"Is our pursuit of nature truly about the essence of nature, or is it about the nature of our desires?"

Edward Hongyi Jia

BONIAN SPACE is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition in China, Fleeting Creator, by artist Edward Hongyi Jia, from June 15 to July 14, 2024. Curated by Yang Hongli, the exhibition features over ten of artist's latest paintings.

Edward Hongyi Jia's work revolves around the relationship between life experiences, nature, and the artificial. His childhood experience in breeding and raising discus fishes made him aware early on of the power dynamics hidden behind the term "artificial" — the bred fish, having completely lost their ability to survive in the wild, become consumer products serving solely for entertainment and aesthetic purposes. By reflecting on the existence of ornamental fish, Jia extends his thoughts to critique the excessive human intervention in nature driven by desire and profit, highlighting the "creator" role humans play in ecological management.

"Humans, seeing themselves as outside nature, habitually treat nature as an exploitable resource. Will they eventually be devoured by nature's eternity?" In his works, Jia attempts to create and depict a middle ground between traditional science fiction narratives and natural wonders. He uses geometric shapes in his paintings to metaphorically represent the water cycle system, presenting the eternal confrontation and coexistence between humans and nature in an abstract manner. His paintings are filled with the contradictions and introspection naturally arising from human nature when facing other and specific situations. They rationally and humanistically express his questioning of current affairs and his macroscale inquiries into future uncertainties.