(New York, NY) CHINCHINART is pleased to present A Lure, A Lament on view from January 16, 2026, through January 30, 2026, celebrated with an opening reception on Friday January 16, 2026 from 6 – 8 PM. Curated by Weifan Mo and Shuhan Zhang, the exhibition features artists Mosaz Zijun Zhao, I Chin Sung, and Yike Li to explore alternative feminist narratives of ghosts, haunting, and spectral presence.
The Chinese ‘gui’ [鬼] embodies a distinct aura that often eludes translation. Within the grip of ‘gui’, spirits and ghosts do not isolate into a transcendental alternative land. They are not merely uncanny dead, or omnipotent immortal, but ancestral presences woven into peculiar geographies, rituals, and lifeways. ‘Gui’ coexists with living human beings. It’s the extraordinary that birthed and mutated from the ordinaries. They are the eerily-tinged us.
In Chinese mythological literature, the spiritual and ghostly are often imbued with an allure of beguiling femininity. Is it but a figment of male literati, a lingering shadow of patriarchy? Or rather, the feminine ‘gui’ is sensed as an unruly eros that disrupts, shatters, and flirts with the masculine stagnancy. ‘Gui’ is an erotic relation between the dualities in ourselves.
This exhibition immerses the audience in the inescapable intimacy of ‘gui’ through each artist’s subtle expressivity. The lure is here presented as a unique attention evoked by the spiritual within us—our entwined yearnings, our remorseful fantasies. The archaic exudes its aroma through the gestural plays on papers, carving boards, and the interweaving pigments. An ambience is all over the place. It nearly sustains a ritual, a silent prayer to the past, a lamentation for ancestors within the hush of old tales. ‘Gui’ is never alien to us. We move with its thrum.
Exhibition Dates
January 16 – 30, 2026
Opening Reception
January 16, 2025 | 6 – 8 pm
Curator
Weifan Mo
Shuhan Zhang
Executive Curators
Xinying Wang
Luman Jiang
Artist
Mosaz Zijun Zhao
I Chin Sung
Yike Li
Venue
Gallery 456
456 Broadway 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10013
About the Curators
Weifan Mo (Michelle) (b.2001) is a writer, creator, and curator at the New School for Social Research (Philosophy MA Program), with scholarly interests that encompass aesthetics, phenomenology, affect studies, Ancient Greek philosophy & drama, and Chinese diasporic literature & films. Her academic and creative initiatives revolve around interdisciplinary artistic practices that channel our intellectual life into everyday experience. She employs the project of aesthetics study as a filter to encapsulate the affective dynamics surrounding individuals within modern and postmodern context.
Shuhan Zhang(b. 2002) is an MA candidate in Visual Arts Administration at New York University and a graduate of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Her research and curatorial practice focus on the intersections of digital art, cultural platforms, and the contemporary art market, examining how technology reshapes modes of viewing, value production, and art circulation. She has participated in exhibitions and projects at institutions including UCCA Center for Contemporary Art (Beijing), Tank Shanghai, Eli Klein Gallery (New York), and RAINRAIN Gallery (New York), and brings cross-institutional experience to experimental curatorial practices in non-traditional and multifunctional spaces, fostering critical dialogue among artists, institutions, and audiences.
(text & photo courtesy of CHINCHINART)
