Tianyu Zhou：It's a Natural Cause

Ginkgo Space will present It’s a Natural Cause, the first solo exhibition by its represented artist Tianyu Zhou, opening on December 13, 2025.

The literal translation of the Chinese exhibition title is A Thousand Ambiguous States of The Orange. Each orange exists as a stable and tangible entity within the material world, while a subtle and ambiguous force constantly shapes its countless nuances and variations. Under the constant influence of this force, the orange remains immersed in an indefinable state. An ontological ambiguity underlies the orange’s clear and solid physical appearance, forming a thousand different endings of the orange. This process results in the repetitive pattern of natural cycles, and leaves traces of decay and disappearance. The English exhibition It’s a Natural Cause emphasizes presenting the cause of the orange’s end.

For Tianyu Zhou, painting is an ongoing process of self-dialogue and self-inquiry, as if she were playing chess against herself. Her intuition and memories are encoded within her works, and become the puzzles she is trying to solve. She explores the ineffable and preverbal spaces in painting, discovers contradictions and awkwardness in daily life. Her practice finds a pathway in between abstraction and figuration, subjectivity and objectivity, and in the naturally passing flow of time. She seeks to resolve the puzzles of shapes, symbols, forms, and endings. 

Tianyu Zhou was born in 2000 in Shanghai, and is now based in London. She holds an MFA from the Ruskin School of Fine Art, University of Oxford, and a BFA from the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London.