NEO
Neo prefix. new, recent, modified or revived
A platform that foregrounds new galleries and up-and-coming talent
Returning to Art Central for its second year, Neo creates an entry point for galleries to feature cutting-edge or undiscovered artists in their first and second years of participation. Fifteen galleries and 33 artists will be hosted under the direction of curator Enoch Cheng for a more boundary-pushing edition following the programme’s successful debut in 2024. Neo represents Art Central’s commitment as a leading incubator for artists and galleries in Asia’s most prominent contemporary art market.
Engaging with subjects of perception, traditions and the complexities of inexplicable emotions, the Neo artists sharpen their lens on the world, employing innovative techniques to push the boundaries of their respective themes and mediums. From manipulating landscape photographs through scraping and burning to depicting nocturnal creatures, from creating self-generating digital ecologies that reinterpret nature’s visual language to reconstructing personal and cultural histories through fragmented, multi-layered compositions, their artistic perspectives examine our evolving relationship with the natural and built environment. Whether translating the tactility of skin into woven textiles, freezing and reinterpreting mundane moments, or integrating AI-generated imagery with historical materials, these works evoke a deep emotional resonance. Together, they reflect on the fragility of human experience, the weight of nostalgia and cultural memory, and the quiet unease of an era shaped by environmental shifts, rapid technological advancements, and societal change.
Areté Space
Established in 2023
Beijing
Areté Space presents three artists exploring the emotional shifts of humanity in a post-truth era. Zhengyong Liu’s paintings capture inner turmoil within distorted realities, using expressive, rough brushstrokes to reflect complex psychological states in a repressive world. Guobao Chen paints intimate snapshots of travel and love, documenting fleeting moments of connection in the midst of secular life. Liu Shi’s multimedia installations merge historically charged materials with deepfake imagery, confronting the viral spread of instant emotions on social media and scrutinising generative AI’s destabilisation of historical truth.
Guobao Chen, 4 Feasting on Youth 4, 2019, oil painting stick, oil, bar code, canvas on board, 28 x 21 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Areté Space
Astra Art
Established in 2022
Shanghai
Astra Art features three artists who examine cultural values and our contemporary perception of nature. Baoyang Chen’s reflective, animalistic sculpture incorporates new media to question our relationship with animals in the digital age of AI. Shenghao Mi’s paintings focus on nocturnal creatures, exploring the limits of human perception when behaviours in nature remain unseen. Fang Yu’s paintings invite viewers to peer into artificial landscapes through the iconic windows of Chinese gardens, prompting an interrogation of the very lens through which we observe and imagine nature.
Shenghao Mi, The Tempest, 2023, acrylic on canvas, 100 x 150 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Astra Art
Cub_ism_ Artspace
Established in 2020
Shanghai
Zheng Lanxiong’s installation unfolds as a dreamscape. The artist presents intimate images of fear and nostalgia in a washroom-like environment. Exquisitely rendered tempera-on-board paintings capture fleeting moments—such as the sensation of losing teeth—evoking a déjà vu familiarity that is at once distant and personal. This introspective space reflects the artist’s introverted nature and a quiet longing to be heard—an emotion deeply resonant with urban life.
Zheng Lanxiong, DOLL, 2024, tempera on board, 20 x 30 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Cub_ism_Artspace
FIM
Established in 2024
Seoul
Sujin Lee’s work suspends moments from daily life, like cinematic snapshots that encapsulate complex emotions, inviting contemplation on the vulnerability of human existence. Quiet yet potent, her paintings—depicting fingers typing on a keyboard, a hand holding a silver spoon against a dark background, or a car sinking into water—convey subtle yet intense anxiety. Her soft-felt sculptures, such as a campfire or a submerged car, transform unsettling psychological states into tactile, delicate forms.
Sujin Lee, Way Home Night (detail), 2022, wool felt, 22.5 x 16.5 x 5 cm
Courtesy of the artist and FIM
Galerie Pici
Established in 2003
Seoul, New York
Shinduk Kang reinterprets still-life compositions and terracotta sculptures through expressive colours and dynamic forms. Kang’s innovative lenticular prints blend traditional motifs with vibrant hues and fluid lines, infusing plants and everyday objects with a sense of movement. These rhythmic compositions create mesmerising moments, inviting contemplation on the vitality of life, transient beauty, and cultural aesthetics.
Shinduk Kang, Tulip, 2025, lenticular, 90 x 62 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Pici
Gallery CNK
Established in 2019
Daegu
Two artists explore emotional intensity through a feminine lens, pushing the surface of their mediums to both reveal and conceal. Sookyoung Lee’s paintings have strikingly hued lines and ambiguous shapes. The seemingly naïve interplay of abstract forms suggests the potential for interaction, yet the stillness of the flat surface hints at underlying tensions beyond the weight of colour. Inspired by childhood memories of her grandmother sewing, Jaeeun Jeon incorporates everyday materials—fabric, thread, drawers, and wooden boxes—to construct new symbols and meanings. Through her carefully composed, sensuous works, she invites viewers to explore their own nostalgia.
Jaeeun Jeon, A Letter in a Drawer, 2022, mixed media and fabric on canvas, 36 x 51 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Gallery CNK
Intersections
Established in 2012
Singapore
Intersections Gallery presents three artists reflecting on Southeast Asia’s evolving landscapes and cultural narratives. Nge Lay layers archival images with contemporary photography, using cyanotype, blue negatives, and stamp-like visuals to explore the cyclical nature of existence while questioning how memory and history are shaped over time. Gede Sayur blends traditional Balinese religious painting techniques with elements of popular culture, offering a playful yet thoughtful take on mass tourism’s influence on Bali’s environment and heritage. Poet and artist Maung Day captures his travels through Arakanese towns with stark sketches documenting the shifting realities of Myanmar’s changing landscape.
Maung Day, Children Playing Near the Prison Wall One Sun Is Enough 2, 2024, acrylic on paper, 55 x 77 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Intersections Gallery
Ivory Gate Gallery
Established in 2023
Shanghai
Ivory Gate Gallery presents a solo exhibition by Atticus Gordon, whose installation reflects an idiosyncratic world through paintings and sculptures. Rooted in early training in model-making—where exploration of creative and tactile skills such as gardening, painting, and construction was encouraged—Gordon’s sculptures take the form of miniature dioramas that blur the boundaries between art and architecture. Meanwhile, the paintings navigate the space between figuration and abstraction, often featuring bold, painterly brushstrokes and striking colour contrasts. Depicting humans within an ambiguous fusion of natural and manmade settings, these works evoke a sense of inexplicable emotion, drawing viewers into a world that resists straightforward interpretation.
Atticus Gordon, Diamond Star, 2024, oil on panel, 9 x 12”
Courtesy of the artist and Ivory Gate Gallery
Meno Parkas Gallery
Established in 1997
Kaunas
Meno Parkas Gallery presents three artists whose works reconstruct their worlds in the passage of time. Remigijus Treigys’ photographs capture empty cityscapes. Produced on toned silver gelatin print in limited edition, where its negative is destroyed after printing, the analogue photographs are textured with dust and scratches, making the transient of time. Gabrielė Aleksė’s paintings depict a fictional world where unknown architectures meet the sky and water, seemingly freezing a moment to infinity. Aistė Ambrazevičiūtė’s video installation incorporates tree barks, 3D sculptures and moving images, projecting a digital ecosystem that is self-generating and draws reference to historical plants such as lichen in a forest that grows and decays beyond a human’s sense of time.
Aiste Ambrazeviciute, Forest Tectonics, 2022
Courtesy of the artist and Meno Parkas Gallery
MJK Gallery
Established in 2022
Tokyo
MJK Gallery presents two artists who engage with the fleeting sensations of experiencing the world. Satoshi Otsuka assembles cut-into-strip photographs into a single image beneath clear acrylic rulers. The resulting work offers a new perspective on nature, challenging human’s notion of nature as absolute truth. In another piece, a soft light pulses within an old clock, evoking a poetic sense of time—much like the ephemeral blue moment when the sky lingers in an afterglow before dusk. Daiki Nishimura’s works unfold through two labour-intensive stages. First, landscape photographs are altered through scraping and incense burning, with aluminium drawings incorporated to create a weathered texture. These manipulated images then serve as inspiration for Nishimura’s paintings, which depict wildfires and rain disasters driven by human impact on nature. The work compels viewers to reflect on their role in facing environmental catastrophe.
Satoshi Otsuka, Puzzle #30, 2016, cibachrome, mounted on acrylic glass rulers, acrylic frame, 44 x 49 x 6 cm
Courtesy of the artist and MJK Gallery
Monolog Gallery
Established in 2022
Belgrade
Monolog Gallery presents a collection of sculptural works by Ema Bregovic, where tactile textures meet geometric structures. At the heart of the installation is a reinterpretation of the famous Marilyn’s Dress—an iconic garment transformed into angular, diamond-like sculptures. These reflective pieces play with light and shadow, reinforcing the contrasts between permanence and ephemerality. By stripping away their historical allure, these objects are suspended between hardness and fragility, transcending their status as mere symbols of wealth and carrying broader cultural significance.
Ema Bregovic, Vera I (from the Vera series), 2025, faceted reflective alloy, mineral-organic sediment, 60 x 30 x 25 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Monolog Gallery
None Project C14 Gallery
Established in 2012
Shanghai, Tokyo
None Project C14 Gallery presents three artists who unveil hidden dimensions of nature and human experience. Yao Sun channels intense emotion through dynamic brushstrokes and enigmatic colours, crafting undulating “waves” of the cosmic unknown that evoke a deep connection between nature and the human spirit. Fu Yu embraces photography as both documentation and sketching, capturing overlooked scenes in monochrome to reveal the elusive order underlying everyday life. Weiyi Zhang employs rubbing techniques to preserve the organic textures of nature in clay, layering natural materials into intricate imprints that reflect growth and transformation over time.
Fu Yu, Reflection of River Rocks, 2019, gelatin silver print mounted to board image, 19.5 x 22.4 cm
Courtesy of the artist and None Project C14 Gallery
Swanfall Gallery
Established in 2022
London
Three artists navigate the fluid boundaries of perception, materiality, and meaning, each reconsidering how we decode and construct reality. Miao Jialong envisions a future where organic and mechanical life converge, crafting ceramic fossils that blur the lines between nature and technology. Jiahao Qiu reinvigorates traditional ink painting with bold abstractions, using fishhooks as metaphors for desire and societal tension. Fernando M. Romero treats painting as a translational device, layering fragments of text, music, and images to explore the shifting nature of communication.
Jiahao Qiu, Hand, 2021, ink on paper, 150 x 150 x 5 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Swanfall Gallery
The Locker Room
Established in 2020
New York
Faustine Badrichani’s mixed media work explores the metamorphosis of the environment and the quiet endurance of womanhood. Influenced by growing up in a natural environment with a father working as a geologist in a gypsum factory, a connection to matter, transformation, and the sensitivity of the life cycle runs through the artist’s practice. A woven tapestry, inspired by a body print, translates the tactility of skin into the language of textile, while a triptych preserves the imprint of a breast before mastectomy. In a lightbox piece, medical X-rays collide with watercolour drawings—a reflection of a personal struggle with an autoimmune condition. Direct plaster-on-wire sculptures of the female form, marked by a rusted patina, pay tribute to the raw elements of an upbringing, grounding the body in the materiality of the earth. Curated by Aurore Vullierme for The Locker Room.
Faustine Badrichani, Lena, 2024, ink and pigments on paper, 140 x 200 cm
Courtesy of the artist and The Locker Room
Yiwei Gallery
Establish in 2019
Los Angeles
Yiwei Gallery presents a duo exhibition featuring Dai Ying and Chan 13, exploring the meditative nature of time. Dai Ying’s colourful paintings on Xuan paper reflect a deep connection to natural forces and energy fields. Recurring lines and circular forms create a contemplative space for personal identity and transformation. Chan 13, drawing from his practice in horology and traditional Chinese wooden architecture, reinterprets structural principles and mechanical movements of precision instruments through paintings and installations – deconstructing cultural heritage through a contemporary lens. Merging art and design with precision engineering, timekeeping sculptures alongside paintings form a dialogue on time’s fleeting yet enduring presence.
Dai Ying, M-Theory 61, 2024, Chinese pigments, Japanese pigments, acrylic, coloured pencil on Xuan paper, 30 x 48.5 x 4 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Yiwei Gallery
