Chito X Wu Yué: Always Change, Never Change

  •  This July, OMNI is thrilled to present a two-person exhibition with Mexican American artist CHITO (b.1996) and Chinese born Parisian artist Wu Yué (伍⽉) (b.1983). Working both together and individually, Always Change, Never Change will be the artist’s debut in London and their first time to make work collaboratively.

  • Born in Seattle, Mexico City based artist CHITO gained notoriety from a young age with his distinguishable tags in the...

     

    Born in Seattle, Mexico City based artist CHITO gained notoriety from a young age with his distinguishable tags in the streets of New York and Mexico City. Rooted in contemporary street culture, CHITO has become synonymous with his idiosyncratic abstract motifs and cartoon like-characters created using an airbrush. Renowned for his self-taught hallmark style, the artist’s aesthetic is equally influenced by street and graffiti cultures, as well as high fashion and contemporary art.

     

    Tracing the evolution of his work, CHITO first created his characters using traditional spray cans, tagging street walls. He transitioned his graffiti into the studio, and began to create canvases and works on paper with an airbrush, in a manner more akin to contemporary art. This too transitioned to high fashion as he customised high end luggage and garments using his airbrush graphics, acid etching and Dremel carving. Through this process, the artist forged numerous collaborations with fashion houses and brands to create one offs and capsule collections, notably Givenchy in 2022, Supreme in 2020 and Arc'teryx in 2021.

  • CHITO is perhaps most widely known for his Distance Pups – a series began in 2017 which outlines a malevolent cartoon-like dog set against a variety of backdrops. In Always Change, Never Change, the series is presented in an immense salon hang. The display will include a diverse array of media, including airbrush on canvas, stretched barbed wire as well as a custom-made canvas in the form of a Distance Pup and as wall mounted sculptures. For the first time, the artist will showcase a free-standing sculpture. Known as CHITO Pup, and wrought from concrete, this mischievous editioned pup stands guard as the epochal 2D works are brought to life. As with CHITO’s works more broadly, the sculpture is both alluring and menacing – a combination of seduction and malevolence which can be seen throughout the exhibition. 
  • Wu Yué’s diverse practise incorporates pop iconography with surrealist and beguiling forms. Born in Beijing, Wu Yué utilises a range...

    Wu Yué’s diverse practise incorporates pop iconography with surrealist and beguiling forms. Born in Beijing, Wu Yué utilises a range of media, including painting with bleach and inks as well as carvings, animation, and illustration. Often employing well known characters and references - from Manet’s Olympia to Casper the Friendly Ghost, and an obsession with dinosaurs going back to his youth – Wu Yué has crafted a signature style that reimagines his nuanced and varied upbringing.

     

    Wu was born at the Beijing Academy of Fine Art and spent the first 8 years of his life there as his famous artist grandfather worked as the Director to the Print Department. Wu Yué then moved to Paris to live with his family, where he would eventually obtain a degree in graphic design and animation from ENSAD (École National Supérieur des arts Décoratifs) from 2002-2007.

  • Wu Yué's practise can be seen as an act of redaction – of taking away and removal. Having encountered the academic style of painting prevalent in China at the time, and under the tutelage of his grandfather, Wu Yué set about creating a style of his own. Using bleach on heavy canvas, the artist creates scenes that incorporate the element of chance. As each brushstroke removes pigment from the ground, there is a sense of permeance with each gesture, the movement and moments he creates cannot be undone.

     

    Always Change, Never Change will present an ambitious installation as Wu carves and engraves the surface of a white BMW E30, to sit within the exhibition. The child of immigrants in the early 1990s, Wu Yué was fascinated with the riots of a Socialist France, in contrast to the strict rules governing Communist China that he had just left. Imagery of burning vehicles as a form of political protest left a deep impression on a young Wu Yué who rarely – if ever – saw a personal vehicle in 1980s Beijing. 

  • CHITO has previously exhibited in Seattle, New York City, Los Angeles, Toronto, Paris and Milan. His signature airbrushed tags have appeared in numerous collaborations and collections.

     

    Wu Yué has exhibited widely, including exhibitions in Chicago, Paris, Portland, Oregon and Tokyo. His animations and graphics have been used widely in commercial collaborations. Wu Yué’s lives and works in Paris with his family.