Unexpected Levitation

acrylic on canvas
h: 100, w: 100, d: 5 cm
2024

This artwork will be shipped after the exhibition < Everything Has A Cute Face > (2026.6.6-7.4 @ Gallery Nomart) has ended.

[Artist Statement]

Everything Has A Cute Face

The title came from something a foreign tourist said casually during one of my trips to Tokyo. Looking at the various mascots around the city, he laughed and said it — and the phrase stayed with me. It also turned out to speak directly to something I've long held at the center of my practice.

"Everything has a spirit" — the idea might seem to point toward mysticism, supernatural forces, or the energy of the natural world. But in the present moment, it maps onto something else entirely. Since the AI wave began in 2023, the boundaries of information have grown increasingly blurred. We find ourselves constantly asking: is this real, or is it generated? Data flows endlessly through servers and networks, as if the age of animism has quite literally arrived — as if everything is watching you.

As an artist, I feel a new kind of energy in this. Something is shifting, something new is about to emerge, and art will change along with it — my own work included.

Every exhibition at Nomart has been a space of experimentation for me, a place where I come away recharged. In Everything Has A Cute Face, what I want to convey is the tension between looking and being looked at. The one gazing back at you might be someone online, might be an AI, might be a presence from another dimension — or it might be yourself. I'm not sure. But what I do know is this: every gaze that meets yours has a cute face.

CHANG Tengyuan