Hard Goods: Eli Ping
Forthcoming exhibition
Overview
In Hard Goods, Eli Ping’s solo debut in the UK, the artist reimagines the history of sculpture with a new body of work that pushes the limits of materiality and form. These new works draw inspiration from his earlier Monocarp series, in which he transforms canvas into eerie, textured sculptures through a process of resin application and sandblasting, resulting in works that appear to defy gravity — hovering just above the ground while simultaneously slicing through the air, reaching towards the ceiling in a strikingly dynamic display of motion and stillness.
In Hard Goods, new floor-standing bronze works bypass the traditional mold making and lost wax processes used for millennia in bronze casting. Instead, Ping slashes, carves and twists expanses of foam fabric, creating unique forms that serve as a repository for molten bronze in a process of direct burnout. The resulting freestanding sculptures render silhouettes of calligraphic contours that are at once alluring and threatening.
Drawing inspiration from the bold materiality of John Chamberlain, the lyrical abstraction of Sam Gilliam, and the elemental purity of modernists like Brancusi and Giacometti, Eli Ping weaves a visual language that is at once deeply contemporary and timeless. At the core of his work lies a meditative exploration of light, shadow, and texture—an approach that transcends the visual to tap into the philosophical and spiritual. His compositions are guided by a reverence for balance and harmony, achieved through his meticulous attention to proportion and his fervent investigation of how materials speak to one another.
The eternal dance between beauty and violence forms the heartbeat of Ping’s practice, and nowhere is this tension more delicately revealed than in his latest ensemble: a suite of five oil paintings that shimmer with a soft power. At a glance, the works appear as kindred forms—subtle variations within a shared rhythm. Each painting unfolds like a whispered secret, built from hundreds of layered gestures, each stitch and breath of color bearing the weight of intention. The surface pulses with restraint and release, as hues melt into one another with near-imperceptible shifts, inviting the eye to wander, to question and to feel.
Hard Goods marks a pivotal moment in Ping’s practice, It displays the full breadth of his work in sculptures, low reliefs, and paintings made using diverse materials including cast iron, bronze, resin, wax, oil paint, and cotton. In each series and piece, Ping pushes the boundaries of medium against and into each other, blending raw industrial elements with delicate, tactile textures. Ping’s practice is a study in interconnectedness, where opposing forces aren’t merely juxtaposed but brought into dialogue. The interplay between light and dark, rough and smooth, tension and ease—each duality is treated not as a conflict to be resolved, but as an opportunity to explore the quiet rhythms that bind the physical to the metaphysical. Through his mastery of nuance, Ping allows a natural flow to emerge—one that feels less constructed than conjured, as though the materials themselves were guided by unseen currents.
Hard Goods is Ping’s ultimate bravery, one that has the courage of simplicity, stripping the materials and the forms to their very core, thus displaying the most universal feelings.
