SENS Gallery is pleased to announce “The Magical Safehouse” in collaboration with XU Gallery in Shanghai. The exhibition will showcase the work of Chinese artist Wang Jinbo.

“The Magical Safehouse” explores the dreamlike worlds of Wang’s artworks, reflecting on the tranquility and repose he feels within the universe he creates.

Glittering lights brighten across the surface of Wang Jinbo’s paintings, used as an artistic language to express comfort and security from the anxiety plaguing the artist and the generation he belongs to. Psychological instability is veiled under ethereality, a reflection of the social phenomenon where individuals feel simultaneously social yet isolated.

The journey of exploring his inner self is Wang Jinbo’s process of creation to achieve self-reconciliation. The pandemic provided him with solitary contemplation and opportunity for self-exploration, allowing him to create artwork that he hopes resonates with viewers to reconcile with themselves. Identifying as an individual with insecurities and social fear, he is only letting go of everything when he puts himself within the worlds he constructs. Comfort and familiarity take precedence in Wang’s creative mindset, focusing on scenes and characters that hold understanding and relevance to his feelings.

Wang uses his artwork as a solution to cope with the social dilemma he is facing. His true self, entangled and resistant, is masked by a false image of an individual in bright and eloquent conversation with others. The figures epitomise solitude and alienation seen from a bystander perspective, allowing room for thought regarding how an individual copes with solitude, anxiety, and social concerns.

Painting is a process for Wang to meditate and to be able to digest messages. He focuses on the present, working spontaneously instead of creating through a plan. Wang’s paintings emphasize on colour, detailing contoured lines of illustrated figures. Sparkling texture is a technique extracted from his previous works, transforming from flickers to sparkles to visualise an otherworldly universe in which Wang finds himself comfortable.