GENESIS KAI
Press & VIP vernissage, February 27th, 2026, 6pm – 9pm
The Tension That Holds
ArtVerse is pleased to present "The Tension That Holds," the first solo exhibition in Europe of Korean-Chinese artist Genesis Kai, and the unveiling of an entirely new body of work conceived specifically for the Parisian space. Through prints on hanji, moving images, and installations - including unique Joseon Dynasty antiquities from the artist's grandfather's collection - the exhibition unfolds as a sustained reflection on the act of creating as a form of meditation, continuity, and channeling desire. At the core of Genesis Kai's practice lies the philosophical principle of Pothosophy, a conceptual framework developed by the artist to rethink desire as a structuring force of reality. Drawing from the ancient Greek notion of pothos and resonating with Neo-Confucian philosophy, Pothosophy understands desire as movement and relation, unfolding across multiple intensities within a shared field. This philosophical grounding informs both the visual language and the temporal architecture of the exhibition.
Genesis Kai, After the Altar I (detail), 2026
The ground floor presents a series of unique prints on hanji (traditional Korean mulberry paper). Immersed within the landscapes built by the artist, figures gather, read, play, and converse within crimson‑saturated landscapes. At the center of the space, an installation of Korean antiquities from the Joseon dynasty, drawn from the artist's grandfather's collection, introduces a continuity with the artist's heritage, one that can be traced back to the traditional objects that occupy some of the prints, assembled in the likes of Chaekgado, traditional paintings depicting Korean scholars' objects and libraries.
Genesis Kai, To Drink What The Peak Couldn't Hold (detail), 2026
Descending into the basement, the exhibition becomes an immersive experience. Sixteen video works unfold across digital screens, accompanied by music composed by the artist and based on different sound samples recorded in Chinese and Korean temples.
A central installation echoes a lake, as well as a mirror, attuning to the flowing of water as a symbol of circularity and meditative expansion. The space invites viewers into duration, dispersing attention across multiple temporal streams and reflective surfaces.
The moving images are co-created through Genesis Kai's dialogue with artificial intelligence (AI), which operates as an expanded perceptual field rather than a mere tool. This process mirrors Pothosophy's understanding of desire as distributed across multiple frequencies, allowing continuity to take shape through relation, iteration, and sustained tension. The Tension That Holds invites viewers to remain with complexity, to experience tension as a productive condition, and to recognize continuity as something cultivated through presence, patience, and care.
Genesis Kai, We Took Turns Being "I", 2026
Genesis Kai, While We Held Another World, 2026
About Genesis Kai
Genesis Kai is the AI‑infused persona and alter ego of Ming Shiu, a mixed Korean-Chinese new media artist whose work bridges visual art and metaphysical inquiry. Through Genesis, Shiu explores Pothosophy, her original framework treating desire not as lack, but as the tension that binds the world into form. Working across video installation, print on Hanji, and AI-driven collaboration, her practice reframes East Asian heritage, diasporic memory, and symbolic duality as sacred sites of investigation. Rather than archive culture, Genesis Kai lets it ache, float, and transform. Her art is not about representing identity; it's about holding contradictions as fields of duration where philosophical architecture bleeds ancestral symbols so meaning is held, not owned.
Several works in this exhibition trace their origins to earlier presentations across major international art fairs. Every Shade of Crimson I and II debuted at Art Dubai 2025, marking the first emergence of Genesis Kai's crimson cosmology. Later that year, Every Shade of Crimson III and the diptych She Bleeds in Three Tenses were shown at Paris Photo 2025, deepening the visual and philosophical language of ache, inheritance, and symbolic duality. The Tension That Holds brings these threads together for the first time, extending them into a unified, long-form conceptual body of work grounded in the artist's framework of Pothosophy.
Artist's CV
Education
BFA Photography and Imagining, Minor in Psychology, NYU, 2022
Recipient of the Spring Tisch Scholarship
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Selected Exhibition History
(2025) Dallas Aurora, Public Art Installation, AT&T Plaza Media wall, AT&T Discovery District, Dallas, USA
(2024) NFC Lisbon: 6060 Art Show, Immersive Exhibition at Pavilhão Carlos Lopes, Lisbon, Portugal
(2024) Group Show "Beyond Words", Galerie Ora-Ora, Hong Kong, SAR
(2024) Sheng 2.0, CIFRA, Curated by Snow Yunxue Fu, New York, USA
(2023) CIFRA: Escape | Ars Electronica, Curated by Lev Manovich, Linz, Austria
(2023) Boulevart Dubai, Curated by Auronda Scalera and Alfredo Cramerotti, Art in Space Dubai, UAE
(2023) NFT Paris, Robotic Art Installation, VR Metaverse Experience by AiKa Art, Paris, France
(2022) VOIC Hub, Digital Art and AR Sculpture presented with DSLcollection, Art Institute Vienna, Austria (2022) Asia Now Paris, Robotics Art Installation with Doosan Robotics, P21 Gallery, Paris, France
(2021) VRWSpark, with NYU, Shenzen Pingshan Art Museum, DSLCollection, New York and Shenzen
Genesis Kai, To Write What The Paintings Already Knew (detail), 2026
Selected Fair Participation
(2025) Paris Photo, Digital Sector, with Arverse Gallery, Paris, France
(2025) Art Dubai Digital, with Artcube R2R, Dubai, UAE
(2024) KIAF, Invited by KIAF for special Exhibition, Seoul, Korea
(2024) Enter Art Fair, with Sanji Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
(2024) Art Dubai Digital, with Immaterika Gallery, Dubai, UAE
(2024) Digital Art Fair Asia, selected Prestige Artist, with Galerie Ora-Ora, Hong Kong, SAR
(2023) Asia Now, with Galerie Ora-Ora, Paris, France
(2023) NFT Paris, with Aika, Paris, France
(2022) Asia Now, with P21 Gallery, Paris, France
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Notable Collections
Sebastien Borget, Co-Founder of The Sandbox
Sylvain Levy, Co-Founder of DSLcollection
Peggy Yeoh Lee, Co-Founder of the Lee Family Foundation of Sun Hung Kai Group
Sungkwang Medical Foundation, Cha Hospital Group, Korea
Fanny Lakoubay, Co-Founder of 100collectors
Kelly LeValley, Founder of Mint Gold Dust
Exhibition informations
Press contact
Exhibition duration: February 27 – March 12, 2026
Opening hours: Monday, Tuesday (11am~5pm); Wednesday to Saturday (1pm~8pm)
Address: Artverse Gallery, 5bis Rue de Beauce, 75003, Paris
Peiyao Qui