolder in future exhibitions. It’s something that we would welcome.
Wallace Chan: Vessels of Other Worlds – 25th October, The Long Museum
The other site of this exhibition is at the Chapel of Santa Maria della Pietà, Venice, until 18th October. Wallace Chan: Mythos is on at Scala Contarini del Bovolo, Venice, until 18th October.
All photographs are copyrighted and taken by JJYPHOTO
