Five new exhibitions opened on Nov 12 at Shanghai's chic K11 art museum, inviting visitors to immerse themselves in a vibrant season of contemporary art. Spanning painting, textile, and video installation, the presentations explore themes from personal memory and spiritual belonging to digital overload and ecological imagination.

🎨 Permanent Green

📅 When: Until Feb 1, 2026

Permanent Green is Los Angeles-based artist Hayley Barker's second solo exhibition in China, featuring 11 new paintings. The title comes from the name of a pigment and reflects the many shades of green Barker mixes in the works — from deep to delicate, muted to saturated — drawing viewers into a world shaped by this color.

Inspired by landscape masters such as Charles Burchfield, Gustav Klimt, and Les Nabis, Barker reimagines nature as a living, spiritual force. The exhibition becomes a contemplative space, paying tribute to the people who enrich our lives and to the land that sustains us.

🎨 Isolated Paradise

📅 When: Until March 1, 2026

Isolated Paradise brings together 18 artists from China, Europe, and Africa to explore how individuals preserve inner space in an era of speed and information saturation. Through painting, works on paper, ink, sculpture, and video installation, the artists view the mind as a "habitable island" suspended between reality and the spirit.

"Isolated" and "paradise" are not opposing ideas; together they evoke the search for resonance within solitude and for order within chaos, redefining the boundaries of being.

🎨 The Whale Song of Days Past

📅 When: Until March 1, 2026

British artist Christopher Orr presents a series of recent paintings in The Whale Song of Days Past, continuing his exploration of time, memory, and human perception. Orr often draws from historical photographs, old magazines, or film stills, reconfiguring them into floating, dreamlike realities on canvas.

Light, color, and time interweave in his works, creating moments that feel like deja vu. These cinematic paintings extend the tradition of British figurative art while reflecting on today's flood of images and the erosion of memory.

🎨 Sublime Theatre

📅 When: Until Dec 7, 2025

Sun Yao's solo exhibition, Sublime Theatre, questions and reimagines the human-nature relationship. His works convey dynamic energy while creating an almost overwhelming psychological intensity — transcending pure lyricism to reveal complex emotional shifts.

Through his paintings, Sun confronts viewers with the abyss of existence. In an age fragmented by information overload, he asks: Can we still awaken an authentic inner tremor, a true sense of transcendence?

🎨 Unravel

📅 When: Until Dec 7, 2025

Unravel brings together works by Talia Levitt and Kieren Karritpul, who use textiles and fiber-based media to explore memory, identity, and personal experience. The title suggests a dual act: the "weaving" of cultural meaning, and the "unraveling" of fixed assumptions to reveal narratives hidden beneath the surface.

Their practice reflects a philosophy that both honors tradition and resists convention. Navigating inherited artistic systems, the artists offer intimate perspectives on their inner worlds, where persistence is woven into both canvas and consciousness.

If you go

📍 Where: B3, K11 Mall, chi K11 art museum, No 300 Middle Huaihai Road, Huangpu district

🕐 Open: Daily from 10 am to 8 pm

🎫 Ticket price:

• Permanent Green: 38 yuan ($5.35)
• Isolated Paradise & The Whale Song of Days Past: 48 yuan (each)
• Theater of the Sublime & Unravel: Free admission
• Five-show pass: 70 yuan

📱 Ticket purchase: Available on-site or via Damai, Dianping, and other platforms

Source: chi K11 art museum