From 10,000 pennies to a Beatles record haul, the obsessive work of Rutherford Chang heads to Beijing

"Frequently described as a post-conceptualist, the US artist Rutherford Chang (1979-2025) created works from everyday objects, often amassed in large quantities over extended periods. His best-known projects include CENTS (2017-25), a solid block of 10,000 melted pennies, and We Buy White Albums (2013-25), an ever-evolving installation composed of hundreds of vinyl copies of The Beatles' self-titled ninth studio album, commonly known as The White Album because of its largely blank cover."

"Each of these works emerged from a meticulous, almost compulsive, collecting practice that explored the mutable qualities of time and circulation, uncovering unexpected narratives by placing once-identical objects into new patterns and contexts. Both pieces will feature alongside four further works in the exhibition Rutherford Chang: Hundreds and Thousands, which opens this month at UCCA Beijing-a year after the artist's death at the age of 45."

""He had an incredible eye for systems and how they are constructed, which often led him to build systems of his own-whether collecting White Albums or pennies, rearranging newspapers, or rising to the top of the Game Boy Tetris rankings," says the UCCA director Philip Tinari, who was part of the same extended circle of international artists, writers, and creatives living in China at the time Chang was there."

Rutherford Chang (1979–2025) was a US post-conceptualist who created works from everyday objects amassed in large quantities over extended periods. Major projects include CENTS (2017–25), a solid block of 10,000 melted pennies, and We Buy White Albums (2013–25), an evolving installation of hundreds of vinyl copies of The Beatles' self-titled ninth album. Chang collected and displayed first pressings and valued sleeves marked or drawn on by owners. His meticulous collecting practice examined time and circulation by placing once-identical objects into new patterns to reveal unexpected narratives. An exhibition, Rutherford Chang: Hundreds and Thousands, opens at UCCA Beijing a year after his death at 45.

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