Rutherford Chang (1979-2025) made art with a sense of wonder and a ritualistic discipline, assembling everyday artifacts of mass culture into projects that hinted at an elusive completeness. From secondhand copies of The Beatles’ The White Album, to illustrations taken from The Wall Street Journal during a single year, to American copper pennies, he built collections over which he exerted careful stewardship, coaxing meaning from both the principles by which they were organized and the material specificities of the individual items they contained. Collaged, sorted, or otherwise presented, they come to comment on the inexorable passage of time and the limits of human endeavor.

This exhibition gathers several of Chang’s most important works, created during the more than two decades during which he was active. Taken together, they leave us with a portrait of an artist whose distinct approach continued in the vein of conceptual pioneers such as On Kawara and Tehching Hsieh—artists whose durational works attest, above all, to the power of art and the survival of the artist against all odds. That Chang’s life ended too soon only makes his work more poignant.

“Rutherford Chang: Hundreds and Thousands” is co-curated by UCCA Director Philip Tinari and Aki Sasamoto. This exhibition is presented in collaboration with the Estate of Rutherford Chang. Exclusive wall solutions support is provided by Dulux. UCCA also thanks the members of UCCA Foundation Council, International Circle, and Young Associates, as well as Lead Partner Aranya, Lead Art Book Partner DIOR, Lead Imaging Partner vivo, Presenting Partner Bloomberg, and Supporting Partners AIA, Barco, Dulux, Genelec, SKP Beijing, Stey, and Wanbo Media Group.

In conjuction with the exhibition, UCCA presents a series of public programs that aim to open up multiple perspectives for understanding and experiencing the artistic practice of Rutherford Chang. On the exhibition’s opening day to the public, the two exhibition curators, UCCA Director Philip Tinari and artist Aki Sasamoto, will engage in a conversation with Danielle Chang, who established the Estate of Rutherford Chang in 2025, discussing artistic practices and critical reflections under the theme “Hundreds and Thousands.” Following the talk, the curators will lead audiences through the exhibition hall, offering insight into the exhibition’s conceptual framework and the ideas embedded within the works.

Rutherford Chang’s practice is grounded in archival methodologies. Through a systematic act of collecting, cataloguing and archiving, he enbues objects with layered historical and cultural significance. In works such as We Buy White Albums, each object carries both specific material history as well as traces of personal memory. This archival approach also extends into the artist’s daily life. During the exhibition period, UCCA will present an archiving workshop designed to help participants understand Chang’s sustained exploration of the dynamic relationship between people and objects, while guiding them in establishing their own systems of everyday archiving and memory practice.

Additionally, the academic conversation will take place during the exhibition period. Centered on Chang’s artistic practice, the conversation will unfold along key threads including the materiality of media, noise and displacement in processes of reproduction, and strategies of recontextualization. Through these perspectives, the panel will examine how Chang’s works reflect the paradoxes of an era defined by mass production, and how they, in turn, give rise to new pathways for cultural narratives. For further information and scheduling updates, please follow UCCA’s official social media.

Rutherford Chang (1979-2025) was a New York–based conceptual artist. He received his B.A. in Psychology from Wesleyan University in 2002. Chang’s major solo exhibitions include: “We Buy White Albums” (Lawrence Arts Center, Lawrence, 2023; Verge Center for the Arts, Sacramento, 2017; Tokyo Wonder Site Hongo, Tokyo, 2015; FACT, Liverpool, 2014); “Game Boy Tetris” (Galeria SKALA, Poznań, 2018; The Container, Tokyo, 2016). His work has been exhibited in group exhibitions internationally at institutions, such as: “Memory Palace in Ruins” (Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab, Taipei, 2023); “I am Here: Home Movies and Everyday Masterpieces” (Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 2022); “NOTHINGTOSEENESS- Void/White/Silence” (Akademie der Künste, Berlin, 2021); “Black Album/White Cube” (Kunsthal Rotterdam, Rotterdam, 2020); “Hyper! A Journey into Art and Music” (Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, 2019); “Spin: Turning Records Into Art” (KMAC Museum, Louisville, 2018); “Real Live Online” (Rhizome & The New Museum, New York, 2016); “Coloring” (Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, 2014); “Do a Book” (White Space, Beijing, 2012); “Fast Futures: Asian Video Art” (Queens Museum of Art, New York, 2006); “Insomnia” (Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, 2005); “SENI” (Singapore Art Museum, Singapore, 2004); “Butternut Ink” (Asian American Arts Center, New York, 2004); “AIM 23” (The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, 2003); “Global Priority” (Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning, New York, 2002).