The Periodic Table and Integrated Circuits: Vernon Fisher and Wen Zhongyan 文中言
Curated by Dr. Dacia Xu and re-presented in 2026, The Periodic Table and Integrated Circuits pairs
Wen Zhongyan’s memorials to old Beijing with Vernon Fisher’s absurdist paintings of charts, codes, and diagrams. Newly prescient in an era when information systems are increasingly integral to everyday life, the exhibition considers these same systems and structures as a visual language and medium for emotional experience.
Wen Zhongyan’s prints and paintings examine disappearance and ephemerality, layering photographs of Beijing landmarks with circuit-board diagrams and pre-Mao maps of the city. Following the destruction of historic hutong structures near Beijing’s Forbidden City and city wall demolition in 1950, Wen began a ritual of photographing the city’s remaining landmarks at dusk. The resulting photographs, illuminated by the glowing lights of Beijing’s rapid modernization, resemble living blueprints. Wen’s screen-printed additions overlay harmoniously, producing an image that oscillates between blueprint, motherboard, and mnemonic.
Vernon Fisher turns systems of organization—tables, grids, charts, and codes—into structures for absurdity. In works such as April, he uses the format of the periodic table to spell out the opening line of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land: “April is the cruellest month.” The diagram appears to promise a key to the image beneath it, but this promise is a deliberate misdirect: rather than decoding the scene, it further obscures it. Using the visual language of primary school worksheets, data, and digital imagery, Fisher assembles densely coded compositions that appear instructive while actively impeding interpretation.
In both cases, the works in The Periodic Table and Integrated Circuits are contingent on the cultural authority of informational forms. Whether the systems are tied to memory and urban demolition or made into frameworks for semiotic jokes, both bodies of work demonstrate new ways to relate to systems. Presented in Silicon Valley, the exhibition offers a more human view of information, entangled with memory, humor, loss, and misreading.
41 1/2 x 44 in
VERNON FISHER
O Frankie, 2017
Acrylic on laminated paper
April, 2019
VERNON FISHER
Acrylic on canvas
44 x 48 x 1.5 in
WEN ZHONGYAN
07272011 Corner Tower of the Forbidden City (Dusk) 07272011故宫角楼 [傍晚], 2013
Screenprint on paper, AP (Edition of 15)
37.01 x 60.24 in | Framed: 46 x 68 in
WEN ZHONGYAN
Shichahai 2009.10.5
什刹海2009.10.5, 2010
Acrylic on canvas, screen print
47.24 x 55.12 in
VERNON FISHER
b. 1943, Fort Worth, Texas; d. 2023
Education
1969 MFA, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1967 BA, English Literature, Hardin-Simmons University
Selected Awards and Honors
Dallas Contemporary Legend Award
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship
Distinguished Teaching of Art Award, College Art Association
Awards in the Visual Arts, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art
Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant
National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship
University Fellow in Art, University of Illinois
Selected Exhibitions
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, IL
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston, TX
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL
La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, TX
Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
The Meadows Museum, Dallas, TX
El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX
Orange County Museum of Art, CA
Selected Public Collections
Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, T
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, IL
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Education
WEN ZHONGYAN 文中言
b. 1971, Yuncheng, Shanxi Province, China; Lives and works in Beijing, China
2010 MFA, Department of Painting, Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
1997 BA, Department of Printmaking, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China
Academic Positions
Professor, Department of Painting, Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University
Chair, Department of Painting, Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University
Doctoral Supervisor, Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University
Vice Director, International Printmaking Research Institute, Central Academy of Fine Arts
Selected Public Collections
National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China
Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing, China
CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, China
China Artists Association
Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, Shanghai, China
Shanghai University, Shanghai, China
Jiangsu Art Museum, Jiangsu, China
Hubei Museum of Art, Wuhan, China
Chongqing Art Museum, Chongqing, China
Inner Mongolia Museum, Hohhot, China
Guan Shanyue Art Museum, Shenzhen, China
Shenzhen Fine Art Institute, Shenzhen, China Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
Selected Exhibitions
National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China
Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
National Museum of China, Beijing, China
Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China
Tsinghua University Art Museum, Beijing, China
China Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, Shanghai, China
China Printmaking Museum, Shenzhen, China
Hubei Museum of Art, Wuhan, China
Hubei Institute of Fine Arts, Wuhan, China
CAA Art Museum, Hangzhou, China
Futian Art Museum, Shenzhen, China
Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Chongqing, China
Chongqing Art Museum, Chongqing, China
Tanggu Museum, Tianjin, China
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Qualia Contemporary Art, Palo Alto, CA
QUALIA CONTEMPORARY ART
Praised by renowned art historian Alexander Nemerov as “a hidden gem in Silicon Valley,” Qualia Contemporary Art presents a diverse program of emerging and established artists working across a wide range of media and is dedicated to facilitating dialogue between Asian and international contemporary practices.
Since opening in Fall 2020, the gallery has mounted over 30 exhibitions: highlights from these presentations include the U.S. debuts of Pan Hsinhua, Lyu Peng, and Xu Hongming; local artists like Younhee Paik, Stella Zhang, Nick Dong, and Joe Ferriso; and internationally-recognized artists including Paul DeMarinis, Guillermo Galindo, Yang Jiechang, and Wang Tiande.
The gallery has also collaborated with leading Chinese artists such as Xu Bing, Wang Dongling, Gu Wenda, and Gu Gan, as well as with prominent scholars including Alexander Nemerov, Richard Vinograd, Ouyang Jianghe, and Xie Xiaoze.
