Returning to Flow:
For Those Who Faded into the City’s Rhythm
May 3 - June 1, 2025
Alicia Han, Anlan Zhu, Boo Chen, Bbblob, Cami Sizhe Liu, Jojo Zhong, Kexin Zhang, Lan Luo, Laney Lai, Nuohan Jiang, Maja, Mamak, Ruyang Gao, Sharon Yalan Li, Sitong Liu, Wenjing Yang, Xinyu Liu, Xumeng Zhang, Ying Xiong, and Yushan Guo.
Flowing Space is pleased to announce the group exhibition Returning to Flow curated by Gigi An. Featuring artworks from Alicia Han, Anlan Zhu, Boo Chen, Bbblob, Cami Sizhe Liu, Jojo Zhong, Kexin Zhang, Lan Luo, Laney Lai, Nuohan Jiang, Maja, Mamak, Ruyang Gao, Sharon Yalan Li, Sitong Liu, Wenjing Yang, Xinyu Liu, Xumeng Zhang, Ying Xiong, and Yushan Guo.
In a world full of order and norms, we are often bound by the eyes and judgments of the outside world and sometimes even by rules or restraints given by ourselves. Gradually, we lose our spark in the loop of fast-paced life and struggles, suppressing our true emotions and personalities, and eventually becoming inactive and monotonous. However, rules and frameworks are not the opposite of freedom; they can also catalyze creativity.
Flowing Space gallery invites artists to build a space to release pressure and return to their true being. Through their works, they can showcase diverse ways of exercising artistic spirit and individuality, exploring established rules and frameworks with the power of imagination and emotion. Together, we aim to redefine the meaning of liberation and constraints, and to reinvigorate dormant and lost lives.
For further information and inquiries, please contact:
flowingessencespace@gmail.com and cc zchen.art@gmail.com
Press Release
Returning to Flow: For Those Who Faded into the City's Rhythm
The exhibition is curated by Gigi An
Flowing Space Gallery, 16 Clinton St, New York, 10002
Nestled in Manhattan's vibrant Lower East Side, Flowing Space Gallery presents Returning to Flow, a compelling group exhibition featuring 19 emerging artists who explore liberation through constraint across painting, illustration, digital media, printmaking, and installation. This thought-provoking show examines how creative expression flourishes within - and ultimately transcends - the rigid frameworks of urban life and societal expectations.
The exhibition opens with reflections on urban existence. Lan Luo's New York Nooks series reveals intimate, overlooked spaces where the artist finds comfort from the city's relentless pace. Wenjing Yang presents three powerful works: New York and Chinatown employ strong architectural framing to capture both the physical and emotional boundaries of city life, while Unsafe transports viewers back to pandemic isolation through a composition that transforms protective barriers into suffocating cages. Jojo Zhong contributes her introspective series Farming, Hot Spring, and Adventurer, which juxtapose nostalgic rural imagery with her experiences of alienation in New York, creating visual dialogues between personal experience and present displacement. Sitong Liu's Escape from the Museum triptychs reanimate institutional collections through three startling sequences - Taxidermy & Jewelry, Asian Art, and Egyptian Art. Her illustrations show curated displays breaking free from curated by rules and order start to resist their stillness. The carefully framed displays become portals to movement and story.
Floret (2024) by Boo Chen
Several artists engage deeply with identity and the female experience. Xumeng Zhang's Bananuck series follows the journey of an original character navigating assimilation and self-discovery in metropolitan spaces. Kexin Zhang's Swimming Pool presents luminous, liquid depictions of the female form that subtly incorporate elements of BDSM aesthetics to examine power dynamics and bodily autonomy. Boo Chen challenges cultural objectification through her works - Teenage Girls Breast, Phalaenopsis, and Floret - which recontextualize feminine iconography through a contemporary lens. Alicia Han's The Ordeal depicts a heroic female figure breaking free from internalized constraints, serving as an allegory for personal empowerment.
The exhibition takes a conceptual turn with works that manipulate time and perception. Xinyu Liu's Fool's Hour, a whimsical Ferris wheel clock installation, dismantles conventional timekeeping through its non-functional design and Tarot-inspired symbolism. Laney Lai's New Mexico diptych merges photography with digital sculpture, embedding organic forms within desert landscapes to question boundaries between reality and imagination. Nuohan Jiang contributes two ethereal paintings, Passing Through An Ancient Dream and Whispering Breath, that blend cosmic imagery with meditative stillness to create portals between inner and outer worlds.
Object Not Found (2024) by Cami Sizhe Liu
Contemporary approaches to materiality and process feature prominently. Bbblob's mixed-media works employ soft gradients and layered woodcuts to visualize the fluid self, while Ying Xiong's Entangled series translates 3D modeling into intricate 2D compositions that pulse between structure and dissolution. Cami Sizhe Liu presents Object Not Found, a striking series that begins with street photography but through digital manipulation becomes abstract studies of texture and mood. Ruyang Gao's Self-Portrait diptych - a masterful interplay of strict geometry and organic imperfections that maps the artist's evolving relationship with control and spontaneity.
Returning to Flow ultimately presents a vibrant tapestry of artistic responses to contemporary constraints. From the psychological weight of urban life to the liberation found in material experimentation, these works collectively argue that true creativity often emerges not in spite of limitations, but through dynamic engagement with them.
Exhibition Dates: May 3rd to June 1st, 2025
Opening Reception: May 3rd
Location: Flowing Space Gallery, 16 Clinton St, Lower East Side, NYC
Gallery Hours: Noon to 7 PM (Wednesday to Sunday)
Contact: flowingessencespace@gmail.com