NADA New York 2026: Booth #C15

Returning to NADA New York 2026, LATITUDE Gallery is excited to exhibit the new body of works by artist Shangfeng Zhang.

Zhang’s practice unfolds, within a curatorial framework developed by Xumeng Zhang, at the intersection of contemporary life and the lingering afterimage of ancient myth, forming a field shaped by solitude and estrangement. Rather than engaging with myth through grand narratives or heroic figures, he brings it into the present, locating it within the textures of everyday life. His paintings attend to moments of subtle instability, where the ordinary begins to feel unsettled, as if hovering at the threshold of perception.

The figures in his paintings remain engaged in the gestures of daily life, yet their expressions are distant and withdrawn. Their inner states are only perceptible through slight shifts in expression, producing a condition of quiet and almost deliberate detachment. In contrast, the external environments present a fluidity that is closer to reality: In the distance, people interact, waves rise in the sea breeze, flowers bloom in vases, and books lie open across tabletops. Working in oil, Zhang develops a dense and grounded surface quality. His paintings are rendered in a subdued yet delicate palette, giving the works a sense of weight that appears both solid and softly rounded. Those unresolved, intimate yet slightly estranged emotions gradually emerge through the details of the environment.

Across the works, the figures share a visual resemblance that subtly recalls the artist himself, introducing a self-referential perspective while pushing the relationship between individual experience and the external world toward a more internal dimension. Within this structure, the environment does not function as a narrative setting but as a space that holds emotional delay. Familiar objects loosen from their fixed meanings and take on a quiet symbolic charge, while still remaining grounded in reality. Through this process, the figures turn inward, sustaining a continuous reflection on their relation to the world, and inhabiting a state that is at once connected and distanced.

This heightened inwardness gives rise to a psychological condition marked by stillness and suspension. The figures are not simply isolated from the world, but maintain a measured distance through an intensified awareness of self. In this sense, Shangfeng Zhang's work reflects a broader philosophical position. Myth does not return as a fixed narrative, but persists as an emotional echo and a state of waiting. It allows the individual to remain in an open and unresolved relationship with the world through inner perception.