(New York, May 2026) – CHINCHINART and Symora Art are pleased to present Between the Breath of Objects, a group exhibition featuring Kyung Kim, Luping Wang, Silvia Muleo, Xuemeng Li, and Ziyi Zhang. Curated by Jinyi Freya Xu and Shuhan Zhang, the exhibition explores how objects, long understood as passive and inert, begin to register as active participants within a shared field of breath, time, and perception. The exhibition will be held at Nguyen Wahed (504 E 12th St, New York, NY 10009) from May 6 to May 12, 2026, with an opening reception on Wednesday, May 6, 2026, from 6 to 8 PM.
In contemporary conditions shaped by technological mediation and ecological awareness, the boundary between the human and the material has become increasingly porous. Objects no longer remain external to experience; they circulate through systems of touch, image, sound, and data, accumulating traces of use, memory, and affect. Within this expanded field, the exhibition asks: when objects enter into relation with human breath, understood as rhythm, presence, and duration, how might the distinction between life and matter be rethought?
Between the Breath of Objects approaches objects not as fixed entities but as relational formations shaped through interaction. Drawing on the idea of “the thing” as a gathering of forces, the exhibition frames each work within an unfolding ecology. Breath functions as both metaphor and medium, a temporal condition through which bodies, materials, and environments become entangled. What emerges is not representation, but a field of co-presence where objects seem to expand, contract, and resonate within space.
Across installation, painting, moving image, and sound, the participating artists articulate distinct modes of relation. Ziyi Zhang materializes the cognitive gap between screens and physical reality. Treating the digital as a tangible medium, she ‘uploads’ everyday objects into virtual space and extrudes them back into topographical paintings via robotic and painterly processes. Her work acts as a physical glitch, giving structural weight to the flattened logic of the screen. Silvia Muleo works with light, hardware, and screen-based perception to reveal digital space as both illumination and interruption, where physical and virtual realities overlap and interfere. Xuemeng Li approaches the interface as a permeable threshold, exploring how identity is constructed and dispersed across mediated systems. Kyung Kim’s abstract landscapes extend the exhibition’s elemental dimension, offering painting as an atmospheric field shaped by rhythm, seasonality, and perception. Luping Wang’s practice reconfigures ephemerality as duration, translating transient forms into wearable structures where time lingers on the body rather than passes.
These works move beyond objects as fixed forms, proposing a continuum where matter, perception, and time unfold through relation. Between the Breath of Objects invites viewers into a field of shared becoming, shaped by proximity, resonance, and transformation.
Exhibition Dates
May 6, 2026 – May 12, 2026
Opening Reception
Wednesday, May 6, 2026 | 6 – 8 PM
Artists
Kyung Kim, Luping Wang, Silvia Muleo, Xuemeng Li, and Ziyi Zhang. Curated by Jinyi Freya Xu, Shuhan Zhang
Curators
Jinyi Freya Xu
Shuhan Zhang
Venue
Nguyen Wahed
504 E 12th St, New York, NY 10009
About Curators
Jinyi Freya Xu is a curator and the founder of Symora Art, a contemporary art organization grounded in interdisciplinary research across art, philosophy, and psychology. She holds an M.A. in Visual Arts Administration from New York University and a B.A. in Arts Management from the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Her curatorial practice investigates how individual experience and cognitive structures can be translated into visual and spatial forms, positioning art as a tool for critical thinking and public discourse. Xu has contributed to exhibitions, publications, and institutional projects at the West Bund Museum × Centre Pompidou, Matthew Liu Fine Art, and LATITUDE Gallery, with experience in artist collaboration, curatorial narrative, market strategy, and cross-cultural exchange.
Shuhan Zhang, founder of CHINCHINART, M.A. in Visual Arts Administration from New York University, B.A. in Art Theory from the Central Academy of Fine Arts. She works at the intersection of digital art, cultural platforms, and the art market, with experience in exhibitions at UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Tank Shanghai, and Eli Klein Gallery. Her research examines audience experience in technologically mediated contexts, platform mechanisms, and emerging collector behavior. Through CHINCHINART, she advances experimental curatorial practices in multifunctional spaces, fostering dialogue between new-generation artists and audiences.
About CHINCHINART
CHINCHINART is an international curatorial platform committed to experimental and site-specific art. Through organizing art talks, workshops, and experimental exhibitions, the platform fosters intuitive, participatory encounters between art and its audience. Its programs aim to break down institutional boundaries and encourage engagement that is personal, interactive, and contextually grounded.
CHINCHINART supports emerging artists, facilitates interdisciplinary collaboration, and explores how contemporary art can critically respond to social issues. By bridging local contexts with global dialogues, the platform promotes community-based practice and cultural exchange, reimagining the role of art in public space and social life.
About Symora Art
Symora Art is a contemporary art institution exploring life, selfhood, and the structure of soul consciousness. Through exhibitions, publishing, and curatorial projects, we examine how personal experience intersects with social systems and inner worlds. Symora Art advocate for methodology-driven, interdisciplinary practices—combining art, philosophy, psychology, and the humanities—to explore art’s role in cognitive construction. Symora Art serves as a platform connecting artists, curators, researchers, and the public, fostering critical inquiry, multidimensional thinking, and reflective cultural production.
(text & photo courtesy of CHINCHINART & Symora Art )
