Chen Yujun’s new solo exhibition, “Transitional Room”, opens August 31st, 2012 at Boers-Li Gallery. Chen was born in the 1970s into a family with a rich emigrational background, and his previous works have been a constant search for self-definition and self-identification in a foreign culture. In this new exhibition he continues to explore the possibility of a self in an age of instability, where people are on a perpetual migration pattern that is interwoven with virtual and real experiences.

Walking into this exhibition is like walking into a room in the middle of redecoration—chairs, paintings, photographs—there is something familiar at the turn of every corner, something that is common to all households and yet is specific to none. The influx of information has changed the traditional definition of family; there is no longer a singular definition of what a family is or what it should be. It is constantly changing as people are influenced by various elements from foreign cultures that have been integrated into their own. In a way, life has become more diversified, but at the same time, lifestyles around the world have more similarities than they ever did before.

Through the exploration of space, Chen Yujun’s paintings transform the gallery into a playground where imagination and past experiences meet and mingle, resulting in a fantastic amalgamation of colors, shapes, mediums, and styles. The doors on the wall, the threads in the paint, the man in the corner—the depth of Chen’s paintings extend far beyond the walls upon which they are hung, leading viewers to an alternate reality of strange nostalgia. The threads in the paintings or the aluminum protrusion excite the audience as something concrete in a room of illusory designs, and Chen’s use of corners complete the room with a touch of life that is necessary in everyone’s own homes.