Wei Libo, « Homemade », Paris

Born in 1994 in Lanzhou, China, Wei Libo belongs to a generation shaped by the rapid urbanization and economic upheavals of the 1990s. Having grown up in a rural environment before pursuing his studies at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, his work explores the tensions between modernity and tradition, disappearance and transmission. Through artisanal techniques such as ceramics, marquetry, and brasswork, he interrogates our relationship with objects, the notion of home, and memory, anchoring his practice in a materiality that preserves the imprint of gesture.

Having previously explored massive forms and the weight of absence in his exhibition at FRAC Île-de-France, he now chooses a different trajectory: Homemade no longer speaks of the lost home, but rather of the act of making, the pleasure of craftsmanship, and the material that bends under the hand yet rises in fragile equilibrium.

Everything begins with a gaze. A monumental wooden eye, leaning against a red brick wall, commands attention like a displaced architectural fragment, a vestige of a façade torn from another time. But is it truly an eye? Its contours oscillate between the frame of a mirror and the cutout of an ornament consigned to oblivion. It seems to observe, to wait, to contain within itself the memory of a vanished space. The artist’s hand has traced each curve, sculpting it to human scale, engaging his entire body in the labor of wood. The realization of this piece necessitated collaboration with master artisans, a process that extends his commitment to traditional craftsmanship and the transmission of ancestral techniques. Nearby, a sculpted branch converses with a ceramic form resting at its extremity, while a small brass-rimmed eye, as precious as an amulet, keeps silent vigil over the space. This first room echoes a universe of archaic forms and imaginary architectures, where each element seems to hover in suspension.

The second room unfolds another relationship to scale — one of delicate, precious objects emancipated from any functional purpose. Here, a marquetry piece from which a branch bearing two apples emerges; there, a brass grain of rice, its altered scale transfiguring it into an abstract sculpture reminiscent of Arp’s organic forms. These elements are not relics but fragments of an intimate history, objects meticulously sculpted in an effort to suspend time. Two folded-paper bowls, placed on the windowsill, cradle peach pits, patiently carved in wood. The peach evokes childhood memories, a sensation of joy and simplicity, fleeting yet indelible moments inscribed in sensory recollection. Here, it becomes an object of contemplation, a bridge between the personal and the sculptural, between private reminiscence and universal form. These objects, wrought with great care, serve no purpose other than to exist — to be seen, to resonate with memory.

At the heart of Homemade lies a dialogue between hand and memory, between the fragility of gestures and the density of materials. Wei Libo shapes a space where matter becomes remembrance, where the sheer presence of an object suffices to evoke the world. Between monumentality and the minuscule, between the eye that scrutinizes and the hand that shields, Homemade explores another mode of inhabiting space — one that resides in the delicacy of a single grain of rice, in the weight of an inverted scale, in the echo of wood polished with infinite patience. Far from nostalgic stasis, the exhibition unfolds as a sensory journey, a play of scales and textures wherein the past is redrawn through the pleasure of making.

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Wei Libo (born in 1994 in Lanzhou, China) lives and works in Paris. He graduated from the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris in 2024, where he studied in the studios of Petrit Halilaj, Alvaro Urbano, and Tatiana Trouvé.

His recent solo exhibitions include ‘Furniture & I’ at FRAC Île-de-France, Paris (2025) and ‘La lune était pleine hier’ at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris. In June 2025, he will be featured in the Statements sector of Art Basel, presented by Sans titre.

Wei Libo has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, including ‘L’art et la vie et inversement’ at Beaux-Arts de Paris (2025); ‘Gathering’, organized by Sans titre and Linseed Projects at Listenin HQ, Shanghai (2024); ‘Autohistorias’ and ‘CRUSH’ at the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Paris (2024); ‘Parasite’ at Zeto Art, Paris (2024); ‘Last Course’ (with Yahagi Ryota) at Asta-Ausstellungsraum, Düsseldorf (2023); ‘Boxenstopp’ at Es365, Düsseldorf (2022); and ‘Hemerocallis’ at Galerie RDV, Nantes (2020). His work was also showcased alongside Caroline Mesquita’s at Art-O-Rama, Marseille, in a collaboration between Union Pacific (London) and Sans titre (Paris) in 2024.

In 2024, Wei Libo was awarded the Prix des Amis des Beaux-Arts de Paris (Prix Khalil de Chazournes) and participated in the artist residency program at Villa Belleville, Paris.