KWM Artcenter will present the Chinese artist Yan Lei’s latest art project “Color Wheel User Manuel” from 11.26 to 12.5 2019. The exhibition consists of two parts. Part one presents Yan Lei’s well known Color Wheel Series. Part two presents his latest art project entitled Color Wheel User Manuel which describes different aspects of the color wheels, including: images, documentary materials and paintings. His novel of the same name produced by Rêverie Company, will be launched at the same time.

In most of Yan Lei’s works, questioning living in an era of mass image making and how to play the Artworld game are key. Through creating an indeterminate expression of images，he examines the identity and ethical values behind the perception of the image itself. The Color Wheel Series has been a unique and important series of works by Yan Lei since 2002. He has exhibited at the Sai Te Museum, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Arken Museum of Modern Art, Robert Miller Gallery as well as the Guangzhou Triennial. This series uses a mathematical algorithm to arrange the 360 colors in the chromatogram, forming the logical sensibility and light effect of the tone itself.

In this exhibition, Yan Lei responds for the first time to the effect of his color wheel creation, and the interpretations of the interest and charm of color, circle and image. In the novel Color Wheel User Manuel , Yan Lei is described as an Academy of Fine Arts student who has accidentally learned to draw circles in Africa. The text reflects his fascination with color wheels with flamboyant language and a ridiculous storyline revealing the ambiguous relationship between artist identity, creative source and perception. Here, Color Wheel User Manuel is not only a self-confession, to some extent, but also the revelation of the actual creative process.

About the exhibition

Dates: Nov 26, 2019 – Dec 5, 2019

Venue: KWM Artcenter

Courtesy of the artist and KWM Artcenter.