A university art museum was once primarily the caretaker of the school’s “study collection.” As a central part of a teaching museum, the study collection offered students, faculty, and other researchers an opportunity to observe physical artifacts and art objects in close proximity and to link such observations to abstract ideas and concepts. Though NYU Shanghai currently lacks a study collection, ROOM 100 re-conceives the city of Shanghai as a resource and presents a series of objects, lent by artists, commercial galleries, a collector, and a museum, for open study.

The third art object in this series will be introduced by Michelle Hyun, Director/Curator of the NYU Shanghai Art Gallery. 

CUI Jie, Shanghai Huaqiao Building, 2014. 
Oil on canvas; 150 x 200 cm. 
Courtesy of the Andrew Ruff and ZOU Lingling Collection.

Inspired by the proliferation and fast-paced demolition of urban architecture and public sculptures in China in the past few decades, artist Cui Jie, who has lived in three metropolises (Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Beijing) herself, depicts a number of these cityscapes in her paintings. The depicted architectures and sculptures are both nostalgic and futuristic, realistic and surrealistic: the retrofuturistic appearance of abstract animal or astronomical shapes of stainless steel public sculptures recall a once popular aesthetic in China. Shanghai Huaqiao Building invites viewers to go beyond static objective representation and to imagine the synchronicity of Shanghai’s past and future.

Object available for viewing 9 - 26 April.