Binary

Art Porters and Jada Art Gallery are pleased to present a new media visual art exhibition, Binary, comprising 21 recent artworks by artists Ren Zi & Szto.

Binary is open to the public from May 17 to June 25, 2017. The collection of artworks and sculptures will be showcased at Art Porters, 64 Spottiswoode Park Road, Singapore 088652.

Binary is a conversation between the polar artistic temperaments + practices of SZTO + Ren Zi. In terms of materiality (handmade vs. digital, organic vs. industrial), dimensionality (2D vs. 3D), expression (image vs. text), proximity (familiar vs. alien, comforting vs. outre), registers (lightness vs. weight, bright vs. dark), balance (equilibrium vs. destabilisation).

Yet rather than a fixedness on boundaries, their mixed-media works involve the permeability of states. Keeping certain aspects in plain sight while camouflaging others. As autodidacts, both bypass the rule-book to co-opt the black, the white + nuances between into their respective cosmologies, weaving figurations + language into something else altogether.

In juxtaposing their works, you are invited to tease out the intersection + divergence of their philosophies. To explore the paradox of appearing binary from one angle +, under different light, reveal the fuzzy nature of being human.

About Ren Zi

Ren Zi's first public showcase in 2013 was funded through a Kickstarter campaign. More recently, in late 2015, his works were simultaneously presented in a solo at Charles B Wang Center, Stony Brook University (New York), another solo in Singapore and a two-person exhibition at OCBC Artspace.

An autodidact, he has been awarded several grants from Singapore's National Arts Council + Singapore International Foundation. He was a participant of the International Artist Residency at NARS Foundation in Brooklyn, New York. His works + shows have been mentioned/featured in traditional + online media, including the AsiaArt Pacific 2016 Almanac.

About SZTO

In his early years, SZTO entered a competition by Caran d'Ache to "imagine Switzerland". His whimsical interpretation of the country won him the competition and spurred him to a career in advertising and visual arts after graduating from Temasek Polytechnic, School of Design, Visual Communications. Currently Creative Director with a Japanese branding agency, his job requires frequent sojourns in Kyoto & Tokyo, where the culture and philosophies influence and inspire him - especially his belief in the coexistence of all things in Art.

SZTO's assemblages & dioramas describe a parallel world built on imagination, dreams, stories, philosophies and symbolism. Incorporating texts and a variety of found objects into his works, his dense visual narratives evoke the wonder of spinning patterned understanding from chaos. Driven by the urge to interrogate his own understanding of the world, a quest for rootedness and his vision of utopia. His art is also an invitation to explore and discover what can come alive in our own imagination.

His works debuted at Our Elusive Here, Volvo Art Loft in 2014. He was also featured in the Kult Studio-curated show Little house of horrors (2015).