Chaos & Sanctuary is a group exhibition featuring four emerging Chinese painters: Shangyu (Mary) Cai, Xinyu Han, Xi Liu, and Qian Zhong. Opening 9 October 2025 at Art Works Gallery in One Holland Village, this landmark exhibition spotlights a new generation of female artists shaping the future of contemporary painting. At once intimate and universal, their practices reflect a shared fascination with human emotion and the fragile states between turbulence and tranquillity. The title Chaos & Sanctuary evokes this duality: how opposites coexist, often separated only by a fine line.
Though each artist speaks in a distinct painterly language, they are linked by formative experiences studying at leading art schools in London, including the Royal College of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art. Immersed in Western artistic traditions while rooted in Chinese cultural heritage, they embody a dialogue between ‘East and West’ that resonates powerfully across their canvases.
Shangyu (Mary) Cai draws inspiration from literature and nature, fusing humanity and landscape into luminous compositions that speak to resilience and vitality. Xinyu Han interrogates alienation within urban life, staging tensions between order and disorder, stillness and motion. Qian Zhong probes female identity and desire, employing dazzling yet unsettling imagery to explore glamour, solitude, and the space between. Xi Liu, using writing as a generative process, creates effervescent works shaped by memory, balancing intimacy with collectivity.
Exhibited internationally in London, Zurich, Milan, Shanghai, and beyond, Cai, Han, Zhong, and Liu represent a new generation of artists whose perspectives transcend borders. Chaos & Sanctuary marks the first time their works will be presented together in Singapore, offering audiences a rare glimpse of a rising international cohort.
The exhibition also reflects a wider transformation in the global art world, where women, particularly younger, contemporary artists are driving market growth and reshaping the future of cultural production. Within this landscape, Asian women artists are among the most dynamic and influential voices, redefining how narratives of identity, gender, and global exchange are told through art.
Venue: Art Works Gallery, One Holland Village, 7 Holland Village Way, #01-10/11, Singapore 275748
When: 9 - 31 Oct 2025,
