Image in Flyer: Frank WANG Yefeng, “and” (detail), Drawing on paper, colored pencil, watercolor, 11 x 17 cm, 2022.
Please join us for a live performance by Dan Lippel and Douglas Boyce, accompanying Frank WANG Yefeng’s Avatopology exhibition on October 18, at 7pm in the NARS Project Space.
Join us for a unique live performance by guitarist Dan Lippel of La Comète (Partita No. 3 for solo guitar), a work composed by Douglas Boyce. Inspired by Jacques Gallot, a lesser-known 17th century French lutenist and composer, the piece resonates with the themes of Frank WANG Yefeng’s Avatopology, which explores nomadism and global creative collaboration. Boyce’s composition transforms Baroque traditions, engaging with a particular historical moment and aesthetic context. The performance brings an additional auditory layer to Avatopology’s immersive multimedia installation, merging live and recorded sound to explore the connections between past and present and cultural and creative flux.
Avatopology, a solo exhibition featuring work by Frank WANG Yefeng, explores a dialectic of control and submission among participants as they navigate the tricky terrain of creative collaboration. The work on view is the result of commissioned contributions by freelance creators around the world. It reflects the developing interpersonal relationships with the artist and the constraints on creative freedom as they each negotiate expectations, artistic identity, and the end result.
Daniel Lippel is an acclaimed guitarist known for his versatility in solo, chamber, and contemporary music performances. Described as an "exciting soloist" by the New York Times and "precise and sensitive" by the Boston Globe, Lippel has premiered over fifty new works and recorded many on New Focus Recordings, the label he co-founded. His performances span prestigious venues and festivals worldwide, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and international events in Europe, Asia, and South America. Lippel is a member of several ensembles, including the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and counter)induction, and has collaborated with renowned composers such as Mario Davidovsky and John Zorn.
Douglas Boyce writes chamber music that draws on Medieval and Renaissance traditions and modernist aesthetics, building rich rhythmic structures that shift between order, fragmentation, elegance, and ferocity. Many of his works have a direct historical touchstone. Other works draw on sources from antiquity, Literature and philosophy are also significant points of articulation. He holds a BA in music and Physics from Williams College (1992), an MM in composition from the University of Oregon (1996), and a PhD in Composition from the University of Pennsylvania (2000). .
Frank WANG Yefeng (b. Shanghai) is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher, and digital nomad situated in-between New York City and Shanghai. Initially trained as a sculptor, Yefeng’s practice spans a wide range of media, including video installation, experimental 3D animation, painting, drawing, and writing. His art explores the experience of "in-betweenness" that arises from a nomadic transnational existence. Interweaving physical and digital realms, his projects critically examine fixed identity formations, the genealogies of racialized others, and the alienation of people and objects in dominant cultural and technological narratives.
Yefeng earned his MFA in Art and Technology Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011. His projects have been featured in exhibitions internationally, including the BRIC Biennial (NY, US), the OCAT Biennial (SZ, CN), the WRONG Biennale (US), City Project of the 14th Shanghai Biennale (SH, CN), Art Basel Hong Kong (HK, CN), The Armory Show (NY, US), CCS Bard Hessel Museum of Art (NY, US), Smack Mellon (NY, US), Times Square (NY, USA), Denver Theater District (CO, US), Gasworks London (LDN, UK), Jeju Museum of Contemporary Art (Jeju, KR), Pylon Lab (DRS, DE), Tai Kwun Contemporary (HK, CN), Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing (BJ, CN), Shanghai K11 Museum (SH, CN), etc. Yefeng has also been awarded solo exhibitions, residencies, and fellowships at K11 Art Foundation x ArtReview (WH, CN), International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) (NY, US), New York Art Residency & Studios (NARS) Foundation (NY, US), Pratt Institute (NY, US), Asia Art Archive in America (NY, US), MacDowell (NH, US), and Vermont Studio Center (VT, US), among others.