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Solo Exhibition “Footprints Across The Ocean", Sept 3 to Dec 6, 2025
Opening Ceremony: Sept 3, 4:00 pm-6:00 pm, Panel Discussion: Oct 29, 4:00 pm-6:00 pm
Schmucker Art Gallery, Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania, USA
Gan Yu's Solo Exhibition "Footprints Across The Ocean"
GETTYSBURG COLLEGE
SCHMUCKER ART GALLERY, GETTYSBURG COLLEGE
“Footprints Across The Ocean” From Social Realism to Visual Realism
Works by Gan Yu
“足迹彼岸: 从社会主义现实主义到视觉现实主义” 美国葛底斯堡大学喻干作品展
Exhibition:
September 3 to December 6, 2025
Opening Ceremony / 开幕式:
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm
September 3, 2025
Panel Discussion / 学术研讨会:
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm
October 29, 2025
SCHMUCKER ART GALLERY, GETTYSBURG COLLEGE
“Footprints Across The Ocean” From Social Realism to Visual Realism
Works by Gan Yu
“足迹彼岸: 从社会主义现实主义到视觉现实主义” 美国葛底斯堡大学喻干作品展
Exhibition:
September 3 to December 6, 2025
Opening Ceremony / 开幕式:
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm
September 3, 2025
Panel Discussion / 学术研讨会:
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm
October 29, 2025
Gan Yu's Artworks from 1980 to 2025, 45 Years and 348 Panels
New York artist Gan Yu’s Wall Street Series is a long-term creative project that, through artistic creation, describes and records the social emotions and stock market investment behaviors of specific periods. The shifting curves of the stock market are the traces of social activity shaped by the individual actions of every investor.
From an artistic perspective, Gan Yu sees stock market fluctuations as an ever-changing, never-ending form of social performance art. Over nearly 20 years, he has documented market data along with technological, economic, and financial information, transforming the resulting wave-like curves and blocks of color into visual artworks imbued with real social meaning.
The Wall Street Series embodies the artist’s unique perspective and artistic experimentation. To date, the series comprises 10 independent projects and more than 1,000 works.
From an artistic perspective, Gan Yu sees stock market fluctuations as an ever-changing, never-ending form of social performance art. Over nearly 20 years, he has documented market data along with technological, economic, and financial information, transforming the resulting wave-like curves and blocks of color into visual artworks imbued with real social meaning.
The Wall Street Series embodies the artist’s unique perspective and artistic experimentation. To date, the series comprises 10 independent projects and more than 1,000 works.
Exhibition Opening Speeches: Dr. Sarah Gillespie
Acknowledgments from Exhibition Catalogue:
This exhibition would not be possible without wide support across campus. I would like to thank Yan Sun, Professor of Art History, for bringing Gan Yus work to my attention. The Art & Art History Department generously funded two summer research fellows via The Islan Endowment for the Visual Arts, courtesy of Greg Islan '70. These students, Westley Rathbun '27 and Md Nafisul Hasan Sami '27, each proposed and executed compelling research projects under the direction of myself and Professor Sun, the results of which are in this catalogue. Dr. Gan Yu was an essential partner in this show, generously making trips to campus and allowing myself, Professor Sun and Westley Rathbun to visit his home and studio in Queens, New York. These interactions, as well as his willingness and availability to answer questions and be interviewed by our students, were essential to making this show a success. I would like to thank Leslie Casteel, Administrative Assistant for Art & Art History, for organizing the logistical details of Dr. Yu's campus visits and the events associated with this show; John Kovaleski, preparator for the Schmucker Art Gallery, for his diligent work on the installation; and Marc Belli, Director of Creative Strategy for Gettysburg College, for the beautiful design of the catalogue and exhibition didactics. Presenting this exhibition is indicative of the type of interdisciplinary, experiential learning the Schmucker Art Gallery strives to achieve, and I once again thank both Gan Yu and the students for their partnership in allowing us to make those goals a reality.
Dr. Sarah Kate Gillespie
Director, Schmucker Art Gallery
This exhibition would not be possible without wide support across campus. I would like to thank Yan Sun, Professor of Art History, for bringing Gan Yus work to my attention. The Art & Art History Department generously funded two summer research fellows via The Islan Endowment for the Visual Arts, courtesy of Greg Islan '70. These students, Westley Rathbun '27 and Md Nafisul Hasan Sami '27, each proposed and executed compelling research projects under the direction of myself and Professor Sun, the results of which are in this catalogue. Dr. Gan Yu was an essential partner in this show, generously making trips to campus and allowing myself, Professor Sun and Westley Rathbun to visit his home and studio in Queens, New York. These interactions, as well as his willingness and availability to answer questions and be interviewed by our students, were essential to making this show a success. I would like to thank Leslie Casteel, Administrative Assistant for Art & Art History, for organizing the logistical details of Dr. Yu's campus visits and the events associated with this show; John Kovaleski, preparator for the Schmucker Art Gallery, for his diligent work on the installation; and Marc Belli, Director of Creative Strategy for Gettysburg College, for the beautiful design of the catalogue and exhibition didactics. Presenting this exhibition is indicative of the type of interdisciplinary, experiential learning the Schmucker Art Gallery strives to achieve, and I once again thank both Gan Yu and the students for their partnership in allowing us to make those goals a reality.
Dr. Sarah Kate Gillespie
Director, Schmucker Art Gallery
Exhibition Opening Speeches: Dr. Gan Yu
Gan Yu’s Artist Talk, Sept 3, 2025
Good afternoon. I am deeply grateful to the Gettysburg College Department of Art and Art History, the Schmucker Art Gallery and the curatorial team for providing me with the opportunity to exhibit my 348 panels of artworks created between 1980 and 2025, centered the global economic phenomena. These works include charcoal sketches of rural peasants, oil paintings of a small-town early morning market and construction sites, portraits of Wall Street and finance tycoons such as Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke and George Soros, depictions of the majestic landscapes shaped by the American stock market, dramatic visualizations of Dow Jones Industrial Average trading patterns, and vivid ink-and-color paintings capturing scenes and sentiments from the pandemic.
Spanning 45 years and moving between China and the United States, these artworks illustrate the lives of people from different generations and regions of the world. They reflect not only a distinctive artistic style and personal response to social changes, but also offer visual impressions of the world economy across its various cycles.
Many people have asked why I focus on the stock market as a recurring theme. My answer is that since 2007, I have devoted 18 years to exploring this subject matter through 10 different series, and showing them across the ocean many times. I’ve come to see the stock market as a visual distillation of contemporary politics, economics, technology, culture and arts. The U.S. stock market, in particular, serves as a barometer for the world economy.
I believe global financial markets symbolize the largest piece of collective action art in human history. From New York to London, Tokyo to Shanghai, markets operate in a continuous relay—day and night—never ceasing. This persistent activity electronically generates new patterns on stock charts every day, creating a living visual record of the uneven trajectory of modern economic and social developments.
Blending these streams of observations, thoughts and emotions into my artistic practice has pushed me to think differently and to discover new ways of image-making.
Gan Yu, PhD
Good afternoon. I am deeply grateful to the Gettysburg College Department of Art and Art History, the Schmucker Art Gallery and the curatorial team for providing me with the opportunity to exhibit my 348 panels of artworks created between 1980 and 2025, centered the global economic phenomena. These works include charcoal sketches of rural peasants, oil paintings of a small-town early morning market and construction sites, portraits of Wall Street and finance tycoons such as Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke and George Soros, depictions of the majestic landscapes shaped by the American stock market, dramatic visualizations of Dow Jones Industrial Average trading patterns, and vivid ink-and-color paintings capturing scenes and sentiments from the pandemic.
Spanning 45 years and moving between China and the United States, these artworks illustrate the lives of people from different generations and regions of the world. They reflect not only a distinctive artistic style and personal response to social changes, but also offer visual impressions of the world economy across its various cycles.
Many people have asked why I focus on the stock market as a recurring theme. My answer is that since 2007, I have devoted 18 years to exploring this subject matter through 10 different series, and showing them across the ocean many times. I’ve come to see the stock market as a visual distillation of contemporary politics, economics, technology, culture and arts. The U.S. stock market, in particular, serves as a barometer for the world economy.
I believe global financial markets symbolize the largest piece of collective action art in human history. From New York to London, Tokyo to Shanghai, markets operate in a continuous relay—day and night—never ceasing. This persistent activity electronically generates new patterns on stock charts every day, creating a living visual record of the uneven trajectory of modern economic and social developments.
Blending these streams of observations, thoughts and emotions into my artistic practice has pushed me to think differently and to discover new ways of image-making.
Gan Yu, PhD
Exhibition Opening Speeches: Westley Rathbun
"From Markets to Markets: Gan Yu’s Journey Across the Ocean" Westley Rathbun ’27
(Research Article from the Exhibition Catalogue)
GAN YU: AN INTERNATIONAL ARTIST
Doctor Gan Yu is no stranger to travel. His journey spans a rich tapestry of global education, immigration into the United States, and an expansive artistic career of forty-five years. He has encountered and depicted many landscapes: physical, social, and cultural. Through observation and experimentation, he evolved from his artistic roots in China to develop a distinctive style he calls Visual Realism, which seeks to blend the East and West artistically, and to discover shared cultural values and universal cultural emotions. Drawing on his extensive training in both the United States and China, Gan Yu creates cross-cultural artworks that explore everyday phenomena in novel and interesting ways. In this exhibition, Footprints Across the Ocean, the story of Gan Yu’s artistic journey is revealed through his artworks, spanning from the Socialist Realism of the early 1980s to his current Visual Realism.
FROM MARKETS TO MARKETS
Gan Yu was born in Shanghai, China in 1958. In 1966, eight years after Yu’s birth, China would experience a complete social upheaval, known as the Cultural Revolution, led by Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and the founder of the People’s Republic of China. The revolution fundamentally changed China’s political and social structure, ingraining itself deeply into national identity, cultural values, and everyday life. Its effect on Gan Yu’s early art would be no different. As a student in the Department of Art and Design at the Shanghai Institute of Technology (formerly Shanghai Light Industry College), Gan Yu created many sketches and paintings depicting life and people in rural and developing areas in China. One of his earlier oil paintings from 1982 features six villagers in line at a market stall [Cat. No. 3]. Yu’s painterly brushstrokes carefully outline and distinguish each detail in muted tones, only the villagers’ faded caps pop out amongst the yellows and greys of the natural background.
The painting was developed from an earlier sketch done on-site, when Yu and fellow college students would rush to the market early in the morning with pencils and charcoal to create sketches [Cat. No. 2]. The sketch is visually similar to the painting, with more villagers portrayed, and one facing toward the viewer. The sketch uses overlapping lines and contours to create depth and movement, enhancing the busy and atmospheric market scene. During this period, Gan Yu also created many charcoal sketches depicting farmers and villagers. One sketch portrays a hundred-year-old elderly woman in charcoal [Cat. No. 4]. Her wispy grey hair is slicked upward away from her face, and deep charcoal lines and highlighted reliefs emphasize her deep wrinkles. Another sketch features an old man with facial hair looking off to the distance. His cap and coat are rendered in less detail than his expressive, aged face [Cat. No. 5].
In Yu’s early sketches and paintings done at the Shanghai Institute, the Socialist Realism style is apparent; years prior to Yu’s time at the Shanghai Institute of Technology, Mao had thought that artworks should reflect Communist ideals, being by, for, and of the people. 1 This resulted in the rise of Socialist Realism in China, an art style popularized by the Soviet Union. In the Soviet Union, Socialist Realism sought to depict the true nature of reality during revolutionary development. 2 As Socialist Realism reached China, although it was stylistically modified to suit Chinese subject matter during the Cultural Revolution, its purpose remained largely the same. “Western Art,” as it was called in Chinese universities, was an officially sanctioned style that intended to serve the people by providing the working class with realistic depictions of life that could be easily digested and understood. 3
After Mao’s death in 1976, the prevailing artistic style did not immediately fade. Under Chairman Deng Xiaoping, political restrictions on artistic expression remained, and the elements of Socialist Realism and “Western Art” continued to be taught into the 1980s. 4 However, this popular style was only a small part of Yu’s artistic development. His further studies in the United States and China enabled him to break away from Socialist Realism and cultivate a distinctive style that combines the East and West. Thirty years of life in New York City, combined with his global education, transformed Yu’s work conceptually and stylistically. His art echoes the elegance of Chinese paintings, particularly the use of ink and careful brushwork, while incorporating Western techniques of such as Expressionism to encourage interpretation and dialogue within the work. More than a stylistic fusion of East and West, Yu’s work seeks to uncover the emotional depth and philosophical resonance. 5
This approach is exemplified in Yu’s A Wall Street Diary series [Cat. No. 11]. 216 panels with ripped pieces of black paper pasted against a white background are arranged in a grid. Their rigid forms, which resemble cliffs or mountains, mimic traditional Chinese ink painting with their fluid, expressive nature. Some are drawn-on in pen, different colored ink and paint, and some even feature elements of collage, with pasted photographs and printed media excerpts. Each piece of paper is ripped and then cut to match stock market data from March 21, 2011, until March 27, 2012. Yu’s dedication to daily documentation in this work makes every aspect significant. Whether looking up-close or viewing the image as a whole, there are many things to ponder, learn, or question. Different world events and histories unfold within the facets of each panel, from the charts themselves to the copious notes written in Chinese and English which detail important global events, economic trends, and even excerpts from Yu’s personal life. For instance, the panel from October 5th, 2011 states: “Steve Jobs, a true visionary, dies today at age 56.” The Apple company logo is featured twice in the panel. Following Jobs’ death from pancreatic cancer, Apple’s stock suffered a brief dip before rebounding the next day due to investors believing in Apple’s success. 6
The panel from the next day features a collaged photo of Steve Jobs from below overlooking the market data, the first use of a printed photograph in the work. One panel appears to show boats sailing across the “ocean” of data, with the peaks of the data appearing as mountains behind them. Within the piece is also evidence of the Occupy Wall Street movement one month after it started in September 2011, with a collaged image of protestors holding signs that say, “WALL STREET IS OUR STREET.” The protestors, who were advocating for economic equality, occupied an encampment in Zuccotti Park for almost three months. 7
A Wall Street Diary, with its use of language, symbolism, and journalism, cements itself as both a work of art and a detailed historical record. It can be understood globally, not just because of its use of both Mandarin and English, but because of its real economic, social, and cultural information that has affected all people since the beginning of globalization. Yu’s depiction of many different markets, places, and feelings throughout his career has allowed him to merge these influences into works of art with real global importance.
ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM: THE QUEST FOR EMOTION
Yu first studied Abstract Expressionism at Minnesota State University, Mankato. He was particularly inspired by the ability of artists like Jackson Pollock, and especially Willem de Kooning, to convey emotion and meaning without relying on realistic depiction. 8 The style erupted out of the United States in the 1940s and 1950s, and is often considered the first American art style that exerts international influence. 9 Artists rejected a cohesive style, using different levels of abstraction to express emotion and atmosphere in their artworks.10 Willem de Kooning, who is seen as one of the fathers of Abstract Expressionism, was a Dutch-born painter who emigrated to the United States in 1926. De Kooning often employed compositions of organic and geometric shapes to turn perception of the real world into an abstract image.11 Yu employs this technique often in his works, especially in the abstract city scenes in Windows [Cat. No. 18], or even the black “data mountains” and other aspects visible in many of Yu’s works, including A Wall Street Diary , The Dow Moments, GameStop Mania, and more [Cat. Nos. 11-13, 16-17].
Other Western art styles, like Minimalism, are clearly observable in Yu’s work. The Dow Moments demonstrates simplistic forms and a limited color palette to create a very conceptual work that is at the same time expressive and thought provoking. Yu often uses ink and other mediums to blend Western Expressionism with the controlled brushwork of the East, to create something new and unique. His style, which he calls “Visual Realism,” is distinctly his own. It is characterized by long-term documentation, abstraction, collage, and elements of traditional Chinese ink painting. This unique approach reflects Yu’s global education and travels, as well as his visual interpretation of the economy and stock market trends within his work.
OH, THE HUMANITY! GAMESTOP MANIA AND THEMES OF CRISIS
Three figures emerge from a grid of alternating numbers highlighted in green and yellow [Cat. Nos. 14-15]. Two of the men stare toward the viewer, the green and yellow numbers consuming them. Even their irises have been replaced by colored statistics. In the background, a man stands with his eyes closed and head tilted downward, overlapped by the face of the man in front of him. The three men pictured from left to right are financiers Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, and George Soros. They are emerging from stock market data detailing events during the financial crisis from 2008 to 2010. The 2008 financial crisis had a myriad of underlying causes but was partially triggered by bonds that were based on mortgages given to subprime lenders.12 These bonds were considered safe investments, and when the housing market declined, these bonds, which were widely held by banks, started to default.13
The three men represented in Memorandum Series #1: A Moment of History were prominent financial minds and instrumental figures during the crisis. The piece, and the busts of the men inside it, stand 81 inches, or around six feet tall. Their large, consuming bodies fight for space with the numbers around them; these were “kings,” as Yu would call them, from the top of stock market investors to the nation’s leading economists. George Soros, featured on the far right with the largest panel, is a multibillionaire financial investor and strategist. Greenspan and Bernanke both served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, with Bernanke taking the position in 2006 after serving as economic advisor for President George W. Bush. During an interview, Soros placed part of the blame for the crisis on Greenspan and his successor Bernanke; he claimed that there was a failure to recognize market problems within the Federal Reserve.14 However, the Federal Reserve under Bernanke did put in place measures in both bonds and federal transparency to remediate the crisis and push the United States away from economic collapse.15 Soros confidently looks off to the distance in his portrait with thick green and yellow numbers that create his tie and settle into the background behind him. Greenspan has a downward, defeated expression. Bernanke stares forward, stern, but slightly nervous, with the numbers around him scattered, unlike Soros. The emotional difference between the three figures creates turmoil within the image, reflecting the heavy task placed on Bernanke to mediate the crisis, and the heavy criticism and disagreements, oftentimes aimed at figures like Bernanke and Greenspan, from investors and economic minds like Soros.
Globally, the effects of the crash were devastating. Almost all the major European financial firms needed bailouts, some European nations responded to the crisis by cutting funding to key areas like healthcare, Asia’s exports dropped and economic growth slowed, and many more nations experienced fluctuations in commodity prices.16 Yu captures the chaotic emotions of this period, and the captivating cultural icons of the crisis through striking patterns, the data that runs wild throughout the piece, and the three “larger than life” figures that emerge from the abyss. The Memorandum series are not the only works by Yu that feature the theme of crisis; through his artistic documentation, he acknowledges disaster, crisis, and unexpected trends as a part of human life that needs to be recorded.
In GameStop Mania #1, a menacing black mountain emerges from the background. Made of ink instead of paper, the splotchy form spans two canvases, overlapping and intersecting with the three-dimensional faces that adhere to the work. A pile of pink faces line the bottom of the work, while grey faces that appear to be drowning in the canvas lie scattered across the top and middle. The GameStop short squeeze occurred when institutional investors began to sell off GameStop stock, predicting its decline.17 Personal investors from the Reddit community “Wall Street Bets,” led by user “Roaring Kitty,” (the online username for home investor Keith Gill) dramatically shifted the price of the stock by purchasing large numbers of shares; institutional investors bought back the stock to “cut their losses.”18
The pink masks at the bottom of the work represent the powerful institutional Wall Street investors. They are firmly placed and are less affected by the chaotic waves of ink around them. In contrast, the grey faces, the personal investors, appear unsteady, some fully submerged in the blotted-ink of the background. The black ink shows the chaotic nature of GameStop‘s stock price as the event unfolded. The outcomes of the GameStop event were mixed, with some investors succeeding while others suffered personal losses.19 No matter the outcome, the piece and its history represent the growing global influence of social media on long-standing systems, allowing for situations where the “sky can become the ground.” As social media has become a part of our everyday lives, it expands the influence and accessibility of financial investing on a worldwide scale. Standing up against “financial kings” like Soros, or even Bernanke and Greenspan, is more possible than ever. Although these people are familiar with the markets, appearing consumed by numbers in Memorandum #1, this work shows that they are not untouchable.
Yu further continues with the theme of disaster in Windows. Starting before the Covid-19 pandemic in 2016, evidence of the cultural shift caused by coronavirus slowly becomes apparent. Six panels of paper with ink, acrylic, watercolor, and gouache make up this series of alternative landscapes. Each panel presents a symbolic window view of different city landscapes, originally painted as backgrounds, and then updated with pandemic motifs during the lockdown in New York City. The works appear to be somewhat abstract, the first panel featuring colorful shapes and patterns in the background of a bridge drawn in ink. The second and third panel show evidence of buildings and roads. The Apple logo stands out in the third panel amongst a sea of differently colored numbers that make up each landscape. The fourth panel is perhaps the most interesting. Yellow taxis appear in the foreground, covered in colorful squiggles and numbers. Signs, billboards, and buildings make up the rest of the image. The word “Nasdaq” appears across a red background in the bottom-center of the panel. An advertisement for the Broadway show The Lion King is visible next to a metallic sign with the number twelve. A surgical glove rests across the advertisement and signs, a symbol of the pandemic. A futuristic Tesla logo is featured in the upper middle of the panel. The numbers that stretch across the entire piece consist of financial data, as well as important pandemic statistics and numbers.
The next two panels appear less lively, featuring a colorful stripe with numbers and writing, and the continuation of a black building from the fourth panel. The last panel appears more muted, two thick lines of black, orange, blue and red overlap each other. Statistics are featured in grey in the piece’s background. It goes without saying that the pandemic changed many aspects of the global economy and culture. In New York City alone, over three million cases and 47,000 deaths occurred. 20 Businesses suffered as stay-athome orders rendered the city streets barren, and people adjusted to the “new normal.” Globally, an estimated three million deaths occurred.21 Windows, much like the Memorandum series, Dow Movements, A Wall Street Diary, and the entire body of Gan Yu’s work are works that archive emotions, trends and culture.
A LIVING ARTIST
In Yu’s home-studio in Queens, New York, artworks covered every surface in preparation for the exhibition. Narrowing a selection from Gan Yu’s work seemed like an impossible task; around each corner was a new piece, some that had never been exhibited before. Large sheets of Yu’s homemade rice-paper inkings, which he developed with a technique he calls “New Chinese Ink Painting,” overlapped his Windows series on the basement floor. A more recent, vividly colored series of Dow Movements [Cat. Nos. 12-13] sat in the dining room, next to a multimedia ink painting, with a red graph-line and notes in Chinese and English that spanned the length of the dining table [Cat. No. 10].
Throughout each inch of Yu’s home was a testament to his mission to document the cultural similarities and shared atmospheres of the East and West. Each piece came with a story of a place or time, cultural snapshots that show often-overlooked parts of our interconnected world. When Yu returned to the village where he had done ink and charcoal paintings of farmers in the early 1980s, although many of the people were no longer living, their stories lingered. People would identify their parents, grandparents, or other family members in Yu’s sketches. Yu then again painted the faces of the villagers, who were now largely migrant workers, traveling for construction work [Cat. Nos. 7-8]. As they build the infrastructure for a now fully developed China, their lives remain largely the same as their older relatives, without significant economic improvement.
Yu’s pieces come from observation, he aims to create pure art with real significance and real stories. His Moving Mountain series is a testament to this; stock market charts that mimic the form of black ink mountains detail Dow Jones movement history from 2000-2009, with each panel representing a year of data [Cat. No. 9]. As the work is displayed in exhibitions globally, museum and gallery visitors are invited to write their comments on the piece. It contains thirteen different languages, and thoughts ranging from the obscure to the profound. Through his keen eye for pattern and inspirational creativity, Yu continues to teach and create art that innovates and connects the global community.
THE FRUITS OF DOCUMENTATION
From China to the United States, or the financial crisis of 2008 to the Covid-19 pandemic, Gan Yu’s work presents a variety of themes, subjects, and artistic elements. He seamlessly blends the most important aspects of traditional ink painting with different degrees of abstraction and Minimalism, channeling emotions of both calm tranquility through detailed brushwork and minimal compositions, and the energized quality of expressive brushstrokes. This combination of techniques and emotions allows the works to possess different meanings to each person that views them.
In the years following the popularity of Socialist Realism, Chinese Artists explored a variety of new ways to expand their artistic styles. Chen Danqing, a Shanghai born artist, developed a contemporary take on Socialist Realist oil painting with subject matters based in Tibet.22 Danqing‘s popular Tibetans Series, first released in 1980, had a clear influence on Gan Yu’s early college paintings, particularly in the compositions and pallet of his Morning Market in a Small Town of Eastern China.
Danqing drew influence from both Socialist Realism and Western art styles to create moving depictions of rural Tibetan life. In addition to Gan Yu, other Chinese Artists, like Zhang Hongtu, also conceptually explore the cultural shifts between East and West in their own way. Hongtu created the style Repainting Chinese Landscapes, which takes technical inspiration and direct elements from Western Impressionists such as Van Gogh to re-paint traditional Chinese landscapes. These works, inspired by Hongtu‘s multicultural background, seek to highlight the relationships between the East and West through striking images that highlight different views of the aesthetic.23 Yu’s The Dow Movements share a similar conceptual background, drawing comparisons between the East and West through their own distinctive visual languages.
However, Gan Yu’s approach to conceptually exploring the East and West remains distinct; he stands out from contemporary modern artists with his unmatched dedication, and detailed documentation in each work, spanning years of research on current events and trends, and shared global connections between humans. His long-term study of the economy and stock market in countless works shows the world through the lens of trends, culture, and shared sentiment. Gan Yu’s exhibited body of work reads as if it were a story, with each work offering something new to contemplate.
(Research Article from the Exhibition Catalogue)
GAN YU: AN INTERNATIONAL ARTIST
Doctor Gan Yu is no stranger to travel. His journey spans a rich tapestry of global education, immigration into the United States, and an expansive artistic career of forty-five years. He has encountered and depicted many landscapes: physical, social, and cultural. Through observation and experimentation, he evolved from his artistic roots in China to develop a distinctive style he calls Visual Realism, which seeks to blend the East and West artistically, and to discover shared cultural values and universal cultural emotions. Drawing on his extensive training in both the United States and China, Gan Yu creates cross-cultural artworks that explore everyday phenomena in novel and interesting ways. In this exhibition, Footprints Across the Ocean, the story of Gan Yu’s artistic journey is revealed through his artworks, spanning from the Socialist Realism of the early 1980s to his current Visual Realism.
FROM MARKETS TO MARKETS
Gan Yu was born in Shanghai, China in 1958. In 1966, eight years after Yu’s birth, China would experience a complete social upheaval, known as the Cultural Revolution, led by Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and the founder of the People’s Republic of China. The revolution fundamentally changed China’s political and social structure, ingraining itself deeply into national identity, cultural values, and everyday life. Its effect on Gan Yu’s early art would be no different. As a student in the Department of Art and Design at the Shanghai Institute of Technology (formerly Shanghai Light Industry College), Gan Yu created many sketches and paintings depicting life and people in rural and developing areas in China. One of his earlier oil paintings from 1982 features six villagers in line at a market stall [Cat. No. 3]. Yu’s painterly brushstrokes carefully outline and distinguish each detail in muted tones, only the villagers’ faded caps pop out amongst the yellows and greys of the natural background.
The painting was developed from an earlier sketch done on-site, when Yu and fellow college students would rush to the market early in the morning with pencils and charcoal to create sketches [Cat. No. 2]. The sketch is visually similar to the painting, with more villagers portrayed, and one facing toward the viewer. The sketch uses overlapping lines and contours to create depth and movement, enhancing the busy and atmospheric market scene. During this period, Gan Yu also created many charcoal sketches depicting farmers and villagers. One sketch portrays a hundred-year-old elderly woman in charcoal [Cat. No. 4]. Her wispy grey hair is slicked upward away from her face, and deep charcoal lines and highlighted reliefs emphasize her deep wrinkles. Another sketch features an old man with facial hair looking off to the distance. His cap and coat are rendered in less detail than his expressive, aged face [Cat. No. 5].
In Yu’s early sketches and paintings done at the Shanghai Institute, the Socialist Realism style is apparent; years prior to Yu’s time at the Shanghai Institute of Technology, Mao had thought that artworks should reflect Communist ideals, being by, for, and of the people. 1 This resulted in the rise of Socialist Realism in China, an art style popularized by the Soviet Union. In the Soviet Union, Socialist Realism sought to depict the true nature of reality during revolutionary development. 2 As Socialist Realism reached China, although it was stylistically modified to suit Chinese subject matter during the Cultural Revolution, its purpose remained largely the same. “Western Art,” as it was called in Chinese universities, was an officially sanctioned style that intended to serve the people by providing the working class with realistic depictions of life that could be easily digested and understood. 3
After Mao’s death in 1976, the prevailing artistic style did not immediately fade. Under Chairman Deng Xiaoping, political restrictions on artistic expression remained, and the elements of Socialist Realism and “Western Art” continued to be taught into the 1980s. 4 However, this popular style was only a small part of Yu’s artistic development. His further studies in the United States and China enabled him to break away from Socialist Realism and cultivate a distinctive style that combines the East and West. Thirty years of life in New York City, combined with his global education, transformed Yu’s work conceptually and stylistically. His art echoes the elegance of Chinese paintings, particularly the use of ink and careful brushwork, while incorporating Western techniques of such as Expressionism to encourage interpretation and dialogue within the work. More than a stylistic fusion of East and West, Yu’s work seeks to uncover the emotional depth and philosophical resonance. 5
This approach is exemplified in Yu’s A Wall Street Diary series [Cat. No. 11]. 216 panels with ripped pieces of black paper pasted against a white background are arranged in a grid. Their rigid forms, which resemble cliffs or mountains, mimic traditional Chinese ink painting with their fluid, expressive nature. Some are drawn-on in pen, different colored ink and paint, and some even feature elements of collage, with pasted photographs and printed media excerpts. Each piece of paper is ripped and then cut to match stock market data from March 21, 2011, until March 27, 2012. Yu’s dedication to daily documentation in this work makes every aspect significant. Whether looking up-close or viewing the image as a whole, there are many things to ponder, learn, or question. Different world events and histories unfold within the facets of each panel, from the charts themselves to the copious notes written in Chinese and English which detail important global events, economic trends, and even excerpts from Yu’s personal life. For instance, the panel from October 5th, 2011 states: “Steve Jobs, a true visionary, dies today at age 56.” The Apple company logo is featured twice in the panel. Following Jobs’ death from pancreatic cancer, Apple’s stock suffered a brief dip before rebounding the next day due to investors believing in Apple’s success. 6
The panel from the next day features a collaged photo of Steve Jobs from below overlooking the market data, the first use of a printed photograph in the work. One panel appears to show boats sailing across the “ocean” of data, with the peaks of the data appearing as mountains behind them. Within the piece is also evidence of the Occupy Wall Street movement one month after it started in September 2011, with a collaged image of protestors holding signs that say, “WALL STREET IS OUR STREET.” The protestors, who were advocating for economic equality, occupied an encampment in Zuccotti Park for almost three months. 7
A Wall Street Diary, with its use of language, symbolism, and journalism, cements itself as both a work of art and a detailed historical record. It can be understood globally, not just because of its use of both Mandarin and English, but because of its real economic, social, and cultural information that has affected all people since the beginning of globalization. Yu’s depiction of many different markets, places, and feelings throughout his career has allowed him to merge these influences into works of art with real global importance.
ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM: THE QUEST FOR EMOTION
Yu first studied Abstract Expressionism at Minnesota State University, Mankato. He was particularly inspired by the ability of artists like Jackson Pollock, and especially Willem de Kooning, to convey emotion and meaning without relying on realistic depiction. 8 The style erupted out of the United States in the 1940s and 1950s, and is often considered the first American art style that exerts international influence. 9 Artists rejected a cohesive style, using different levels of abstraction to express emotion and atmosphere in their artworks.10 Willem de Kooning, who is seen as one of the fathers of Abstract Expressionism, was a Dutch-born painter who emigrated to the United States in 1926. De Kooning often employed compositions of organic and geometric shapes to turn perception of the real world into an abstract image.11 Yu employs this technique often in his works, especially in the abstract city scenes in Windows [Cat. No. 18], or even the black “data mountains” and other aspects visible in many of Yu’s works, including A Wall Street Diary , The Dow Moments, GameStop Mania, and more [Cat. Nos. 11-13, 16-17].
Other Western art styles, like Minimalism, are clearly observable in Yu’s work. The Dow Moments demonstrates simplistic forms and a limited color palette to create a very conceptual work that is at the same time expressive and thought provoking. Yu often uses ink and other mediums to blend Western Expressionism with the controlled brushwork of the East, to create something new and unique. His style, which he calls “Visual Realism,” is distinctly his own. It is characterized by long-term documentation, abstraction, collage, and elements of traditional Chinese ink painting. This unique approach reflects Yu’s global education and travels, as well as his visual interpretation of the economy and stock market trends within his work.
OH, THE HUMANITY! GAMESTOP MANIA AND THEMES OF CRISIS
Three figures emerge from a grid of alternating numbers highlighted in green and yellow [Cat. Nos. 14-15]. Two of the men stare toward the viewer, the green and yellow numbers consuming them. Even their irises have been replaced by colored statistics. In the background, a man stands with his eyes closed and head tilted downward, overlapped by the face of the man in front of him. The three men pictured from left to right are financiers Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, and George Soros. They are emerging from stock market data detailing events during the financial crisis from 2008 to 2010. The 2008 financial crisis had a myriad of underlying causes but was partially triggered by bonds that were based on mortgages given to subprime lenders.12 These bonds were considered safe investments, and when the housing market declined, these bonds, which were widely held by banks, started to default.13
The three men represented in Memorandum Series #1: A Moment of History were prominent financial minds and instrumental figures during the crisis. The piece, and the busts of the men inside it, stand 81 inches, or around six feet tall. Their large, consuming bodies fight for space with the numbers around them; these were “kings,” as Yu would call them, from the top of stock market investors to the nation’s leading economists. George Soros, featured on the far right with the largest panel, is a multibillionaire financial investor and strategist. Greenspan and Bernanke both served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, with Bernanke taking the position in 2006 after serving as economic advisor for President George W. Bush. During an interview, Soros placed part of the blame for the crisis on Greenspan and his successor Bernanke; he claimed that there was a failure to recognize market problems within the Federal Reserve.14 However, the Federal Reserve under Bernanke did put in place measures in both bonds and federal transparency to remediate the crisis and push the United States away from economic collapse.15 Soros confidently looks off to the distance in his portrait with thick green and yellow numbers that create his tie and settle into the background behind him. Greenspan has a downward, defeated expression. Bernanke stares forward, stern, but slightly nervous, with the numbers around him scattered, unlike Soros. The emotional difference between the three figures creates turmoil within the image, reflecting the heavy task placed on Bernanke to mediate the crisis, and the heavy criticism and disagreements, oftentimes aimed at figures like Bernanke and Greenspan, from investors and economic minds like Soros.
Globally, the effects of the crash were devastating. Almost all the major European financial firms needed bailouts, some European nations responded to the crisis by cutting funding to key areas like healthcare, Asia’s exports dropped and economic growth slowed, and many more nations experienced fluctuations in commodity prices.16 Yu captures the chaotic emotions of this period, and the captivating cultural icons of the crisis through striking patterns, the data that runs wild throughout the piece, and the three “larger than life” figures that emerge from the abyss. The Memorandum series are not the only works by Yu that feature the theme of crisis; through his artistic documentation, he acknowledges disaster, crisis, and unexpected trends as a part of human life that needs to be recorded.
In GameStop Mania #1, a menacing black mountain emerges from the background. Made of ink instead of paper, the splotchy form spans two canvases, overlapping and intersecting with the three-dimensional faces that adhere to the work. A pile of pink faces line the bottom of the work, while grey faces that appear to be drowning in the canvas lie scattered across the top and middle. The GameStop short squeeze occurred when institutional investors began to sell off GameStop stock, predicting its decline.17 Personal investors from the Reddit community “Wall Street Bets,” led by user “Roaring Kitty,” (the online username for home investor Keith Gill) dramatically shifted the price of the stock by purchasing large numbers of shares; institutional investors bought back the stock to “cut their losses.”18
The pink masks at the bottom of the work represent the powerful institutional Wall Street investors. They are firmly placed and are less affected by the chaotic waves of ink around them. In contrast, the grey faces, the personal investors, appear unsteady, some fully submerged in the blotted-ink of the background. The black ink shows the chaotic nature of GameStop‘s stock price as the event unfolded. The outcomes of the GameStop event were mixed, with some investors succeeding while others suffered personal losses.19 No matter the outcome, the piece and its history represent the growing global influence of social media on long-standing systems, allowing for situations where the “sky can become the ground.” As social media has become a part of our everyday lives, it expands the influence and accessibility of financial investing on a worldwide scale. Standing up against “financial kings” like Soros, or even Bernanke and Greenspan, is more possible than ever. Although these people are familiar with the markets, appearing consumed by numbers in Memorandum #1, this work shows that they are not untouchable.
Yu further continues with the theme of disaster in Windows. Starting before the Covid-19 pandemic in 2016, evidence of the cultural shift caused by coronavirus slowly becomes apparent. Six panels of paper with ink, acrylic, watercolor, and gouache make up this series of alternative landscapes. Each panel presents a symbolic window view of different city landscapes, originally painted as backgrounds, and then updated with pandemic motifs during the lockdown in New York City. The works appear to be somewhat abstract, the first panel featuring colorful shapes and patterns in the background of a bridge drawn in ink. The second and third panel show evidence of buildings and roads. The Apple logo stands out in the third panel amongst a sea of differently colored numbers that make up each landscape. The fourth panel is perhaps the most interesting. Yellow taxis appear in the foreground, covered in colorful squiggles and numbers. Signs, billboards, and buildings make up the rest of the image. The word “Nasdaq” appears across a red background in the bottom-center of the panel. An advertisement for the Broadway show The Lion King is visible next to a metallic sign with the number twelve. A surgical glove rests across the advertisement and signs, a symbol of the pandemic. A futuristic Tesla logo is featured in the upper middle of the panel. The numbers that stretch across the entire piece consist of financial data, as well as important pandemic statistics and numbers.
The next two panels appear less lively, featuring a colorful stripe with numbers and writing, and the continuation of a black building from the fourth panel. The last panel appears more muted, two thick lines of black, orange, blue and red overlap each other. Statistics are featured in grey in the piece’s background. It goes without saying that the pandemic changed many aspects of the global economy and culture. In New York City alone, over three million cases and 47,000 deaths occurred. 20 Businesses suffered as stay-athome orders rendered the city streets barren, and people adjusted to the “new normal.” Globally, an estimated three million deaths occurred.21 Windows, much like the Memorandum series, Dow Movements, A Wall Street Diary, and the entire body of Gan Yu’s work are works that archive emotions, trends and culture.
A LIVING ARTIST
In Yu’s home-studio in Queens, New York, artworks covered every surface in preparation for the exhibition. Narrowing a selection from Gan Yu’s work seemed like an impossible task; around each corner was a new piece, some that had never been exhibited before. Large sheets of Yu’s homemade rice-paper inkings, which he developed with a technique he calls “New Chinese Ink Painting,” overlapped his Windows series on the basement floor. A more recent, vividly colored series of Dow Movements [Cat. Nos. 12-13] sat in the dining room, next to a multimedia ink painting, with a red graph-line and notes in Chinese and English that spanned the length of the dining table [Cat. No. 10].
Throughout each inch of Yu’s home was a testament to his mission to document the cultural similarities and shared atmospheres of the East and West. Each piece came with a story of a place or time, cultural snapshots that show often-overlooked parts of our interconnected world. When Yu returned to the village where he had done ink and charcoal paintings of farmers in the early 1980s, although many of the people were no longer living, their stories lingered. People would identify their parents, grandparents, or other family members in Yu’s sketches. Yu then again painted the faces of the villagers, who were now largely migrant workers, traveling for construction work [Cat. Nos. 7-8]. As they build the infrastructure for a now fully developed China, their lives remain largely the same as their older relatives, without significant economic improvement.
Yu’s pieces come from observation, he aims to create pure art with real significance and real stories. His Moving Mountain series is a testament to this; stock market charts that mimic the form of black ink mountains detail Dow Jones movement history from 2000-2009, with each panel representing a year of data [Cat. No. 9]. As the work is displayed in exhibitions globally, museum and gallery visitors are invited to write their comments on the piece. It contains thirteen different languages, and thoughts ranging from the obscure to the profound. Through his keen eye for pattern and inspirational creativity, Yu continues to teach and create art that innovates and connects the global community.
THE FRUITS OF DOCUMENTATION
From China to the United States, or the financial crisis of 2008 to the Covid-19 pandemic, Gan Yu’s work presents a variety of themes, subjects, and artistic elements. He seamlessly blends the most important aspects of traditional ink painting with different degrees of abstraction and Minimalism, channeling emotions of both calm tranquility through detailed brushwork and minimal compositions, and the energized quality of expressive brushstrokes. This combination of techniques and emotions allows the works to possess different meanings to each person that views them.
In the years following the popularity of Socialist Realism, Chinese Artists explored a variety of new ways to expand their artistic styles. Chen Danqing, a Shanghai born artist, developed a contemporary take on Socialist Realist oil painting with subject matters based in Tibet.22 Danqing‘s popular Tibetans Series, first released in 1980, had a clear influence on Gan Yu’s early college paintings, particularly in the compositions and pallet of his Morning Market in a Small Town of Eastern China.
Danqing drew influence from both Socialist Realism and Western art styles to create moving depictions of rural Tibetan life. In addition to Gan Yu, other Chinese Artists, like Zhang Hongtu, also conceptually explore the cultural shifts between East and West in their own way. Hongtu created the style Repainting Chinese Landscapes, which takes technical inspiration and direct elements from Western Impressionists such as Van Gogh to re-paint traditional Chinese landscapes. These works, inspired by Hongtu‘s multicultural background, seek to highlight the relationships between the East and West through striking images that highlight different views of the aesthetic.23 Yu’s The Dow Movements share a similar conceptual background, drawing comparisons between the East and West through their own distinctive visual languages.
However, Gan Yu’s approach to conceptually exploring the East and West remains distinct; he stands out from contemporary modern artists with his unmatched dedication, and detailed documentation in each work, spanning years of research on current events and trends, and shared global connections between humans. His long-term study of the economy and stock market in countless works shows the world through the lens of trends, culture, and shared sentiment. Gan Yu’s exhibited body of work reads as if it were a story, with each work offering something new to contemplate.
Audiences at the Opening Ceremony
GETTYSBURG COLLEGE
SCHMUCKER ART GALLERY, GETTYSBURG COLLEGE
“Footprints Across The Ocean” From Social Realism to Visual Realism
Works by Gan Yu
“足迹彼岸: 从社会主义现实主义到视觉现实主义” 美国葛底斯堡大学喻干作品展
Exhibition:
September 3 to December 6, 2025
Opening Ceremony / 开幕式:
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm
September 3, 2025
Panel Discussion / 学术研讨会:
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm
October 29, 2025
SCHMUCKER ART GALLERY, GETTYSBURG COLLEGE
“Footprints Across The Ocean” From Social Realism to Visual Realism
Works by Gan Yu
“足迹彼岸: 从社会主义现实主义到视觉现实主义” 美国葛底斯堡大学喻干作品展
Exhibition:
September 3 to December 6, 2025
Opening Ceremony / 开幕式:
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm
September 3, 2025
Panel Discussion / 学术研讨会:
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm
October 29, 2025
Artist Gan Yu with the Exhibition Organizers and Faculty
From R to L: Professor Yan Sun (Chairperson of Art Dept of the Art and Art History), Dr. Sarah Gillespie (Director of College Art Gallery), Carolyn Sautter (Director of Special Collection & College Archives), Dr. Gan Yu (Artist)
左起: 艺术家喻干博士、收藏及档案馆长Carolyn Sautter、艺术馆长Sarah Gillespie博士、艺术及艺术史系主任孙岩教授合影。
左起: 艺术家喻干博士、收藏及档案馆长Carolyn Sautter、艺术馆长Sarah Gillespie博士、艺术及艺术史系主任孙岩教授合影。
Gan Yu and the Exhibition "Footprints Across The Ocean"
GETTYSBURG COLLEGE
SCHMUCKER ART GALLERY, GETTYSBURG COLLEGE
“Footprints Across The Ocean” From Social Realism to Visual Realism
Works by Gan Yu
“足迹彼岸: 从社会主义现实主义到视觉现实主义” 美国葛底斯堡大学喻干作品展
Exhibition:
September 3 to December 6, 2025
Opening Ceremony / 开幕式:
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm
September 3, 2025
Panel Discussion / 学术研讨会:
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm
October 29, 202
SCHMUCKER ART GALLERY, GETTYSBURG COLLEGE
“Footprints Across The Ocean” From Social Realism to Visual Realism
Works by Gan Yu
“足迹彼岸: 从社会主义现实主义到视觉现实主义” 美国葛底斯堡大学喻干作品展
Exhibition:
September 3 to December 6, 2025
Opening Ceremony / 开幕式:
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm
September 3, 2025
Panel Discussion / 学术研讨会:
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm
October 29, 202
Entering "Footprints Across The Ocean"
GETTYSBURG COLLEGE
SCHMUCKER ART GALLERY, GETTYSBURG COLLEGE
“Footprints Across The Ocean” From Social Realism to Visual Realism
Works by Gan Yu
“足迹彼岸: 从社会主义现实主义到视觉现实主义” 美国葛底斯堡大学喻干作品展
Exhibition:
September 3 to December 6, 2025
Opening Ceremony / 开幕式:
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm
September 3, 2025
Panel Discussion / 学术研讨会:
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm
October 29, 202
SCHMUCKER ART GALLERY, GETTYSBURG COLLEGE
“Footprints Across The Ocean” From Social Realism to Visual Realism
Works by Gan Yu
“足迹彼岸: 从社会主义现实主义到视觉现实主义” 美国葛底斯堡大学喻干作品展
Exhibition:
September 3 to December 6, 2025
Opening Ceremony / 开幕式:
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm
September 3, 2025
Panel Discussion / 学术研讨会:
4:00 pm to 6:00 pm
October 29, 202
Paintings under “Social-realism” style in early 1980s
Paintings under “Social-realism” style in early 1980s
Description
Gan Yu immersed himself in the study of painting, with a particular focus on the trajectory of Socialist Realism—the predominant artistic style in China during his early art earning from 1975 to 1985. Between 1950 and 1985, both traditional Chinese painting and “Western-style” art were heavily influenced by the Soviet Union’s Socialist Realism, which shaped both art education and creative expression. This ideology emphasized that art should reflect the lives and experiences of workers and peasants. For more than three decades, it remained the dominant paradigm in Chinese art.
The selected works include sketches and paintings Gan Yu did in various regions across China in 1980s, portraying the everyday lives of peasants and farmers, as well as new construction sites that illustrate the early stages of China’s economic development between 1980 and 1983. Three decades later, Gan Yu revisited some of the same villages and once again sketched portraits of local residents—this time meeting migrant workers who had returned home for the Chinese New Year. These individuals were, in fact, the second or even third generation of the same farming families he had drawn decades earlier. They work in major cities, especially on construction sites and in factories, supporting to China’s economic development.
1980年代初在”社会主义现实主义”画风影响下的写生作品
Description
Gan Yu immersed himself in the study of painting, with a particular focus on the trajectory of Socialist Realism—the predominant artistic style in China during his early art earning from 1975 to 1985. Between 1950 and 1985, both traditional Chinese painting and “Western-style” art were heavily influenced by the Soviet Union’s Socialist Realism, which shaped both art education and creative expression. This ideology emphasized that art should reflect the lives and experiences of workers and peasants. For more than three decades, it remained the dominant paradigm in Chinese art.
The selected works include sketches and paintings Gan Yu did in various regions across China in 1980s, portraying the everyday lives of peasants and farmers, as well as new construction sites that illustrate the early stages of China’s economic development between 1980 and 1983. Three decades later, Gan Yu revisited some of the same villages and once again sketched portraits of local residents—this time meeting migrant workers who had returned home for the Chinese New Year. These individuals were, in fact, the second or even third generation of the same farming families he had drawn decades earlier. They work in major cities, especially on construction sites and in factories, supporting to China’s economic development.
1980年代初在”社会主义现实主义”画风影响下的写生作品
Paintings under “Social-realism” style in early 1980s
Top: “New Constructions on Corn Field” Oil Sketch on Canvas Paper, Sept 28, 1980, China
“玉米地边的建筑工地”, 早期设工地油画写生, 1980年9月作
Middle: “Morning Market in a Small Town of Eastern China”, Oil on Canvas Paper, Aug 29, 1982, China
“乡村小镇早市”，油画，1982年8月作
Bottom: Sketch for Morning Market in a Small Town of Eastern China, Charcoal on Newsprint Paper, Apr 5, 1982, China
“乡村小镇早市”，碳笔速写 (油画根据此稿创作)，1982年4月作
“玉米地边的建筑工地”, 早期设工地油画写生, 1980年9月作
Middle: “Morning Market in a Small Town of Eastern China”, Oil on Canvas Paper, Aug 29, 1982, China
“乡村小镇早市”，油画，1982年8月作
Bottom: Sketch for Morning Market in a Small Town of Eastern China, Charcoal on Newsprint Paper, Apr 5, 1982, China
“乡村小镇早市”，碳笔速写 (油画根据此稿创作)，1982年4月作
Paintings under “Social-realism” style in early 1980s
Peasants Charcoal Sketches
农村人像碳笔写生
Left: Portrait of a 100-Year-Old Lady, Charcoal, 4-11-1982
Middle: Portrait of a Rural Peasant, Charcoal, 4-11-1982
Right: Portrait of a Male Farmer, Charcoal, 4-10-1982
农村人像碳笔写生
Left: Portrait of a 100-Year-Old Lady, Charcoal, 4-11-1982
Middle: Portrait of a Rural Peasant, Charcoal, 4-11-1982
Right: Portrait of a Male Farmer, Charcoal, 4-10-1982
<<Memorandum>> series #1, Greenspan, Bernanke and Soros
Memorandum #1
Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke and George Soros from 8/17/2009 to 10/24/2011
备忘录 #1: 美联储主席葛林斯潘、布南基及金融家索罗斯在2009 - 2011年金融危机时
81” x 176” (206 cm x 447 cm)
Ink, acrylic and mixed-media on paper and polyester
Four panels completed from Sept 2009 to Aug 2021, USA
<<Memorandum>> series contains two mixed media artworks by Gan Yu. These expansive pieces capture the likenesses of several prominent figures, including former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke and renowned investor George Soros, and the era-defining former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke—individuals who have had significant influence on Wall Street and the global economy. These two works serve as a visual chronicle, portraying the daily fluctuations of the Wall Street stock market during the turbulent period of the global financial crisis and its recovery, spanning from 2008 to 2011. (Ben Bernanke was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2022.) The <<Memorandum>> series exemplifies Gan Yu’s practice of "visual realism," a painting style that strives to depict subject matter as faithfully to objective reality as possible.
Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke and George Soros from 8/17/2009 to 10/24/2011
备忘录 #1: 美联储主席葛林斯潘、布南基及金融家索罗斯在2009 - 2011年金融危机时
81” x 176” (206 cm x 447 cm)
Ink, acrylic and mixed-media on paper and polyester
Four panels completed from Sept 2009 to Aug 2021, USA
<<Memorandum>> series contains two mixed media artworks by Gan Yu. These expansive pieces capture the likenesses of several prominent figures, including former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke and renowned investor George Soros, and the era-defining former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke—individuals who have had significant influence on Wall Street and the global economy. These two works serve as a visual chronicle, portraying the daily fluctuations of the Wall Street stock market during the turbulent period of the global financial crisis and its recovery, spanning from 2008 to 2011. (Ben Bernanke was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2022.) The <<Memorandum>> series exemplifies Gan Yu’s practice of "visual realism," a painting style that strives to depict subject matter as faithfully to objective reality as possible.
Memorandum #2 : Double Images of Soros
Memorandum #2
Double Images of Soros
81” x 166” (206 cm x 422 cm)
备忘录 #2: 双面人索罗斯
Ink, acrylic and mixed-media on paper and polyester
Four panels completed from Sept 2008 to Aug 2021, USA
<<Memorandum>> series contains two mixed media artworks by Gan Yu. These expansive pieces capture the likenesses of several prominent figures, including former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke and renowned investor George Soros, and the era-defining former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke—individuals who have had significant influence on Wall Street and the global economy. These two works serve as a visual chronicle, portraying the daily fluctuations of the Wall Street stock market during the turbulent period of the global financial crisis and its recovery, spanning from 2008 to 2011. (Ben Bernanke was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2022.) The <<Memorandum>> series exemplifies Gan Yu’s practice of "visual realism," a painting style that strives to depict subject matter as faithfully to objective reality as possible.
Double Images of Soros
81” x 166” (206 cm x 422 cm)
备忘录 #2: 双面人索罗斯
Ink, acrylic and mixed-media on paper and polyester
Four panels completed from Sept 2008 to Aug 2021, USA
<<Memorandum>> series contains two mixed media artworks by Gan Yu. These expansive pieces capture the likenesses of several prominent figures, including former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke and renowned investor George Soros, and the era-defining former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke—individuals who have had significant influence on Wall Street and the global economy. These two works serve as a visual chronicle, portraying the daily fluctuations of the Wall Street stock market during the turbulent period of the global financial crisis and its recovery, spanning from 2008 to 2011. (Ben Bernanke was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2022.) The <<Memorandum>> series exemplifies Gan Yu’s practice of "visual realism," a painting style that strives to depict subject matter as faithfully to objective reality as possible.
Gan Yu's "Wall Street Diary" and "Visual Realism"
Gan Yu's "Visual Realism" Approach
喻干的"视觉现实主义"艺术风格
Gan Yu conceived his personal artistic paradigm, named "visual realism" during his residency in New York from 1991 to present. This transformative period marked his transition of artistic practice from early "socialist realism" to the flourishing Art Nouveau style. Rooted in the essence of realism, this artistic style seamlessly melds traditional painting techniques with the principles of modern art, giving rise to a new aesthetic and concept that harmonizes traditional sensibilities and skills with contemporary life phenomena.
喻干的"视觉现实主义"艺术风格
Gan Yu conceived his personal artistic paradigm, named "visual realism" during his residency in New York from 1991 to present. This transformative period marked his transition of artistic practice from early "socialist realism" to the flourishing Art Nouveau style. Rooted in the essence of realism, this artistic style seamlessly melds traditional painting techniques with the principles of modern art, giving rise to a new aesthetic and concept that harmonizes traditional sensibilities and skills with contemporary life phenomena.
"Wall Street Diary" Series, 216 Panels of a Visual History
Wall Street Diary, Mar 21, 2011 – Mar 27, 2012
"华尔街日记" (216件)
216 pieces of 10” x 8” (25.4 cm x 20.3 cm) individual diaries, Pen, ink, color pencil and markers on black mat board, 2011 – 2012, USA
"Wall Street Diary" represents a culmination of over a decade of meticulous development, shaped by Gan Yu’s prolonged observation of the global economy and the intricacies of the U.S. financial market for more than two decades. This series of 216 works (created from March 2011 to March 2012) demonstrates a groundbreaking moment—the inaugural instance of an international artist Gan Yu employing visual art to illuminate the creative dynamics of the digital financial realm, which has significantly shaped contemporary human existence from multifaceted viewpoints. It is an exploration of the combination of Chinese ink painting and Western conceptual ideas that serves as a witness to the symbiosis of cultural influences and the universal resonance of its thematic exploration.
Gan Yu conceived his personal artistic paradigm, named "visual realism," during his residency in New York from 1991 to present. This transformative period marked his transition of artistic practice from China's "socialist realism" to the flourishing Art Nouveau style. Rooted in the essence of realism, this artistic style seamlessly melds traditional painting techniques with the principles of modern art, giving rise to a new aesthetic and concept that harmonizes traditional sensibilities and skills with contemporary life phenomena.
Group exhibition: “Mountains and Rivers Facing Each Other”, China Academy of Art Museum, May 29 - Jun 4, 2015
Solo Exhibition: “A Moving Mountain”, Allen Priebe Gallery, University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh, Sept 5 - 26, 2012
"华尔街日记" (216件)
216 pieces of 10” x 8” (25.4 cm x 20.3 cm) individual diaries, Pen, ink, color pencil and markers on black mat board, 2011 – 2012, USA
"Wall Street Diary" represents a culmination of over a decade of meticulous development, shaped by Gan Yu’s prolonged observation of the global economy and the intricacies of the U.S. financial market for more than two decades. This series of 216 works (created from March 2011 to March 2012) demonstrates a groundbreaking moment—the inaugural instance of an international artist Gan Yu employing visual art to illuminate the creative dynamics of the digital financial realm, which has significantly shaped contemporary human existence from multifaceted viewpoints. It is an exploration of the combination of Chinese ink painting and Western conceptual ideas that serves as a witness to the symbiosis of cultural influences and the universal resonance of its thematic exploration.
Gan Yu conceived his personal artistic paradigm, named "visual realism," during his residency in New York from 1991 to present. This transformative period marked his transition of artistic practice from China's "socialist realism" to the flourishing Art Nouveau style. Rooted in the essence of realism, this artistic style seamlessly melds traditional painting techniques with the principles of modern art, giving rise to a new aesthetic and concept that harmonizes traditional sensibilities and skills with contemporary life phenomena.
Group exhibition: “Mountains and Rivers Facing Each Other”, China Academy of Art Museum, May 29 - Jun 4, 2015
Solo Exhibition: “A Moving Mountain”, Allen Priebe Gallery, University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh, Sept 5 - 26, 2012
Six Selected Pieces from the “Wall Street Diary” Series
Six Selected Pieces from the “Wall Street Diary” Series “华尔街日记”细部 (6件)
“Wall Street Diary”
216 pieces of 10” x 8” (25.4 cm x 20.3 cm) individual diaries, Pen, ink, color pencil and markers on black mat board, 2011 – 2012, USA
"Wall Street Diary" represents a culmination of over a decade of meticulous development, shaped by Gan Yu’s prolonged observation of the global economy and the intricacies of the U.S. financial market for more than two decades. This series of 216 works (created from March 2011 to March 2012) demonstrates a groundbreaking moment—the inaugural instance of an international artist Gan Yu employing visual art to illuminate the creative dynamics of the digital financial realm, which has significantly shaped contemporary human existence from multifaceted viewpoints. It is an exploration of the combination of Chinese ink painting and Western conceptual ideas that serves as a witness to the symbiosis of cultural influences and the universal resonance of its thematic exploration.
Gan Yu conceived his personal artistic paradigm, named "visual realism," during his residency in New York from 1991 to present. This transformative period marked his transition of artistic practice from China's "socialist realism" to the flourishing Art Nouveau style. Rooted in the essence of realism, this artistic style seamlessly melds traditional painting techniques with the principles of modern art, giving rise to a new aesthetic and concept that harmonizes traditional sensibilities and skills with contemporary life phenomena.
Group exhibition: “Mountains and Rivers Facing Each Other”, China Academy of Art Museum, May 29 - Jun 4, 2015
Solo Exhibition: “A Moving Mountain”, Allen Priebe Gallery, University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh, Sept 5 - 26, 2012
“Wall Street Diary”
216 pieces of 10” x 8” (25.4 cm x 20.3 cm) individual diaries, Pen, ink, color pencil and markers on black mat board, 2011 – 2012, USA
"Wall Street Diary" represents a culmination of over a decade of meticulous development, shaped by Gan Yu’s prolonged observation of the global economy and the intricacies of the U.S. financial market for more than two decades. This series of 216 works (created from March 2011 to March 2012) demonstrates a groundbreaking moment—the inaugural instance of an international artist Gan Yu employing visual art to illuminate the creative dynamics of the digital financial realm, which has significantly shaped contemporary human existence from multifaceted viewpoints. It is an exploration of the combination of Chinese ink painting and Western conceptual ideas that serves as a witness to the symbiosis of cultural influences and the universal resonance of its thematic exploration.
Gan Yu conceived his personal artistic paradigm, named "visual realism," during his residency in New York from 1991 to present. This transformative period marked his transition of artistic practice from China's "socialist realism" to the flourishing Art Nouveau style. Rooted in the essence of realism, this artistic style seamlessly melds traditional painting techniques with the principles of modern art, giving rise to a new aesthetic and concept that harmonizes traditional sensibilities and skills with contemporary life phenomena.
Group exhibition: “Mountains and Rivers Facing Each Other”, China Academy of Art Museum, May 29 - Jun 4, 2015
Solo Exhibition: “A Moving Mountain”, Allen Priebe Gallery, University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh, Sept 5 - 26, 2012
"The Dow Moments" and "The GameStop Mania" Series
Left: "The Dow Moments", 40 panels / 16” x 12” (40.6 cm x 30.5 cm) each panel, Painting without brushwork (hand-torn black mat boards), Feb 17, 2007 – May 25, 2012, USA
"道琼斯瞬间, 2007年-2012年", 40件
Right: "The GameStop Mania #1: Sky is Our Limit", 48” x 96” (121.9 cm x 243.8 cm), 48” x 24” (243 cm x 61 cm) each panel, Sculptural relief + ink and mixed-media on canvas,
2021, USA
"散户奇观: 天空是我们的极限", 4件, 2021年
"道琼斯瞬间, 2007年-2012年", 40件
Right: "The GameStop Mania #1: Sky is Our Limit", 48” x 96” (121.9 cm x 243.8 cm), 48” x 24” (243 cm x 61 cm) each panel, Sculptural relief + ink and mixed-media on canvas,
2021, USA
"散户奇观: 天空是我们的极限", 4件, 2021年
"The Dow Moments 2007-2012" Series, 40 Panels
"The Dow Moments"
Frame with 7” x 5” (17.8 cm x 12.7 cm) artwork, 40 frames, Hand-torn mat board on chipboard base, Feb 17, 2007 – May 25, 2012, USA
"道琼斯瞬间", 2007年-2012年, 40件, 2007至2012年作
Description
“The Dow Moments” series presents a striking visual experience, blending captivating rhythms with the dramatic motion of sharp, expressive lines. The minimalist mountain forms crafted using techniques inspired by Chinese calligraphy and seal carving, echo the natural elegance of digitized Dow Jones Indus. trading patterns. This series offers a compelling synthesis of financial power and human behavior, revealing the emotional intensity and mysterious allure of modern investment. Through its bold aesthetic and conceptual depth, The Dow Moments mirrors the complex, often inexplicable forces that shape contemporary life.
Group exhibition “International Invitational”, China Academy of Art Museum, Jun 2014 (Won Prize of Excellence)
Solo exhibition “A Moving Mountain”, University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh Art Gallery, Sept, 2012
Group exhibition “The New Chinese Currency”, Ethan Cohen Gallery, New York, Mar, 2012
Frame with 7” x 5” (17.8 cm x 12.7 cm) artwork, 40 frames, Hand-torn mat board on chipboard base, Feb 17, 2007 – May 25, 2012, USA
"道琼斯瞬间", 2007年-2012年, 40件, 2007至2012年作
Description
“The Dow Moments” series presents a striking visual experience, blending captivating rhythms with the dramatic motion of sharp, expressive lines. The minimalist mountain forms crafted using techniques inspired by Chinese calligraphy and seal carving, echo the natural elegance of digitized Dow Jones Indus. trading patterns. This series offers a compelling synthesis of financial power and human behavior, revealing the emotional intensity and mysterious allure of modern investment. Through its bold aesthetic and conceptual depth, The Dow Moments mirrors the complex, often inexplicable forces that shape contemporary life.
Group exhibition “International Invitational”, China Academy of Art Museum, Jun 2014 (Won Prize of Excellence)
Solo exhibition “A Moving Mountain”, University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh Art Gallery, Sept, 2012
Group exhibition “The New Chinese Currency”, Ethan Cohen Gallery, New York, Mar, 2012
"The Dow Moments 2025" Series, 48 panels
"The Dow Moments, 2025"
Frame with 16 panels / 7” x 5” (17.8 cm x 12.7 cm) each panel, 3 Frames / 48 panels, Ink painting on hand-torn color mat boards, Jan – Aug 2025, USA
"道琼斯瞬间", 2025年, 48件
Description
These panels represent a new stylistic direction in Gan Yu’s “The Dow Moments” series, which began in January 2025. This body of works emphasizes the use of color and incorporates expressive brushstrokes, blending the graph of a specific moment in the Dow Jones Indus. index with the forms and hues of mountain landscapes. This approach better captures the fusion between stock market imagery and natural mountain shapes, aiming to achieve an aesthetic ideal of “harmony between heaven and humanity.”
By placing sixteen individual The Dow Moments” pieces within a single frame, the composition allows for dynamic visual interactions among varied shapes and colors, creating a rich and vibrant effect. Here, The Dow Moments” conveys a deeper artistic and humanistic landscape.
Frame with 16 panels / 7” x 5” (17.8 cm x 12.7 cm) each panel, 3 Frames / 48 panels, Ink painting on hand-torn color mat boards, Jan – Aug 2025, USA
"道琼斯瞬间", 2025年, 48件
Description
These panels represent a new stylistic direction in Gan Yu’s “The Dow Moments” series, which began in January 2025. This body of works emphasizes the use of color and incorporates expressive brushstrokes, blending the graph of a specific moment in the Dow Jones Indus. index with the forms and hues of mountain landscapes. This approach better captures the fusion between stock market imagery and natural mountain shapes, aiming to achieve an aesthetic ideal of “harmony between heaven and humanity.”
By placing sixteen individual The Dow Moments” pieces within a single frame, the composition allows for dynamic visual interactions among varied shapes and colors, creating a rich and vibrant effect. Here, The Dow Moments” conveys a deeper artistic and humanistic landscape.
"Windows", Six Panels of Ink and Color Painting on Paper
"Windows", 51.25” x 163.5” (130.2 cm x 415.3 cm), 27.25” x 51.25” (69.2 cm x 130.2 cm) each panel, Ink and mixed-media on traditional Chinese rice paper, March, 2016 – March, 2021, USA
"窗: 跨越疫情", 纸本重彩水墨
Description
These panels represent a new stylistic direction in Gan Yu’s “The Dow Moments” series, which began in January 2025. This body of works emphasizes the use of color and incorporates expressive brushstrokes, blending the graph of a specific moment in the Dow Jones Indus. index with the forms and hues of mountain landscapes. This approach better captures the fusion between stock market imagery and natural mountain shapes, aiming to achieve an aesthetic ideal of “harmony between heaven and humanity.”
By placing sixteen individual The Dow Moments” pieces within a single frame, the composition allows for dynamic visual interactions among varied shapes and colors, creating a rich and vibrant effect. Here, The Dow Moments” conveys a deeper artistic and humanistic landscape.
"窗: 跨越疫情", 纸本重彩水墨
Description
These panels represent a new stylistic direction in Gan Yu’s “The Dow Moments” series, which began in January 2025. This body of works emphasizes the use of color and incorporates expressive brushstrokes, blending the graph of a specific moment in the Dow Jones Indus. index with the forms and hues of mountain landscapes. This approach better captures the fusion between stock market imagery and natural mountain shapes, aiming to achieve an aesthetic ideal of “harmony between heaven and humanity.”
By placing sixteen individual The Dow Moments” pieces within a single frame, the composition allows for dynamic visual interactions among varied shapes and colors, creating a rich and vibrant effect. Here, The Dow Moments” conveys a deeper artistic and humanistic landscape.
"The GameStop Mania #1: Sky is Our Limit", 2021
"The GameStop Mania #1: Sky is Our Limit "
48” x 96” (121.9 cm x 243.8 cm) / 48” x 24” (243 cm x 61 cm) each panel, Sculptural relief + ink and mixed-media on canvas, 2021, USA
"散户奇观 #1: 天空是我们的极限", 4件, 2021年
Description
“The GameStop Mania” series consists of three groups of paintings that present GameStop’s brutal 2021 trading moments and its broad social impact. This project visually revealed that speculative trade in the stock market has become lots of people’s routine life during the pandemic; and is another symptom of COVID-19.
1. “Sky is Our Limit”
2. “Falling from the Sky”
3. “Swimmer”
------------------------------------
1. “Sky is Our Limit”
“The GameStop Mania” depicts an ephemeral beauty of the trading patterns of GameStop in the US stock market and a tremendous power behind the activities. It evokes the speculative sentiments of the market with a realistic trading line that reflects some of the footprints of GameStop (GME) stock trading actions. The financial markets now offer a chance for combat as well as entertainment. This is closely related to the resurgence of the retail investors and the new form of technology that helps to gamify the financial industry, especially in the pandemic period. Artistically, this project was executed, with mixed or even conflicting mediums, such as Chinese ink and Western acrylic on canvas, to present a turbulent and transient sentiment, such as greedy and fear. Another unique feature of this project was to use the embossed and sunken method on a flat painting surface. This can physically stretch the flat 2-dimensional painting surface of canvas to a much wider multi-dimensional space (2 1/2” from the top to bottom).
“Sky is Our Limit” visualized the explosive battles between individuals and institutions, outsiders and insiders, smart and supposedly “brainless” people. In order to convey the complexity and dynamism of the GameStop performance and its impact inside and outside the financial market, Gan Yu used 5-day GameStop (GME) trading charts from the last week of January to the first week of February 2021, to create shapes of visually moving mountains imprinted by a sudden decline or climb of the real GME market movement from these days. This work pictorially illustrated a collective interpretation of society and economy from both the scattered individuals and institutional investors in every strata of society. Artist Gan Yu personally involved and experienced the GameStop actual trading from January 28 to February 5, 2021. Once again, he has witnessed and visually depicted, as many experts described “The Occupy Wall Street Version #2”. The embossed black/white scattered faces represent individual investors and the red collective faces symbolize institutional investors. In this work, the red collective is pressed down beneath the mountain by the arrogant individual investors scattered in the sky, filled with panic. The piece depicts a fleeting moment when reckless retail traders, unaware of their own limits, reveled in their brief arrogance.
-------------------------------------
2, “Falling from the Sky”
“Falling from the Sky” is part of The GameStop Mania series. It continues Gan Yu’s visual exploration of the GameStop phenomenon through embossed, flat, and recessed portraits of jubilant participants, set against the sharp surges and plunges of trading waves. The raised and sunken surfaces symbolize opposing strategies in the financial markets—long versus short, calls versus puts—techniques that were all central to the GameStop speculative frenzy. This work also reflects the brief resurgence of Keith Gill, known as Roaring Kitty, who once again rallied GameStop and a wave of meme stocks in 2024, only to see the excitement collapse within two days. They were beaten to a pulp by well-prepared institutional investors. Their former glory was completely gone
-------------------------------------
3. “Swimmer”
Swimmer is a painting of eight panels which presents a composition of twisted but doubled cross shapes with half black and half white ink and color on canvas. The black/white panels symbolize the swimmer’s 24-hour struggling with and without masks in the clear and dark waters of the financial market’s certainty and uncertainty. This artwork reflects people spinning into a vortex of human desires in the mist of the global pandemic. The paintings actually started in October, 2020 when COVID-19 hit the world hard while the financial markets flourished. Retail trading, in particular, is very active.
-------------------------------------
It is important to recognize that retail investors now represent an increasingly significant share, about 30% of global stock market activity. Their influence and presence continue to expand, reshaping market dynamics. As a result, large-scale participation by retail investors has become a defining feature and the new normal of both U.S. and international equity markets.
48” x 96” (121.9 cm x 243.8 cm) / 48” x 24” (243 cm x 61 cm) each panel, Sculptural relief + ink and mixed-media on canvas, 2021, USA
"散户奇观 #1: 天空是我们的极限", 4件, 2021年
Description
“The GameStop Mania” series consists of three groups of paintings that present GameStop’s brutal 2021 trading moments and its broad social impact. This project visually revealed that speculative trade in the stock market has become lots of people’s routine life during the pandemic; and is another symptom of COVID-19.
1. “Sky is Our Limit”
2. “Falling from the Sky”
3. “Swimmer”
------------------------------------
1. “Sky is Our Limit”
“The GameStop Mania” depicts an ephemeral beauty of the trading patterns of GameStop in the US stock market and a tremendous power behind the activities. It evokes the speculative sentiments of the market with a realistic trading line that reflects some of the footprints of GameStop (GME) stock trading actions. The financial markets now offer a chance for combat as well as entertainment. This is closely related to the resurgence of the retail investors and the new form of technology that helps to gamify the financial industry, especially in the pandemic period. Artistically, this project was executed, with mixed or even conflicting mediums, such as Chinese ink and Western acrylic on canvas, to present a turbulent and transient sentiment, such as greedy and fear. Another unique feature of this project was to use the embossed and sunken method on a flat painting surface. This can physically stretch the flat 2-dimensional painting surface of canvas to a much wider multi-dimensional space (2 1/2” from the top to bottom).
“Sky is Our Limit” visualized the explosive battles between individuals and institutions, outsiders and insiders, smart and supposedly “brainless” people. In order to convey the complexity and dynamism of the GameStop performance and its impact inside and outside the financial market, Gan Yu used 5-day GameStop (GME) trading charts from the last week of January to the first week of February 2021, to create shapes of visually moving mountains imprinted by a sudden decline or climb of the real GME market movement from these days. This work pictorially illustrated a collective interpretation of society and economy from both the scattered individuals and institutional investors in every strata of society. Artist Gan Yu personally involved and experienced the GameStop actual trading from January 28 to February 5, 2021. Once again, he has witnessed and visually depicted, as many experts described “The Occupy Wall Street Version #2”. The embossed black/white scattered faces represent individual investors and the red collective faces symbolize institutional investors. In this work, the red collective is pressed down beneath the mountain by the arrogant individual investors scattered in the sky, filled with panic. The piece depicts a fleeting moment when reckless retail traders, unaware of their own limits, reveled in their brief arrogance.
-------------------------------------
2, “Falling from the Sky”
“Falling from the Sky” is part of The GameStop Mania series. It continues Gan Yu’s visual exploration of the GameStop phenomenon through embossed, flat, and recessed portraits of jubilant participants, set against the sharp surges and plunges of trading waves. The raised and sunken surfaces symbolize opposing strategies in the financial markets—long versus short, calls versus puts—techniques that were all central to the GameStop speculative frenzy. This work also reflects the brief resurgence of Keith Gill, known as Roaring Kitty, who once again rallied GameStop and a wave of meme stocks in 2024, only to see the excitement collapse within two days. They were beaten to a pulp by well-prepared institutional investors. Their former glory was completely gone
-------------------------------------
3. “Swimmer”
Swimmer is a painting of eight panels which presents a composition of twisted but doubled cross shapes with half black and half white ink and color on canvas. The black/white panels symbolize the swimmer’s 24-hour struggling with and without masks in the clear and dark waters of the financial market’s certainty and uncertainty. This artwork reflects people spinning into a vortex of human desires in the mist of the global pandemic. The paintings actually started in October, 2020 when COVID-19 hit the world hard while the financial markets flourished. Retail trading, in particular, is very active.
-------------------------------------
It is important to recognize that retail investors now represent an increasingly significant share, about 30% of global stock market activity. Their influence and presence continue to expand, reshaping market dynamics. As a result, large-scale participation by retail investors has become a defining feature and the new normal of both U.S. and international equity markets.
"The GameStop Mania #2: Falling from the Sky", 2024
"The GameStop Mania #2: Falling from the Sky"
Sculptural relief + ink and mixed-media on canvas, 30” x 48” (76.2 cm x 121.9 cm), 30” x 24” (76.2 cm x 61 cm) each panel, 2024, USA
"散户奇观 #2: 从天而坠", 2024年
Description
“The GameStop Mania” series consists of three groups of paintings that present GameStop’s brutal 2021 trading moments and its broad social impact. This project visually revealed that speculative trade in the stock market has become lots of people’s routine life during the pandemic; and is another symptom of COVID-19.
1. “Sky is Our Limit”
2. “Falling from the Sky”
3. “Swimmer”
------------------------------------
1. “Sky is Our Limit”
“The GameStop Mania” depicts an ephemeral beauty of the trading patterns of GameStop in the US stock market and a tremendous power behind the activities. It evokes the speculative sentiments of the market with a realistic trading line that reflects some of the footprints of GameStop (GME) stock trading actions. The financial markets now offer a chance for combat as well as entertainment. This is closely related to the resurgence of the retail investors and the new form of technology that helps to gamify the financial industry, especially in the pandemic period. Artistically, this project was executed, with mixed or even conflicting mediums, such as Chinese ink and Western acrylic on canvas, to present a turbulent and transient sentiment, such as greedy and fear. Another unique feature of this project was to use the embossed and sunken method on a flat painting surface. This can physically stretch the flat 2-dimensional painting surface of canvas to a much wider multi-dimensional space (2 1/2” from the top to bottom).
“Sky is Our Limit” visualized the explosive battles between individuals and institutions, outsiders and insiders, smart and supposedly “brainless” people. In order to convey the complexity and dynamism of the GameStop performance and its impact inside and outside the financial market, Gan Yu used 5-day GameStop (GME) trading charts from the last week of January to the first week of February 2021, to create shapes of visually moving mountains imprinted by a sudden decline or climb of the real GME market movement from these days. This work pictorially illustrated a collective interpretation of society and economy from both the scattered individuals and institutional investors in every strata of society. Artist Gan Yu personally involved and experienced the GameStop actual trading from January 28 to February 5, 2021. Once again, he has witnessed and visually depicted, as many experts described “The Occupy Wall Street Version #2”. The embossed black/white scattered faces represent individual investors and the red collective faces symbolize institutional investors. In this work, the red collective is pressed down beneath the mountain by the arrogant individual investors scattered in the sky, filled with panic. The piece depicts a fleeting moment when reckless retail traders, unaware of their own limits, reveled in their brief arrogance.
-------------------------------------
2, “Falling from the Sky”
“Falling from the Sky” is part of The GameStop Mania series. It continues Gan Yu’s visual exploration of the GameStop phenomenon through embossed, flat, and recessed portraits of jubilant participants, set against the sharp surges and plunges of trading waves. The raised and sunken surfaces symbolize opposing strategies in the financial markets—long versus short, calls versus puts—techniques that were all central to the GameStop speculative frenzy. This work also reflects the brief resurgence of Keith Gill, known as Roaring Kitty, who once again rallied GameStop and a wave of meme stocks in 2024, only to see the excitement collapse within two days. They were beaten to a pulp by well-prepared institutional investors. Their former glory was completely gone
-------------------------------------
3. “Swimmer”
Swimmer is a painting of eight panels which presents a composition of twisted but doubled cross shapes with half black and half white ink and color on canvas. The black/white panels symbolize the swimmer’s 24-hour struggling with and without masks in the clear and dark waters of the financial market’s certainty and uncertainty. This artwork reflects people spinning into a vortex of human desires in the mist of the global pandemic. The paintings actually started in October, 2020 when COVID-19 hit the world hard while the financial markets flourished. Retail trading, in particular, is very active.
-------------------------------------
It is important to recognize that retail investors now represent an increasingly significant share, about 30% of global stock market activity. Their influence and presence continue to expand, reshaping market dynamics. As a result, large-scale participation by retail investors has become a defining feature and the new normal of both U.S. and international equity markets.
Sculptural relief + ink and mixed-media on canvas, 30” x 48” (76.2 cm x 121.9 cm), 30” x 24” (76.2 cm x 61 cm) each panel, 2024, USA
"散户奇观 #2: 从天而坠", 2024年
Description
“The GameStop Mania” series consists of three groups of paintings that present GameStop’s brutal 2021 trading moments and its broad social impact. This project visually revealed that speculative trade in the stock market has become lots of people’s routine life during the pandemic; and is another symptom of COVID-19.
1. “Sky is Our Limit”
2. “Falling from the Sky”
3. “Swimmer”
------------------------------------
1. “Sky is Our Limit”
“The GameStop Mania” depicts an ephemeral beauty of the trading patterns of GameStop in the US stock market and a tremendous power behind the activities. It evokes the speculative sentiments of the market with a realistic trading line that reflects some of the footprints of GameStop (GME) stock trading actions. The financial markets now offer a chance for combat as well as entertainment. This is closely related to the resurgence of the retail investors and the new form of technology that helps to gamify the financial industry, especially in the pandemic period. Artistically, this project was executed, with mixed or even conflicting mediums, such as Chinese ink and Western acrylic on canvas, to present a turbulent and transient sentiment, such as greedy and fear. Another unique feature of this project was to use the embossed and sunken method on a flat painting surface. This can physically stretch the flat 2-dimensional painting surface of canvas to a much wider multi-dimensional space (2 1/2” from the top to bottom).
“Sky is Our Limit” visualized the explosive battles between individuals and institutions, outsiders and insiders, smart and supposedly “brainless” people. In order to convey the complexity and dynamism of the GameStop performance and its impact inside and outside the financial market, Gan Yu used 5-day GameStop (GME) trading charts from the last week of January to the first week of February 2021, to create shapes of visually moving mountains imprinted by a sudden decline or climb of the real GME market movement from these days. This work pictorially illustrated a collective interpretation of society and economy from both the scattered individuals and institutional investors in every strata of society. Artist Gan Yu personally involved and experienced the GameStop actual trading from January 28 to February 5, 2021. Once again, he has witnessed and visually depicted, as many experts described “The Occupy Wall Street Version #2”. The embossed black/white scattered faces represent individual investors and the red collective faces symbolize institutional investors. In this work, the red collective is pressed down beneath the mountain by the arrogant individual investors scattered in the sky, filled with panic. The piece depicts a fleeting moment when reckless retail traders, unaware of their own limits, reveled in their brief arrogance.
-------------------------------------
2, “Falling from the Sky”
“Falling from the Sky” is part of The GameStop Mania series. It continues Gan Yu’s visual exploration of the GameStop phenomenon through embossed, flat, and recessed portraits of jubilant participants, set against the sharp surges and plunges of trading waves. The raised and sunken surfaces symbolize opposing strategies in the financial markets—long versus short, calls versus puts—techniques that were all central to the GameStop speculative frenzy. This work also reflects the brief resurgence of Keith Gill, known as Roaring Kitty, who once again rallied GameStop and a wave of meme stocks in 2024, only to see the excitement collapse within two days. They were beaten to a pulp by well-prepared institutional investors. Their former glory was completely gone
-------------------------------------
3. “Swimmer”
Swimmer is a painting of eight panels which presents a composition of twisted but doubled cross shapes with half black and half white ink and color on canvas. The black/white panels symbolize the swimmer’s 24-hour struggling with and without masks in the clear and dark waters of the financial market’s certainty and uncertainty. This artwork reflects people spinning into a vortex of human desires in the mist of the global pandemic. The paintings actually started in October, 2020 when COVID-19 hit the world hard while the financial markets flourished. Retail trading, in particular, is very active.
-------------------------------------
It is important to recognize that retail investors now represent an increasingly significant share, about 30% of global stock market activity. Their influence and presence continue to expand, reshaping market dynamics. As a result, large-scale participation by retail investors has become a defining feature and the new normal of both U.S. and international equity markets.
"Flowers in the Red Mountain, Shanghai Composite’s first Decade of the 21st Century"
"Flowers in the Red Mountain, Shanghai Composite’s first Decade of the 21st Century"
16” x 96” (40.6 cm x 243.8 cm), Ink, color and mixed-media on canvas and Plexiglas, 2011-2012, China / USA
"红山里的花: 上海A股在21世纪里的第一个十年"，画布水墨2011-2012年
Description
This artwork reflects the moving activities of Shanghai’s stock market in the first decade of the 21st century. In collaboration with “A Moving Mountain”, Dow Jones’ first decade in the 21st Century, it combines the ephemeral beauty of flowers (evoking the speculative origins on investment), a red and realistic trading line representing mountains and mass commentary on modern investment sentiments to depict the remarkable power of the emerging market in a world economy and global financial system. In order to convey the complexity of the Chinese market and its atmosphere, Gan Yu uses floating images of flowers executed with mixed or even conflicting mediums such as Chinese ink on western canvas, canvas on Plexiglas, and Plexiglas on foam boards with handwriting to present a turbulent and transient sentiment. Apart from visually depicting a decade in the history of the once-heated Chinese stock market, this painting communicates a collective interpretation of the Chinese economy from the scattered voices of individuals from many angles of the society.
Group exhibition: “The New Chinese Currency-Ink, Landscape and the Body” at Ethan Cohen Gallery, New York City from Mar 12 to Apr 16, 2012.
16” x 96” (40.6 cm x 243.8 cm), Ink, color and mixed-media on canvas and Plexiglas, 2011-2012, China / USA
"红山里的花: 上海A股在21世纪里的第一个十年"，画布水墨2011-2012年
Description
This artwork reflects the moving activities of Shanghai’s stock market in the first decade of the 21st century. In collaboration with “A Moving Mountain”, Dow Jones’ first decade in the 21st Century, it combines the ephemeral beauty of flowers (evoking the speculative origins on investment), a red and realistic trading line representing mountains and mass commentary on modern investment sentiments to depict the remarkable power of the emerging market in a world economy and global financial system. In order to convey the complexity of the Chinese market and its atmosphere, Gan Yu uses floating images of flowers executed with mixed or even conflicting mediums such as Chinese ink on western canvas, canvas on Plexiglas, and Plexiglas on foam boards with handwriting to present a turbulent and transient sentiment. Apart from visually depicting a decade in the history of the once-heated Chinese stock market, this painting communicates a collective interpretation of the Chinese economy from the scattered voices of individuals from many angles of the society.
Group exhibition: “The New Chinese Currency-Ink, Landscape and the Body” at Ethan Cohen Gallery, New York City from Mar 12 to Apr 16, 2012.
"A Moving Mountain: Dow Jones’ first Decade of the 21st Century (2000–2009) "
"A Moving Mountain: Dow Jones’ first Decade of the 21st Century (2000–2009) "
30” x 240” (76 cm x 610 cm), 30” x 24” (76 cm x 61 cm) each panel, Ink on canvas with varies pen writings, 2010-2011, USA
“一座移动的山: 道琼斯在二十一世纪的第一个十年”, 画布水墨
Description
Echoing the grandeur of the ragged horizon formed by distant mountain ranges, footprints of stock market movements depicted on charts outline the essence of the modern financial market and global economy. These erratic motions have been captured by the artist's spontaneous splashes of ink. Throughout history civilizations have once hallowed mountains as the home of the gods, and so contemporary society is exalting Wall Street as the temple of the world economy. Gan Yu presents a chronologically ordered chart painted by oriental brushes and ink on western canvas detailing Dow Jones' moving history in the first decade of 21st century from 2000 to 2009.
One of the symbols for the stock market is mass participation. In order to capture this quality, Gan Yu invites the audiences to write their comments directly on his canvas. The artist’s idea is to bring common wisdom from many others, and let their thoughts and autographs collaborate with the painting. Currently, already more than 150 people have written their personal comments along with signatures in 12 preferred languages directly on canvas. The painting is incomplete when displayed, finished only after the available space has been filled out with comments from observers expressing their views. The artist synthesizes himself, the observers and the artwork, allowing those who may be direct or indirect participants in the stock market to surrender themselves to chance, becoming a subject in the overall theme. Not only does this action manifest itself in art, but also reflects the underlying complexities of globalization.
Solo Exhibition: “A Moving Mountain”, Allen Priebe Gallery, University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh, Sept 5-26, 2012
30” x 240” (76 cm x 610 cm), 30” x 24” (76 cm x 61 cm) each panel, Ink on canvas with varies pen writings, 2010-2011, USA
“一座移动的山: 道琼斯在二十一世纪的第一个十年”, 画布水墨
Description
Echoing the grandeur of the ragged horizon formed by distant mountain ranges, footprints of stock market movements depicted on charts outline the essence of the modern financial market and global economy. These erratic motions have been captured by the artist's spontaneous splashes of ink. Throughout history civilizations have once hallowed mountains as the home of the gods, and so contemporary society is exalting Wall Street as the temple of the world economy. Gan Yu presents a chronologically ordered chart painted by oriental brushes and ink on western canvas detailing Dow Jones' moving history in the first decade of 21st century from 2000 to 2009.
One of the symbols for the stock market is mass participation. In order to capture this quality, Gan Yu invites the audiences to write their comments directly on his canvas. The artist’s idea is to bring common wisdom from many others, and let their thoughts and autographs collaborate with the painting. Currently, already more than 150 people have written their personal comments along with signatures in 12 preferred languages directly on canvas. The painting is incomplete when displayed, finished only after the available space has been filled out with comments from observers expressing their views. The artist synthesizes himself, the observers and the artwork, allowing those who may be direct or indirect participants in the stock market to surrender themselves to chance, becoming a subject in the overall theme. Not only does this action manifest itself in art, but also reflects the underlying complexities of globalization.
Solo Exhibition: “A Moving Mountain”, Allen Priebe Gallery, University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh, Sept 5-26, 2012
Audiences Write Their Thoughts on the Canvas
观众们在画面上书写 (已有150多位观众同十二种语言在画面上写下感想)
"A Moving Mountain: Dow Jones’ first Decade of the 21st Century (2000–2009) "
30” x 240” (76 cm x 610 cm), 30” x 24” (76 cm x 61 cm) each panel, Ink on canvas with varies pen writings, 2010-2011, USA
“一座移动的山: 道琼斯在二十一世纪的第一个十年”, 画布水墨
Description
Echoing the grandeur of the ragged horizon formed by distant mountain ranges, footprints of stock market movements depicted on charts outline the essence of the modern financial market and global economy. These erratic motions have been captured by the artist's spontaneous splashes of ink. Throughout history civilizations have once hallowed mountains as the home of the gods, and so contemporary society is exalting Wall Street as the temple of the world economy. Gan Yu presents a chronologically ordered chart painted by oriental brushes and ink on western canvas detailing Dow Jones' moving history in the first decade of 21st century from 2000 to 2009.
One of the symbols for the stock market is mass participation. In order to capture this quality, Gan Yu invites the audiences to write their comments directly on his canvas. The artist’s idea is to bring common wisdom from many others, and let their thoughts and autographs collaborate with the painting. Currently, already more than 150 people have written their personal comments along with signatures in 12 preferred languages directly on canvas. The painting is incomplete when displayed, finished only after the available space has been filled out with comments from observers expressing their views. The artist synthesizes himself, the observers and the artwork, allowing those who may be direct or indirect participants in the stock market to surrender themselves to chance, becoming a subject in the overall theme. Not only does this action manifest itself in art, but also reflects the underlying complexities of globalization.
Solo Exhibition: “A Moving Mountain”, Allen Priebe Gallery, University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh, Sept 5-26, 2012
"A Moving Mountain: Dow Jones’ first Decade of the 21st Century (2000–2009) "
30” x 240” (76 cm x 610 cm), 30” x 24” (76 cm x 61 cm) each panel, Ink on canvas with varies pen writings, 2010-2011, USA
“一座移动的山: 道琼斯在二十一世纪的第一个十年”, 画布水墨
Description
Echoing the grandeur of the ragged horizon formed by distant mountain ranges, footprints of stock market movements depicted on charts outline the essence of the modern financial market and global economy. These erratic motions have been captured by the artist's spontaneous splashes of ink. Throughout history civilizations have once hallowed mountains as the home of the gods, and so contemporary society is exalting Wall Street as the temple of the world economy. Gan Yu presents a chronologically ordered chart painted by oriental brushes and ink on western canvas detailing Dow Jones' moving history in the first decade of 21st century from 2000 to 2009.
One of the symbols for the stock market is mass participation. In order to capture this quality, Gan Yu invites the audiences to write their comments directly on his canvas. The artist’s idea is to bring common wisdom from many others, and let their thoughts and autographs collaborate with the painting. Currently, already more than 150 people have written their personal comments along with signatures in 12 preferred languages directly on canvas. The painting is incomplete when displayed, finished only after the available space has been filled out with comments from observers expressing their views. The artist synthesizes himself, the observers and the artwork, allowing those who may be direct or indirect participants in the stock market to surrender themselves to chance, becoming a subject in the overall theme. Not only does this action manifest itself in art, but also reflects the underlying complexities of globalization.
Solo Exhibition: “A Moving Mountain”, Allen Priebe Gallery, University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh, Sept 5-26, 2012
Exhibition Catalogue "Footprints Across The Ocean", 2025
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