{"id":491119,"date":"2026-06-09T18:55:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T18:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/491119\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T18:55:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T18:55:12","slug":"wallace-chan-exhibitions-pair-intricate-sculptures-with-venetian-heritage-the-art-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/491119\/","title":{"rendered":"Wallace Chan exhibitions pair intricate sculptures with Venetian heritage – The Art Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wallace Chan<\/a>, the Hong Kong-based jeweller and sculptor, has taken over two of Venice\u2019s most distinctive historic sites for a dual presentation timed to this year\u2019s Venice Biennale<\/a>, bringing his titanium sculptures into dialogue with the city\u2019s heritage.<\/p>\n

Chan is a jeweller known for contemporary pieces that blend traditional stones and settings with unique shapes and colours inspired by nature. Decades before he began working in jewellery, he practiced traditional stone carving in Hong Kong, using minerals like jade to carve classic Chinese subjects. He began working in jewellery in 2011 after a six-month hiatus he spent studying as a Buddhist monk. The dual presentation in Venice, which opened during the Venice Biennale’s vernissage week, blends Chan\u2019s experience in sculpture, jewellery-making and spirituality.<\/p>\n

At Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo, the 15th-century Venetian palazzo famed for its multi-storey spiral staircase, Chan presents Mythos, a site-specific installation of suspended sculptures that draws inspiration from Venetian Renaissance painting and classical mythology. Mounted along the building\u2019s exterior loggia are four sculptures exploring cosmology through the lens of Tintoretto\u2019s The Three Graces and Mercury (1576-77), which hangs in the Doge\u2019s Palace. In Tintoretto\u2019s allegorical composition, the Three Graces\u2014symbols of beauty and joy\u2014flank Mercury, the god of commerce and travel, celebrating Venice\u2019s prosperity and maritime power.<\/p>\n

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The famous spiral staircase at Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo. Photo by Federico Sutera<\/p>\n

Chan, who through an interpreter told The Art Newspaper he has been fascinated by the myth for much of his life, has reimagined the figures from their classical idealised nude depictions. Instead, the Three Graces appear as twisting, abstract faces, while Mercury is transformed into a celestial body. Chan says he wanted to show the spirit and beauty of the mind over the physical form. The distorted faces appear to dissolve through motion, suggesting an endless process of transformation. Chan compares this perpetual movement to the spiral staircase itself, making the shapes a metaphor for an unending pursuit.<\/p>\n

The cosmological aspects of the installation also engage with the building\u2019s lesser-known scientific importance\u2014because of its commanding height above much of the Venetian skyline, the tower served as an astronomical observation point during the 19th century. The German astronomer Ernst Wilhelm Tempel made several discoveries from its rooftop, including a comet and a nebula.<\/p>\n

Inside the palazzo, three sculptures are suspended in dialogue with another Tintoretto masterpiece, Paradise. Hovering beneath the painted vision of heaven, the works are accompanied by a soundscape featuring recordings from Chan\u2019s Shanghai workshop, where the titanium forms are hammered and polished. The industrial sounds provide a striking counterpoint to the installation\u2019s ethereal atmosphere. In a separate gallery, a large quartz crystal is paired with a poem written and recited by Chan. The recording is softly broadcast through discreet speakers, noticeable only when visitors pass directly beneath them.<\/p>\n

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Chans’ sculptures and Tintoretto’s painting. Photo by Federico Sutera<\/p>\n

The exhibition is curated by James Putnam, who for decades has placed contemporary art in dialogue with historical collections, long before it became a common curatorial practice. While serving as curator of Egyptian antiquities at the British Museum, he began installing contemporary works alongside objects from the permanent collection, a move he says allowed the two sides to \u201cenergise each other\u201d.<\/p>\n

For Putnam, such juxtapositions are ultimately about broadening visitors\u2019 horizons. \u201cIt brings younger people into the museum and rejects (the idea of it) as a boring place that they\u2019re taken to when they’re at school,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The pairing of Chan\u2019s sculptures with Tintoretto\u2019s paintings emerged organically, Putnam says. He recalls seeing three of the works in Chan\u2019s Shanghai studio and immediately sensing their affinity with the Renaissance master\u2019s compositions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw three sculptures that I thought fit in really well in his studio in Shanghai, and then could have a dialogue with the Tintoretto painting. It all tied in really nicely in a kind of accidental way,\u201d he says. \u201cBut, you know with Mr Chan, of course, everything is connected.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Chan’s sculptures suspended inside the Chapel of Santa Maria della Piet\u00e0. Photo by Federico Sutera<\/p>\n

A 15-minute walk away, Chan\u2019s second presentation, Vessels of Other Worlds, occupies the Chapel of Santa Maria della Piet\u00e0, the prominent 18th-century sanctuary on Venice\u2019s waterfront in the Castello district. The church is perhaps equally familiar to Biennale visitors for its proximity to the Hotel Metropole, whose garden has long hosted vernissage parties during opening week.<\/p>\n

Chan previously exhibited at the chapel during the 2024 Venice Biennale. This year, he returns with three suspended sculptures inspired by sacred oil vessels used in Catholic rituals. Their biomorphic forms also draw on the fantastical, surreal imagery of Hieronymus Bosch, combining liturgical references with otherworldly visuals. The historical and spiritual significance of the chapel informed the installation, Chan says. His goal was for the sculptures to exist in harmony with the space, extending the site\u2019s historical resonance and the works\u2019 meaning.<\/p>\n

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Wallace Chan. Photo by EM Studio<\/p>\n

Each vessel stands approximately 1.5m high and offers a preview of a forthcoming exhibition at the Long Museum in Shanghai, opening on 18 July. There, the forms will be realised on a monumental scale as sculptures reaching up to 10m in height, large enough for visitors to enter and experience their revolving interiors. Together, the Venice presentations and the Shanghai project establish a dialogue between two cities, both shaped by maritime trade and cultural exchange. In both, water serves as a recurring conceptual thread, both as a reflective surface and as a force of transformation.<\/p>\n

The sculptures are fashioned from titanium, a material prized for its exceptional strength-to-weight ratio. For Chan, the metal carries a symbolic dimension as well. He regards titanium as the material closest to eternity, lending permanence to works preoccupied with cosmology, history and the passage of time, all major themes of his presentations.<\/p>\n

Wallace Chan: Mythos, until 18 October, Scala Contarini del Bovolo, VeniceWallace Chan: Vessels of Other Worlds, until 18 October, Chapel of Santa Maria della Piet\u00e0, VeniceWallace Chan: Vessels of Other Worlds, 18 July-25 October, Long Museum, Shanghai<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wallace Chan, the Hong Kong-based jeweller and sculptor, has taken over two of Venice\u2019s most distinctive historic sites…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,4197,61,60,210981,58077,74010],"class_list":["post-491119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-exhibitions","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-long-museum","tag-venice-biennale","tag-venice-biennale-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}