Outsiders Everywhere

Group show
Max Berry, Peter Hong-Tsun Chan, William Grob, Jochen Mühlenbrink and Marcos Sánchez
Tabula Rasa Gallery Beijing
22 March – 3 May 2025

Tabula Rasa Gallery is pleased to announce the group exhibition Outsiders Everywhere will open on March 22, 2025 at our Beijing space. The exhibition invites William Leung as curator and brings together five artists — Max Berry, Peter Hong-Tsun Chan, William Grob, Jochen Mühlenbrink and Marcos Sánchez — who, despite their diverse cultural backgrounds, collectively explore the intricate interplay between reality and illusion, the individual and the collective, and history and the present in their artistic practices.

Jochen Mühlenbrink (b.1980, based in Düsseldorf and Oldenburg) manipulates the viewer’s perception of reality through the technique of Trompe-l'œil, blurring the boundaries between surface appearance and the true essence. Similarly, William Grob (b.1992, based in Berlin) navigates the complexities of communication in his figurative paintings, exploring how the physicality of a subject can function as a language in itself. Both artists experiment with materials and viewing experiences, creating a space where “deceptive” truths abound—constantly reminding us that vision is not a passive act of reception, but an active construction of reality.

Peter Hong-Tsun Chan (b.1985, based in Toronto) deconstructs identity, pop culture, and collective memory through his paintings. Drawing from Eastern and Western cultural symbols, he reimagines historical narratives and intervenes in macro social and cultural systems through the lens of individual experience. In his work, viewers encounter the ambiguity of cultural identity while sensing the redefinition of traditional values within modern society. This reshaping of history finds its counterpart in the works of Marcos Sánchez (b.1980, based in Santiago), where the fusion of images and painting evokes personal memories, cultural metaphors, and fragments of dreams—breaking free from the constraints of linear time. Max Berry (b.1987, based in Sydney) intensifies this dialogue, with works that serve as meditative spaces, prompting the viewer to reflect on the delicate balance between emotions.

The five artists collectively examine the fluidity and uncertainty of reality in different ways. They do not merely “present” their cultural experiences but engage in a dynamic collision of ideas, reflecting and challenging each other through their works. These pieces do not offer singular cultural narratives but generate new meanings through their interplay and mutual influence. In doing so, they invite the viewer to reconsider the constructs of reality, identity, and perception within diverse cultural contexts, suggesting that these concepts are always open to redefinition. Ultimately, the exhibition does not offer answers but rather engages in an ongoing, complex dialogue about the nature of what we see and how we understand it.

About the curator

William Leung has gained attention as one of the most engaged and foresighted art dealers and advisors in the field of contemporary art. He started exploring contemporary art as a young collector in the early 2010s and built strong connections with peer collectors, galleries, and artists all over the world. During that time, he has witnessed a lot of the backstage of the art world. Utilizing his connections, experience and knowledge, he has helped transform young collections into important collections, and has helped artists navigate the art world.

In 2020, during the year that the global pandemic started, Leung co-founded ATM Gallery in the Lower East Side in New York to support and encourage the art world. He is most enthusiastic about introducing young emerging artists who haven’t had their talent recognized or shown before in the art world. His goal is to help them find a path in their early careers and eventually raise their profile nationally and internationally. Leung has expanded his career as a gallerist and has opened his own galleries: Long Story Short in NYC and Paris.


About the artists

Max Berry (b. 1987) based in Sydney, creates paintings that function as quiet prompts for contemplation, exploring universal dichotomies—birth and death, love and loneliness, anxiety and wonder—while rendering real objects as felt experiences shaped by memory and time. His paintings serve as tools for thinking, inviting viewers to construct their own narratives. They also highlight the tension between meaning and its absence, warning of disbelief’s ability to strip the world of significance. Berry’s work offers viewers an experience of time—time to reflect, remember, and generate new ideas. He speaks our shared language of symbols, drawing on collective memory to charge the mundane with the sublime.

Peter Hong-Tsun Chan (b. 1985) born in Hong Kong and currently based in Toronto. He explores themes of superstition, identity, popular culture, traditions, and gender ideologies through autobiographical painting. His work distorts and reconstructs contemporary figures, drawing from historical and modern references to create new narratives. Chan’s current practice is centred on the dissection of the probabilistic concept of chance in both social and visual culture. Defined as operating outside the purview of oneself, chance and its many manifestations such as accident and luck, when incorporated into artistic processes, speak directly to questions of aesthetic and social philosophy. Through his newest work, Chan explores anew the concept of chance within the larger framework of socioculturalism.

William Grob (b. 1992) is British-Swiss artist born in 1992, currently lives/works in Berlin. William Grob’s figurative paintings navigate the complexities of communication, exploring how the physicality of a subject can function as a language in itself. Drawing from personal history, his work exists in a liminal space between memory and fantasy, utopia and dystopia. Through vivid visual worlds, Grob captures the unspoken—where daydreams and unarticulated truths merge. His ambiguous compositions respond to the pulse of the present moment, reflecting fragments of literature, travel, and fleeting emotions.

Jochen Mühlenbrink (b. 1980), who lives and works in Düsseldorf and Oldenburg, is known for his Trompe-l’œil paintings, which blur the line between reality and illusion. His work challenges perception by manipulating surfaces, reflections, and distortions, playing with what we assume to be real. Mühlenbrink has exhibited across Europe, including at Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven, Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, Kunsthal Rotterdam, and Museum Het Valkhof. In 2022, his practice expanded into Asia with a debut at Cuturi Gallery in Singapore, followed by exhibitions in Shanghai, Taipei, Tokyo, and Seoul. That same year, he made his U.S. solo debut at Long Story Short in Los Angeles, followed by a New York City exhibition in 2023. His work is part of major public and private collections, including Museum X (Beijing), G2 Kunsthalle (Leipzig), Deutsche Bundesbank, and ING Bank (Amsterdam).

Marcos Sánchez (b. 1980) based in Santiago, is a Chilean visual artist, animator, and filmmaker. Though he declares drawing as the basis for all of his work, his practice covers a wide range of mediums, including painting, animation, sculpture and video installations. Characterized by a bold use of color and figuration, his work combines elements of personal memory and current visual culture into unsettling, humorous and sometimes nostalgic compositions. His moves fluidly between painting, animation, and mixed media installations, creating works that inhabit a dreamlike space where personal memory, cultural references, and the passage of time converge. His paintings and moving images capture moments in transition, caught between past and present, the personal and the universal.