A grand event in the city! On the occasion of Master Wallace Chan’s seventieth birthday, "The Instruments of Another Realm" opened at the Long Museum in Shanghai. Master Wallace Chan is a world-renowned Chinese jewelry artist, as well as an outstanding sculptor and innovator. As the artist’s most ambitious work to date, the exhibition was curated by British curator James Putnam, exploring themes of transformation, memory, and spirituality through a series of monumental new titanium sculptures, establishing a deeply symbolic dialogue between Venice and Shanghai.
Helen was privileged to visit "The Instruments of Another Realm" on a private tour personally guided by Wallace Chan. The exhibition comprises two main sections: the ground-floor and staircase galleries trace the development of Chan’s sculptural practice, showing how he moved toward immersive spatial creation with titanium sculptures, while the underground gallery presents the artist’s classic jewelry carvings created since 1973.
Wallace Chan with the ten-meter sculpture "Rebirth," work from "The Instruments of Another Realm" Shanghai Exhibition ©Tian Fangfang
The exhibition centers on three monumental titanium sculptures: "Birth," "Growth," and "Rebirth." Chan brings titanium — the "metal of space" — into sculptural creation, building vast life structures from thousands of titanium components, gears, and tens of thousands of screws. As light shifts across the surfaces, they reveal yellow, red, and blue hues corresponding to the three stages of the life cycle. The monumental scale resonates with the raw, distinctive architecture of the Long Museum, merging in harmonious symbiosis.
"Rebirth," Wallace Chan, 2026, "The Instruments of Another Realm" Shanghai Exhibition ©Tian Fangfang
Master Wallace Chan is a pioneer in applying titanium to artistic creation. He continuously breaks the conventions of traditional sculpture, refining this metal born of cutting-edge industry and aerospace technology into a vehicle of poetry and transcendent imagination.
"Growth," Wallace Chan, 2026, "The Instruments of Another Realm" Shanghai Exhibition
The exhibition also features the artist’s illusion carving technique — the Wallace Cut, invented in 1987 — crystal carvings created since the 1980s, and a number of highly representative jewelry works, together tracing the artist’s creative lineage spanning the micro and the monumental.
Crystal carvings, Wallace Chan, 2026, "The Instruments of Another Realm" Shanghai Exhibition
"From jewelry to sculpture, I have always been changing scale, yet my core has never changed. I care about how light enters matter, how matter carries spirit, how the body relates to the work, and how the work leads people toward deeper introspection." — Master Wallace Chan
Jewelry works, Wallace Chan, 2026, "The Instruments of Another Realm" Shanghai Exhibition
In Master Wallace Chan’s "The Instruments of Another Realm" exhibition, Helen experienced the elevated evolution of his iconic butterfly series — a profound transformation from figurative aesthetics to spiritual philosophy.
Butterfly works, Wallace Chan, 2026, "The Instruments of Another Realm" Shanghai Exhibition
Butterfly works, Wallace Chan, 2026, "The Instruments of Another Realm" Shanghai Exhibition
The new works in particular break free from the decorative constraints of traditional jewelry, using titanium as the core medium and blending precision engineering with optical aesthetics. The pieces downplay elaborate gemstone settings, reimagining the butterfly’s form through minimalist shaping — concise, luminous lines that combine microscopic detail with sculptural tension.
Butterfly works, Wallace Chan, 2026, "The Instruments of Another Realm" Shanghai Exhibition
The creative core has been comprehensively elevated. No longer confined to the poetic imagery of Zhuangzi’s butterfly dream, the works incorporate the life narrative of butterflies’ transoceanic migrations, imbuing them with a spirit of resilience, quest, and transcendence. From carving objects to interpreting life, from visual splendor to profound artistic conception, this new generation of butterfly works transcends the boundaries of craft aesthetics, becoming vessels that connect reality and the other realm — a testament to the master’s ultimate creative vision.
Butterfly works, Wallace Chan, 2026, "The Instruments of Another Realm" Shanghai Exhibition
In Master Wallace Chan’s vocabulary, the "other realm" is not a specific place but rather a spiritual dimension of perpetual inquiry. It exists between life and death, between reality and dreams, between consciousness and the subconscious. He thus places butterflies — symbols of vitality — within vessels: letting visible beauty carry the memories, emotions, and spiritual experiences that language cannot fully express.
Jewelry exhibition area, 2026, "The Instruments of Another Realm" Shanghai Exhibition