Loy Luo
To Be Endorsed, Or Not To Be Endorsed?— The Inner Field of Legitimacy in Contemporary Art
November 7th- December 15th, 2025
Loy Luo Space 101 Lafayette Street, New York
About
On November 7, 2025, Loy Luo Space presents a new solo exhibition by artist Loy Luo, curated by the artist herself. Through painting, spatial installation, and textual composition, the exhibition raises a philosophical question concerning the legitimacy of contemporary art systems.
In the system of contemporary art, endorsement functions as an implicit institutional logic. It shapes not only the order of the art world but also the very way an artist becomes visible. To be recognized as an “artist” often depends on external naming — institutional validation, curatorial discourse, and media narration. Together, these dynamics construct what Pierre Bourdieu might call the “field of endorsement” — a structure that defines both artistic order and visibility.
“To be endorsed, or not to be endorsed?” does not reject the system;
rather, it reexamines the reciprocal relationship between structure and existence.
The “not to be” here carries a question mark — it asks whether an exhibition seemingly without endorsement might, in fact, propose another kind of validation: one that arises from the artist’s own spiritual structure, from a renewed dialogue with the environment, or from a reactivation of cultural memory and lived experience across millennia.
Of course, no matter how hard the artist strives or how subversive one may appear, much like Hamlet’s entanglement with “to be or not to be,” the question of endorsement remains inescapable — a fundamental dilemma bound to the very existence of art itself.
The exhibition unfolds through a calligraphy wall, paintings wrapped in rice paper, and a central series of five oil-on-canvas works titled “Earthenware.” The spatial composition draws inspiration from the poetic image of “Long River, Setting Sun, and Full Circle,” evoking a flowing continuity between light, space, and time.
Exhibition Information
Title: To be endorsed, or not to be endorsed?— The Inner Field of Legitimacy in Contemporary Art
Artist / Curator: Loy Luo
Opening: Friday, November 7, 2025 · 6–8 PM
On View: November 7 – December 15, 2025
Venue: Loy Luo Space · 101 Lafayette Street · New York
Hours: Tuesday – Sunday · 12:00–6:00 PM
Painting Installation