Bu Shi (born 1993, Chuxiong, Yunnan Province, China) lives and works in Ravena, Italy.
Bu Shi often works on small-scale canvases. His muted and aged palette conjures up antique jewelry—delicately exquisite while bearing traces of use. Seal engraving and calligraphy that blossomed in his formative years have played a foundational role in his art. Living in Italy, he taps into primordial memories, using occult objects as keys to connect with people of old. To Bu Shi, only in the face of occultism can we dissociate or illuminate our cultural identities that are beyond our choosing. Shaping indescribable objects or sketching the extremely unnatural play of light, he seeks to present us with a sense of dissonance. If it prevails, we will discern a fleeting glimpse of occultism amid the scattered dissonance, much like awakening at twilight from a prolonged midday nap.
Bu Shi graduated in painting at Sichuan University, College of Fine Arts in China, and in 2020, he obtained a master’s degree in Visual Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna. Among his solo exhibitions, we remember those at Double Double Gallery in Beijing, CAR Gallery in Bologna, and MOUart Gallery in Beijing. Group exhibitions include “The Darkest Hour” at the SARAHCROWN gallery in New York and “Le jardin des délices” at the Claire Gastaud gallery in Paris, both in 2024. In 2023, he exhibited at the Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation in Venice on the occasion of the exhibition “Ettore Fico - Contemporary Dialogues. An artist, a museum, a collection”. In 2022 he exhibited at the CAR DRDE gallery in the group show “Sine Qua Non” curated by Maura Pozzati on the occasion of the eighth edition of Opentour - Art is coming out (in collaboration with Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna), receiving the honorable mention of the Critics and Collectors Award (Zucchelli Foundation in Bologna) for the work The egg of the world.
CV
Exhibitions/Fairs with the Gallery
The Darkest Hour, SARAHCROWN New York | October 2024
