Lisson Gallery at ART021 SHANGHAI 2025

3 November 2025

Lisson Gallery is pleased to announce its debut presentation at ART021 SHANGHAI, showcasing a selection of works from the gallery’s international roster of artists, including sculptures by Tony Cragg, Anish Kapoor and Laure Prouvost; paintings by Oliver Lee Jackson, Christopher Le Brun, Li Ran and Zhao Gang; and more by Elaine Cameron-Weir, Leiko Ikemura and Hiroshi Sugimoto.

Anchoring the booth is Anish Kapoor’s highly polished stainless mirror Dark Purple to Clear (2024). The color gradient across shades of deep purple creates a lyrical oscillation of colour that further emphasises or distorts the formal structure of the object and its reflection. Over the decades, Kapoor’s mirror sculptures have become increasingly painterly, embodying in them the artist’s own journey exploring the potential of painting through multiple mediums.

Laure Prouvost presents a pair of handblown Murano glass birds. Human, avian, and aquatic forms gracefully intertwine, symbolising the interconnectedness and mutual reliance of species in the age of climate change and global migration. Rendered in different poses, they appear on the brink of transformation as if embarking on a migratory journey. Further sculptural highlights include Stack (2018) by Tony Cragg, a columnar work evoking a fascinating correspondence between a carved object and an eroded rocky landscape; cast glass objects by Leiko Ikemura, where luminosity and colour radiate both through and from the works’ surfaces; and Assorted Icons (2022) by Elaine Cameron-Weir, which incorporate materials repurposed from their various functions, such as light bulbs, electrical components, alabaster and silk gauze, formalising the porous entanglement between the known and unknown.

The booth also features Untitled Painting (1.30.24) (2024) by Oliver Lee Jackson, an energetic field of abstract marks that open up spaces for encounters with seen and unseen worlds. Swathes of abstract gesture and bold colouration pulls the pictorial plane beyond mere image, into zones of feeling, expression and intent. Jackson also brings each composition into a state of balance and harmony, controlling each section of the work and moving the eye across his passages of oil, enamel and chalk. Zhao Gang presents a large-scale painting Last Night’s Party (2025). His participation coincides with his three-part show The Basterd Gentry in Shanghai, where Act One & Two take place at Lisson Shanghai and ASE Foundation respectively, and Act Three – an artist talk – at the Bund Art Center.

In The Shadow of Katyusha (2025), Li Ran reflects on the modern Chinese history in the 1950s, a significant period of transformation and progress, through two caricature-like figures clinging to each other’s shadow for support. The plant Katyusha at the bottom right of the canvas symbolises hope and aspiration, alluding to the rational scrutiny and emotional desolation these characters rely on in their quest of a shared path forward. In contrast, Julian Opie’s portraits capture faces seen in fleeting moments using simplistic yet distinctive visual language with universal elements, be it a hat or a cape depicted in the two Town head. paintings, interpreting the initial impressions on specific social groups or stereotyped professions.

Further painting highlights include First Summer (2023) by Christopher Le Brun, a luminous oil on canvas inspired by the awareness of the change in seasons, capturing the effects of natural light. His lyrical and rhythmic gesture reveals subtle shifts in colour, along with a sense of time passing. Countering to Le Brun’s perceptive approach to depicting light, Hiroshi Sugimoto devices his own prism apparatus to refract the beam of light and expand each color into further variations. The resulting Opticks series documents changes in color that are imperceptible to the human eye, blurring the boundary between photography and painting.

ART021 SHANGHAI

Lisson Gallery Booth C03

13 – 16 November 2025

Image: Leiko Ikemura, with hummingbird, 2022 Cast glass, 36 x 20 x 20 cm, 14 1/8 x 7 7/8 x 7 7/8 in © Leiko Ikemura, Courtesy Lisson Gallery