Wallace Chan - Vessels of Other Worlds

Wallace Chan Vessels of Other Worlds Long Museum (West Bund), Shanghai 18 July – 25 October 2026 Dual-Site Exhibition at the Chapel of Santa Maria della Pietà, Venice, and Long Museum, Shanghai (2026) Renowned artist Wallace Chan will unveil Vessels of Other Worlds , his most ambitious and visceral project to date, in a landmark dual-site exhibition across Venice and Shanghai in 2026, coinciding with his 70th birthday. Curated by James Putnam, this major exhibition introduces a striking new series of monumental titanium sculptures, expanding both the spatial and conceptual dimensions of Chan’s practice. Following the success of his three previous exhibitions during the Venice Biennale – Titans (2021) and Totem (2022) at Fondaco Marcello; and the Brian Eno-soundscaped Transcendence (2024) at the Chapel of Santa Maria della Pietà, which attracted over 30,000 visitors in just three months, Vessels of Other Worlds marks a bold new chapter in the artist’s oeuvre.

The first exhibition opens on 8 May 2026 at the Chapel of Santa Maria della Pietà, coinciding with the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. The second and parallel exhibition will open at the Long Museum, Shanghai, on 18 July 2026. The exhibition in Venice will feature three titanium sculptures inspired by the Olea Sancta , the three sacred oils used in Catholic blessing rituals.

Positioned on the altar of the Pietà Chapel, three video screens form a triptych, acting as a secret portal to reveal the monumental counterparts on view at the Long Museum. Symbolising the three stages of life – birth, growth, and death – these intricate, fantastical forms draw inspiration from Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights . Surrounding the three central works, a constellation of suspended titanium sculptures suggests oil drops in motion, imbuing the chapel with a sense of fluidity and transcendence.

At the Long Museum, Shanghai, visitors will encounter the same three vessels on a dramatically larger scale, standing at seven, eight, and ten metres high. The central sculpture will feature a doorway, inviting audiences to step inside and experience its kaleidoscopic interior, with mirrored apertures referencing Chan’s celebrated gemstone-carving technique, the Wallace Cut. Works from Chan’s earlier Venice exhibitions including the Brian Eno–soundscaped Transcendence , as well as Titans and Totem , will also be presented, creating a dialogue that connects the two cities conceptually and experientially.

Footage of the two exhibitions will be transmitted to both sites, offering audiences a portal to the vessels of the other world. Wallace Chan says, “ Both Venice and Shanghai are closely tied to water, its changing states, and its capacity to hold, re fl ect, and transform. Vessels of Other Worlds is my way of unfolding a tale of two cities through the reimagination of fl uidity and form.

I am grateful to my curator James Putnam and to the Long Museum for their con fi dence in and support of my work .” These vessels are containers of memory, spirit, and transformation; sculpted and carved in the material closest to eternity, titanium. Like water, they hold what cannot be held -- moments, emotions, the passage of time. By placing them in two distinct spaces, I hope to create a dialogue between distant places and between our inner and outer worlds, inviting viewers to contemplate the cycle of birth, growth, and death, and to imagine that beyond these passages lie other worlds yet to be discovered .”