Wallace Chan: Vessels of Other Worlds – A Dual-Site Exhibition in Venice and Shanghai
Wallace Chan /Vessels of Other Worlds / ShanghaiLong Museum West BundJul 18 – Oct 25, 2026 VeniceSanta Maria Della PietàMay 8 – Oct 18, 2026 wallace-chan.com This July, Wallace Chan: Vessels of Other Worlds arrives at Long Museum West Bund in Shanghai after opening in Venice at the Chapel of Santa Maria della Pietà on 8 May 2026. Curated by James Putnam, the dual-site exhibition unfolds in the year of Chan’s 70th birthday. The Shanghai presentation gives the project its largest form. Three titanium vessels, rising to approximately seven, eight and ten metres, will occupy the galleries of Long Museum West Bund. Their scale changes the conditions of viewing. What appeared in Venice within the charged intimacy of a sacred space becomes, in Shanghai, a set of environments large enough to enter, circle and inhabit. The vessels are organised around birth, growth and rebirth, and take inspiration from Olea Sancta, or sacred oil. In religious tradition, sacred oil is associated with purification, protection, consecration and spiritual continuity. Chan does not illustrate these associations directly. Instead, he treats …









