Secret Garden 秘密花园

Yiwei Gallery at Wuhan Contemporary Art Lab is pleased to present The Secret Garden, a duo exhibition featuring Norwegian artist Nina K Ekman and Chinese artist Zhou Yuyue.

The exhibition showcases the latest works of the two artists, exploring themes of refuge, growth, and identity through their experimental use of materials and the shared tenderness and purity embedded in their works. At a time when industrialization and consumerism continue to erode nature and personal spaces, the two artists assert their existence through tangible expressions of self.

Encompassing a range of media, including fabric, tufting, and mixed-media pieces on canvas, the exhibition creates a light and gentle space where viewers can momentarily escape the noise of the outside world and experience how the artists transform personal experiences into collective emotions, offering a glimpse of healing possibilities within a constrained world.

** Special thanks to the Norwegian Embassy in Beijing for their generous support in making this exhibition possible **

Nina K Ekman

Nina Ekman is a Norwegian visual artist residing in Copenhagen, Denmark, and California, USA. Her work draws inspiration from the intricate relationship between nature and humanity, deeply rooted in her upbringing in northern Norway. Ekman explores themes of human influence and consumerism on nature through her diverse practice, which spans painting, textile sculpture, and etching.

Her art has been exhibited in solo and group shows across museums, galleries, and art fairs in the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, France, and major US cities like New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

Ekman's textile sculptures initially captivate with their vibrant colors and soft textures, yet they offer much more. Her works delve into themes of plant life, ecosystems, and societal healing. By using over 90% recycled textile industry yarns, Ekman addresses the scars industrial production leaves on nature. Her creations, such as "YUCCA II (2024)" created for this exhibition, reflect on the plight of California’s iconic Joshua trees amidst climate change and development.

Through creating textile plant sculpture in varied forms, thriving or wilting, Ekman challenges anthropocentric views, urging reflection on humanity's impact on broader ecosystems. Her art restores the essence of nature to a world increasingly devoid of its vitality, emphasizing the healing power of plants and nature, as she states, “We need them [plants] far more than they need us.”

Saguaro Whispers is an installation created by artist Nina Ekman site-specifically for the Wuhan Contemporary Art Lab. It is inspired by Chinese pavilions and the Saguaro cactus of the American Southwest, aiming to give voice to the ecological disruptions in nature. Cacti hold a special place in the artist's heart. For Ekman, these are totem plants that symbolize feminine strength, resilience, and love. The devastating heat wave of 2023, fueled by climate change, led to the collapse of many of these giant magical Saguaro cacti. This kind of ecological disruption is becoming increasingly common.

In Chinese architecture, pavilions are places for people to appreciate natural scenery and to rest and gather. This is also what I hope this installation can bring. However, unlike the pillars of traditional pavilions, the artist uses dyed and embroidered works as light walls, allowing the audience to step inside this structure.

Zhou Yuyue 周宇越

Zhou Yuyue holds a Bachelor's degree from the Department of Sculpture at the China Academy of Art and a Master's degree from Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London. Specializing in contemporary painting and installation art, he currently works and resides in Hangzhou. His practice merges a distinctive personal perspective with unique artistic language, translating the unknowable hidden dialogues between self and the external world into absurd, surreal fragments of the everyday - evoking whispers or a surreal paradise.

In recent years, Zhou's creative focus has centered on self-identity exploration. Through self-perception in daily life and metaphorical use of mundane objects, he articulates personal emotions and existential states, particularly examining the manifestation of personal identity and gender within social constructs. Dreams, childhood memories, and self-portraiture form the core of his artistic practice. By incorporating fluid gender perception and intertwined emotional states into his work, he creates "ambiguous figures" within pictorial spaces. These fragments of daily existence serve as portals for the artist to examine inner emotions. Zhou's indistinct yet highly personal experiences enable him to construct tension-filled surreal scenarios, where illusory realities reflect in mirrored surfaces, projecting ever-shifting inner worlds while offering viewers fresh perspectives and rich sensory experiences. Since 2022, Zhou Yuyue's works have been exhibited at numerous prestigious venues including Yulangtang Gallery (Beijing), Hiart Space (Beijing), H Gallery (Shanghai), and Haipai Art Museum (Shanghai).

Zhou Yuyue presents a series of paintings incorporating mirrored materials, along with twenty-six mask installations, exploring themes of self-discovery, gender fluidity, and the interactions between them. His work focuses on individual emotional experiences and self-awareness, constructing an intimate, Dalí-esque surreal space.

Zhou’s works depict the very moments that never truly existed, yet the elements within them are traceable and familiar. In this exhibition, Zhou engages in a dialogue with his childhood self, finding meaning in life’s trivial moments—such as a teacher’s correction on a homework assignment, a distracted response from his mother, or an afternoon with a mosquito net used as a wedding veil—all of which reveal his inner needs.

Zhou’s work explores the most hidden, unresolved, yet fundamentally human questions at the core of selfhood: the desire for recognition and attention, and the pursuit of internal consistency.

Secret Garden 秘密花园

installation photos

About the Artists

Nina K Ekman

Nina K Ekman on the making of "Saguaro Whispers"

Zhou Yuyue 周宇越