Hosted by CAFA, organized by the Printmaking Department of CAFA, CAFA Art Museum, planned by Su Xinping and Jin Jun, the exhibition features 35 prints of Jin Shangyi’s Classics. Among them 15 oil paintings, including “Tajik Bride”, “Plateau Love”, “Zhan Jianjun”, “Old Farmer from Yan’an”, “Huang Binhong”, etc., the classic works of the 1980s and 1990s; there’ are 20 prints and sketches, presenting the journey of the early exploration of Jin, which had been always adored by students. The exhibition aims to offer a chance for the public to enjoy the classics and the art lovers to study them closely. As Yue Jieqiong said, Jin Shangyi was an important figure in studying modern Chinese art history, especially the history of oil painting, and his works are exemplary. Therefore, it not only expands the propagation effect of the classics, but also offers the public an improved knowledge of the print of the classics, certainly for some, especially collectors who are able to improve the ability to appreciate the works. The introduction of these prints of classic works reduce the distance between the master and the public, who are able to visit the exhibition, see the album, and buy it. Works are presented in the F4 Exhibition Hall, and lasts until May 26, 2013.

About the exhibition

Duration: May 15 – May 26, 2013

Venue: F4 Exhibition Hall of CAFA Art Museum

Opening Time: 15:00 pm, on May 15, 2013

Organizers: Department of Printmaking of CAFA, CAFA Art Museum Curators: Su Xinping, Jin Jun Exhibition Coordinators: Wang Huangsheng, Tang BinEditor of the Atlas: Yue Jieqiong

Designer of the Catalogue: Lu Ying

Designer of the Exhibition: Yi Yi

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

This exhibition is a large scale show to summarize and review the artistic career of Yu Ben, featuring the works from the collections of Yu Ben’s family and Guancheng Art Museum, including the sketches of Yu Ben. There are clues to the artist’s experiences over the years, the exhibition is divided into three parts, including “Memory of Hong Kong”, “Portrayal of the South of Guangdong Province”, and “Northern Sentiment”, this system is a comprehensive display of the artistic achievement of Yu Ben.

Part one “Memory of Hong Kong”: starts from 1935 when he returned to Hong Kong from Canada through to 1956, during which Yu portrayed the shape and appearance of the mountains and the sea, around Hong Kong, as well as the changing colors, at the same time, depicting the vivid and light feelings of the water towns and villages around the Xiangjiang River in watercolours.

Part two “Portrayal of the South of Guangdong Province”: from 1959 to 1979, Yu Ben visited the local areas of Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan Provinces, and he had an intense and intimate relationship with the ecological characteristic and feeling of the rivers and lakes in the fishing villages in the Guangdong waters with the use of a bright colours and light stroke.

Part three “Northern Sentiment”: From the 1960s to the 1970s, Yu was invited to visit northern China, including Shaoshan, Yangtze River, Beijing, Yan’an, and Heilongjiang, etc., it’s obvious that the artist was trying to express his inner feelings in a new way through these works: the free and easy strokes, simple blocks of color, are in sharp contrast to the fresh composition, to illustrate the open fields and mountains, depicting the unique style of the North.

About the artist

Yu Ben (1905-1995), formerly named Yu Jianben, a noted oil painter, was born in Taishan County, Guangdong Province, he went to Canada for overseas study when he was 13 years old, and graduated from the Andriole College of Art, a prestigious art school in Canada in 1931. Returned to Hong Kong to create and teach in 1935, Yu was a pioneer in the development of Western painting art in Hong Kong. Invited by the Chinese government, his family settled in the mainland in 1956. Yu created more than one thousand oil paintings from the 1930s to the 1980s, many of which have featured in national and international exhibitions.

Yu Ben served in the National People’s Congress, the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the Committee of China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, Director of Chinese Artists Association, the Guangdong Provincial Committee for Oversea Chinese Affair, Vice Chairman of Guangdong Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles, Vice Chairman of Guangdong Provincial Artists Association, Vice President of Guangdong Painting Institute.

About the exhibition

Exhibition Title: The Beauty of the Earth – Sketches by Yu ben

Organizers: CAFA Art Museum, Guangdong Painting Institute, Guancheng Art Museum

Duration: May 23 – June 19, 2013 Venue: Gallery 2A of CAFA Art Museum

Opening Time: 15:00 pm, on May 23, 2013

Opening Location: Ground floor of CAFA Art Museum

Academic Advisor: Wang Huangsheng Curators: Tang Bin, Xie JunExhibition Coordinators: Guo Hongmei, Jiang Nan

Visual Design: Yi Yi

Exhibition Operation: Su Shicun

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

The Groninger Museum is proud to present the exhibition FUCK OFF 2, curated by artist and activist Ai Weiwei, art critic Feng Boyi and chief curator of the Groninger Museum, Mark Wilson. This show, which includes 37 contemporary Chinese artists and artist groups, contemplates and questions the current sociological, environmental, legal, and political climate in China today.

The exhibition is a sequel to FUCK OFF, the ground-breaking show staged in Shanghai in 2000 by Ai Weiwei and Feng Boyi, which was quickly censored by the authorities as it was considered too sensitive with its radical content.

Thirteen years later, the lack of artistic freedom in China and the repressive attitude toward individual actions by the government make FUCK OFF 2 especially relevant today.

A catalogue will be published in conjunction with the exhibition, with contributions by the curators and the artists.

Groninger Museum

Participating artists: Ai Weiwei, Chen Yujin & Chen Yufan, Cheng Li, Deng Dafei & He Hai, Double Fly Art Center, He Chi & Xiong Huang Group, He Xiangyu, He Yunchang, Huang Lin, Ji Wenyu & Zhu Weibing, Jiang Bo, Jin Feng, Jing Kewen, Li Binyuan, Li Songsong, Liang Shuo, Lin Zhipeng, Luo Yang, Ma Qiusha, Ma Yi, Mao Tongqiang, Meng Huang, Qin Ga, Ren Hang, Wu Huaying & Liu Xiaoyuan, Wu Junyong, Xi Mei, Xia Xing, Ye Haiyan, Zhang Dali, Zhao Zhao, Zuoxiao Zuzhou.

Ai Weiwei & the Groninger Museum:

The Groninger Museum hosted the second solo museum exhibition by Ai Weiwei in 2008. The museum has also acquired the works WATER MELONS, 2007 and GRAPES, 2009 directly from the artist for the Museum Collection (with the support of the Mondriaan Fund and the BankGiro Loterij).

Courtesy of the Groninger Museum, for further information please visit www.groningermuseum.nl.

Janusz Jutrzenka-Trzebiatowski is a famous and esteemed artist, a graduate from the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. His works can be found in over ninety museums and collections in Poland and all over the world. This outstanding painter, sculptor, set designer, poet, medal and poster artist, gave to the city of Chojnice, his hometown, part of his magnificent works of art, which are presented now on the five floors of the historic tower. There are oil and pastel paintings from the “Pejzaż Chmur” (Landscape of clouds), “Studium do portretu” (Portrait Study), “Wierzby” (Willows), “Wierrzboformy” (Willow-forms), “Pejzaż muzyczny” (Musical Landscape), “Ptaki” (Birds), “Nad wodą” (By the water), “Światła w wodzie” (Light in the water) “Studium pejzażu” (Landscape study), “Pieta” (Pietà), “Tatry” (The Tatra Mountains), “Pejzaż siana” (Landscape of hay), “Tryptyk Armenii (Triptych of Armenia) or “Forma biologiczna” (Biological Form) cycles. The artist’s first works in medal art are projects of tourist and occasional badges. Most of them are the badges devoted to the Beskidy and Tatra Mountains and the ones connected to various events and institutions. Mr Janusz Trzebiatowski is also a collector. His collections are a kind of documentation of the artist’s various travels. The carved-in-wood 16th-Century figure of Buddha is the oldest exhibit in the Janusz Jutrzenka-Trzebiatowski’s Museum. The collection also includes: a statue of St. Florian (17th Century), a statue of St. Anna (middle of the 18th Century), a Ming Dynasty porcelain vase from China, an engraved Persian jug, an 18th-Century sacral fabric, a Romanism-style stone crucifix presenting Christ’s Passion, and an Afghan samovar or sculptures made in walrus tusks.

About the exhibition

Opening: Saturday May 18 2013

Exhibition periods: May 18 – June 18, 2013

Exhibition Location: Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art (No. 27 Duolun Road)

Organizers: STEIN&KORNOWSKA SP.z.O.O

KORNOWSKA RENATA

Janusz Jutrzenka-Trzebiatowski’s Museum in Chojnice, Poland

Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art Rougart Collection

Supporter: General Consulate of Poland

Polish-Chinese Chamber of Commerce

Courtesy of the artists and Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, for further information please visit www.duolunmoma.org.

In the artistic creation, how does imagination obtain a visual form by thinking? Feeling, impressions, psychological, memory… Which principle of distribution makes the inspiration come home? During the experience of transforming an idea into the implement, what is the interesting and necessary transition? The setting of a problem often means the beginning of the communication. In the classroom, teachers and students had a conversation and discussion, which tries to solve the problem, eventually pointing to self-examination or introspection. Therefore, any ambitious state of mind, blind obedience or superstition of art, would be restricted by knowledge, judged by rationality, with tolerant exploration. In this sense, after the curatorial concept was completely customized by the students, “fulcrum” was finally selected to be the theme of the exhibition, which has reflected the simple understanding and consensus of the course by the students:

The transformation of an idea course opens a door to the new world and opens up a whole new way of life for us, like Archimedes said, “Give me a fulcrum, and I shall move the world.”

During the seven weeks, six issues served as the “fulcrums” for the different concepts, gradually expanding to various corners of thinking, starting from their respective experiences, the students expanded an adventure “balancing game” around the “fulcrum”, although the results vary, they maintain a high degree of initiative and self-consciousness, and show a stable and sound development, which is a prominent feature of these sophomores.

From class discussion, creation practice, combing through works, to the final curatorial planning, all parts link with each other with a form of note, works, text, and exhibition, which is actually a set of routine work procedures by an artist or creative worker, both reflecting the professionalism of the times, and the respect and responsibility of the self.

Course Instructors: Li Fan, Huang Yang, Zhang Zhandi

Duration: May 14 to June 14, 2013 Venue: F-304, F-308 of Building 5, CAFA

Text by Huang Yang/Printmaking Department, CAFA

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

The Ullens Center for Contemporary Art is pleased to present Wang Xingwei, a mid-career survey of the leading Chinese painter from May 19 through to August 18. The exhibition will feature a grouping of paintings which highlight Wang’s career from 1993 to the present, illustrating both the depth of his painterly talent and the breadth of his explorations over the past two decades. Organized by UCCA Director Philip Tinari in close collaboration with the artist, the exhibition will span the entirety of the UCCA’s iconic Great Hall, the first time this space has ever been given over to a solo retrospective devoted strictly to painting. This is Wang Xingwei’s first major institutional exhibition, and the accompanying catalogue is his most comprehensive monograph to date.

One of the original artists to enter the collection of the Fondation Guy & MyriamUllens, Wang worked last year on the final episode in UCCA’s “Curated By…” series, producing an exhibition of seven young painters whose work explored similar themes to his own. Wang also has a painting on view in the concurrent exhibition “DUCHAMP and/or/in CHINA,” which positions one of Wang’s artistic heroes in relation to the Chinese scene.

In bringing together Wang’s key achievements of the first two decades of his career, this exhibition will contribute significantly to the reassessment and elevation of a key figure in contemporary Chinese art, who through the complexity of his vision proves the depth and richness of the tradition to which he belongs.

“I see the artist as a postman, delivering letters. He should not be overly curious about what is inside the envelopes.”

Born in an industrial city in northeastern China’s Liaoning Province to an ordinary family, Wang Xingwei is an unlikely hero of the Chinese avant-garde. His early training in figurative painting at Shenyang Normal University, a provincial teachers’ college, left him alone and isolated in his native city. Growing up amidst the ’85 New Wave period, a time when Chinese contemporary art was embracing the foreign and conceptual, Wang was subject to a pedagogy that had not been revised according to these trends. But rather than eschew the formal models offered him by the system, Wang has maintained a critical dialogue with his own history by using the techniques he was trained in to interrogate their own logic. His works thus ask the key question: to what other ends can the apparatus of formerly propagandistic painting be put?

In the two decades of his mature output, Wang Xingwei has created an artistic universe all of his own, where references collide, characters recur, and styles proliferate, articulated in a deliciously skilful range of styles. While still working in Shenyang and Haicheng in Liaoning province, Wang was arguably “discovered” by the late Dutch curator Hans van Dijk in the mid-1990s and quickly fell into the Beijing circle around van Dijk, Ai Weiwei, and their experimental gallery China Art Archives and Warehouse. Wang’s early works contain some of the most astute dialogues with Western art history and critiques of the fraught situation of Chinese artists ever produced in China, though he quickly tired of this type of referentiality, which has since become a major trend among the younger generation. In the early and mid-2000s, during an extended sojourn in Shanghai, he developed a distinct world of characters and styles, and a painting based on conscious variation and repetition among these. Nurses, golfers, airline stewardesses, penguins, pandas, old ladies, and cartoon lovers appear and disappear, flickering through Wang’s painterly consciousness, hiding for years at a time, and reappearing undeterred. Like John Currin or George Condo, Wang Xingwei is deeply proficient in numerous painting styles, borrowing entire regimens of technique as if appropriating readymades. Wang Xingwei has been actively reluctant to narrate his own work. Having produced only two catalogues to date, both of which consciously exclude critical commentary, he proposes to let his paintings speak for themselves.

Wang Xingwei’s work has been collected by major private and institutional players including UliSigg, Guy and MyriamUllens, Sammlung Goetz, Lionel Ringier, Cristiane Leister, QiaoZhibing, the Minsheng Art Museum, and the Rubell Family Collection. Selected group and solo shows include: Biennale d’art Contemporain de Lyon (1997); the 1st Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou (2002); Shanghai Biennale (2006); Large Rowboat, GalerieUrsMeile, Beijing (2007); Thirty Years of Chinese Contemporary Art 1979-2009, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai (2010); and The State of Things, Brussels/Beijing, at the National Art Museum of China, Beijing (2010), curated by Fan Di’an, Ai Weiwei, Luc Tuymans and Philippe Pirotte.

Courtesy of the artist and UCCA, for further information please visit Ullens Center for Contemporary Art.

Hosted by the “Art Time” magazine and the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, organized by CAFA Art Museum, “Aesthetic Regime of Art for Now – A Conversation with Jacques Rancière” was held at the Academic Lecture Hall of the CAFA Art Museum, at 14:00 on May 13, 2013, on the subject “What is the Time of Contemporary Art?”, held at the UCCA on May 12, the French philosopher Jacques Rancière, together with a number of Chinese artists and theorists, discussed various issues of contemporary art. The lecture was presided over by He Chi, editor of “Art Time”, and translated by Lu Xinghua, Associate Professor of the Institute of European Culture, Tongji University.

First of all, He Chi placed particular emphasis on “equality”, the view of Rancière, he hoped that the lecture starts from the “equality” base on which the presented guests have an in-depth dialogue”.

The time of contemporary art

At the beginning of the lecture, the dialogue still unfolded in the form of Q & A, Rancière answered the questions about the issues of the time of contemporary art for the guests. Artist Wang Jianwei initially questioned, if contemporary art and contemporary did not share the same time and were not stable, how to make the unstable stable with the correction of knowledge. Rancière answered, first of all he was one of the men breaking into the art world, both as a philosopher and a critic, he believed that people should abandon the two versions of “modernism” and “postmodernism”, paying more attention to the observation of the human subject, so that this “unique time” did not exist, particularly citing the works of Chen Jieren’s “Factory”, which reflect the artistic tendency of appearance at the same time, a permanent experiment.

Yang Beichen, senior editor of the Art Forum said, the time of contemporary art was both indicative and retrospective, how to improve contemporary art, and separate it from modern art? Rancière answered, the “contemporary” and “modern” as being only a title, but the suggested time would often intimidate people, the movement had become the center in modern art, while the time of contemporary art was often highlighted, with many works emerging demonstrating the failure of the use of the feature. And he said the different between modern and contemporary was that modern focused on the individual, while contemporary focused on the creation of form, as well as the question: What is normal time?

Rancière agreed what Wang Jianwei said, that the concept of “breathing space” was resistant to knowledge-based, however, he paid more attention to the current time, currently many art works make use of themes from years ago, which create an effect that is sensitive for the audience – numb – sensitive, that is, our emotions change repeatedly, which require the establishment of a new frame on time.

Revolution and Chinese contemporary art

In the second part of the lecture, the topic was about the ontology of art and aesthetics. Scholars Tie Ying and Yang Beichen asked, if Rancière thought that there would be some differences when “Occupy Wall Street” reached a consensus? Why did “the emotional allocation” become feasible? Rancière believes that consensus was a framework led by the normal appearance of the fact, while paresthesia is “agreeing with the opposition”, no matter how to occupy, the paresthesia has been born and exerted its effect.

According to his personal experience, Wang Jianwei said, when everything expanded in the same environment, it was possible that people lost their thinking, which worked both in society and contemporary art, what we occupied was loyal to the environment. Rancière believed that we must initially understand the meaning of “equality”, in French, the word stood for “search”, associating the unknown and known, Rancière believed that regardless of the current environment, we should still keep “searching”.

Artists Wu Xiaojun and He Chi questioned whether there would be a revolution and “Cultural Revolution” in the future? Rancière believed that the revolution came from nothing, so that it was possible for a revolution in the future. “Cultural Revolution” in the art circles didn not mean that it launched a movement, but practiced on itself, abandoning the status as an expert, into an ignorant position. Lu Xinghua said it should escape from poor knowledge and remove the “academy” from “the legalization of gauge”.

Q & A section

Someone said it was difficult to unify the aesthetic within the community, how can it be maintained? Rancière said, community was not equivalent to the simple collection, and should be the collection of form, discourse, and image, everything was impersonal, we had to break the visibility of the structure, breaking the mainstream and reconstructing it, a community initially existing in our bodies.

Another student questioned the relationships between ideology, revolution and differences, Rancière said it was difficult to correctly understand the environment around them, which resulted in misleading self-awareness, a man thought he could not resist a social structure because he could not understand social structure. Therefore, we had to think about how to jump away from the possibility of their own identities.

About Jacques Rancière Jacques Rancière is a scholar of philosophy, literature, art, film and other media co-authored “Reading Capital/ Lire le Capital”, 1968, with Louis Althusser, in the 90 years, he began to focus on the aesthetic – political study and put forward “Mésentente”, his major monographs including “Ambiguity: Politics and Philosophy”, “Political Edge”, etc. Over the past decade, Rancière’s works have been an important resource to rethink the relationship between the political and the aesthetic, and he’s an important thinker, following Foucault and Derrida.

Journalist: Sun Tianyi, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/ CAFA ART INFO

2P Contemporary is pleased to present “Bright Light Has Much The Same Effect As Ice” a solo exhibition by Lenug Chi Wo. Leung multi-disciplinary practices broach the realms of human connection, historical context, sensory perception and cultural identity across mediums such as video, photography and installation. His work is both reflective and contemplative often flipping conceptual ideals on their heads. Leung is adept at combining historical context with human experience contextualised within a contemporary narrative.

Created first for the Guangzhou Triennial 2012 Leung Chi Wo’s multidisciplinary installation “Bright Light Has Much The Same Effect As Ice” illustrates a project by the artist to re-investigate the lowest temperature ever recorded at the Hong Kong Observatory on the 18th of January 1893 and the “mythologised” notion that the renowned 19 Century photographers studio Pun Lun recorded the event.

A combination of multimedia photographic light boxes, journalistic text from the time and a silver coin minted in the 1983 make up this significant exhibition that will be on show in the gallery throughout Art Basel Hong Kong 2013. At the center of the exhibition lies a four-part light box installation illuminating an image Leung had in his possession of Pun Lun’s work.

“Everything started with this photograph” says Leung. For Leung the people shown in this image create an inarguable link between the modern day viewer and the Nineteenth Century sitters and photographer who experienced the seemingly snow-covered hills of Hong Kong. This creates a linear sense of visceral connection linking all participating parties and traversing a distance of over 100 years. It is within this notion that a conceptual transformation takes place and allows the viewer to see through the photographer Pun Lun’s eyes and experience the 1893 environment.

Leung Chi Wo: Concept image for Bright light has much the same effect as ice, consisting of a studio setting of five men eating around a table photographed by Pun Lun in 1870-75

About the Artist:

Leung Chi Wo was born in Hong Kong in 1968. He attended and graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong with a Master of Fine Art. Notably in 1996 he co-founded Para-Site Art Space, Hong Kong and represented Hong Kong in the first ever Hong Kong pavillion at the 2001 Venice Biennale. Throughout Asia Leung Chi Wo has exhibited with Hong Kong’s Hanart TZ, Asia Art Archive and Para- Site as well as internationally at the Queens Museum of Art, New York and Rokeby Gallery, London. Leung Chi Wo has been included in the Guangzhou Trienniale (2008), the Busan Biennale (2006), Gwangju Biennale (2002), Shanghai Biennale (2000) and most recently the Marrakesh Biennale 2012.

About the exhibition

Exhibition Dates: 17 May – 11 June 2013

Opening Reception: Thursday, 23 May 2013, 5pm – 8.30pm

Venue: 2P Contemporary Art Gallery

Address: 2P Contemporary Art Gallery, G/F, 23 6-20 Po Tuck Street, Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong

Gallery Hours: Tue – Sat. 1 – 7 pm or by appointment

Contact: Tel. +852 2803 2151 | Email : info@2p-gallery.com

Courtesy of the artist and 2P Contemporary Art Gallery, for further information please visit www.2p-gallery.com.

Preface by Miroslav Ambroz

Jan Saudek was born in the spring of 1935, in Prague, that magical, forgotten city somewhere in the mid-dles of Europe where, as he says himself, he lived, lives and will go on living…

His childhood, spent with his brother Kaja, was none too happy. His father was a jew and bank clerk, but after Hitler’s armies occupied Czechoslovakia he was reduced to sweeping the streets, and had to put up with insults and humiliation. Towards the end of the war he was taken away to a concentration camp. Jan and Kaja were also placed in a transfer camp on the Polish border. Fortunately, the war did not last much longer. After the liberation- foreign aid parcels began to arrive in Czechoslovakia, and the two brothers enjoyed not only the chocolate they contained, but also the comics it was wrapped in. These cartoon char-acters “speaking into bubbles” were to affect their whole lives. The pair began drawing their own comics adventures, whose heroes were they themselves. Up to 1948 American papers and magazines such as Time and Life were on sale in Prague, and when, sometime in 1952, Jan was given a little plastic Baby Brownie, it was the photographs in Life that he looked to for inspiration. He was especially enthusiastic about the pictures by Robert Capa, Margaret Bourke-White, Werner Bischof, Gisele Freund and Eugene Smith. But he was unable to make even the most superficial acquaintance with the history of art photog-raphy; though he was a photography apprentice, it was in a printing works, which was quite a different kettle of fish. There they still used the wet colloid process.

The fifties were marked by Stalinism, where a single view prevailed, and all others were not only wrong, but hostile. In the sphere of culture the epoch is identified with total darkness. The Ninth Congress of the Czechoslovak Communist Party in 1949 laid down a firm ideological lines the only recognized form of art was socialist realism. Many journals were abolished (including the only one dealing with art photography, Ceskoslovenska fotografie), and for many years contact with the world outside was virtually cut off. The Iron Curtain had fallen.

All art prior to 1948 was declared schematic, subjective, bourgeois academic pseudo-art, devoid of guiding principles and, what was worse, anti-proletarian. Examples of the correct interpretation of the theory of socialist realism were published pictures with titles such as “Women Feeding Pigs”, “Stakhanovite Signing Her Socialist Contract”, “Ploughing Away the Hedgerows”, or “Meeting at the Factory”.

“It was a terrible time,” Saudek recalls. “You have no idea; the way we live today is like somewhere down in the America… everything you see around you… people talking out loud, cars in the streets none of that even existed. In those days the only people who went round in cars were the police, plain clothes men and government VlP’s in their limousines. Later I heard they’d all been hanged. The party first secretary or someone had swung on the end of a rope like a common criminal. It was a very passionate time. It dragged on into the sixties, then it began to change.”

It was towards the end of the fifties that Jan got hold of the catalogue of Steichen’s exhibition “The Family of Man”, held in 1955 in New York. It was a mosaic-like apotheosis of life, introducing photography as a sort of universal language. DeepIy affected by the message contained in the published photographs, and inspired by the potential of photography as a medium, he tried to create his own humanistic photography, in which man, his dreams and his desires play the dominant role. At the time he also got his first real cameras a Flexaret Va, a binocular reflex with a 6 x 6cm format – in fact, an ordinary people’s camera. He sensitively arranged his pictures, so that they looked like documentary shots of human situations, mainly concerning himself with the visual power of the resulting shot, often to the extent of a certain symbolism. He is attracted by contrasts; his camera lens moves in to take the detail of a child’s defenseless little fist clutched by a muscular male hand, the coarse and the soft, the fragile child’s feet and the metaled army besots striding along together beside the railway line, a pair of lovers joined forever by their bonds. Man in the feeling of loneliness and in the problems of cohabitation, human offspring bom into a merciless world where love and hate exist alongside each other, as do birth and death. He does not wish to fascinate with absurdity, dreamed up scenes and irrational, ambiguous pictures which in fact say nothing, as do many photographers of arranged and subjective scenes, a wave of which appeared at the end of the fifties and the start of the sixties. Above all he wants to tell stories.

In 1963 he had his first exhibition in the small foyer of the avant-garde Na zabradli theatre in Prague. In the same year the ubiquitous secret police moved in. After a search of his flat they confiscated negatives. A trial, followed in which Jan was accused of spreading pornography. The negatives were lost for ever, though there were no pornographic shots among them. The second half of the sixties saw a relaxation in all areas of society. People started to live a little. In the meantime Jan had qualified as a reproduction photographer, done his national service, worked in agriculture, tried to write and to paint, to sing and dance, got married, devoted his attention to gymnastics and girls, arid along with his brother kept up an interest in cartoon strips, creating his own inimitable style, paddled a canoe and shocked his peaceable fellow—citizens by wearing some of the first jeans with multicolored shirts and sunglasses, Cliff Richard style. After the stifling 1950′s people began to breathe more freely; rock and roll, mini-skirts and coiffures were “in”, just as they were elsewhere in the world. Kaja finally had the chance to publish some of what he had been working on and carefully putting away in a drawer for all those years. They had fairly large exhibitions together in Prague, Brno and 0lomouc. In 1969 Jan went to the USA, where he had his first exhibition outside Czechoslovakia, in Bloomington, Indiana, USA, returning filled with inspiration and the resolve to get to the top.

But the liberal atmosphere of the late sixties in Czechoslovakia came to an end with the arrival of Soviet tanks in 1968. The famous “Prague Spring” was over. With its passing came the somewhat sad demise of a whole generation which had met with a broad response both at home and abroad, especially in the sphere of literature, theatre, film, painting and sculpture. Magazines were again stopped from publishing, exhibitions censored without reasons being given, plays taken off programs; books and films disappeared for ever inaccessible store-rooms or to the pulp-mill. No wonder many left their homeland, to vanish somewhere in the distance. The coming of the 1970s seemed to mark the end of a period in the work of Jan Saudek. His marriage was breaking up, and he took refuge in the basement of an apartment house in the suburbs. He began to photograph almost, exclusively indoors. It took him sometime to realize that he had to turn the lamp towards the ceiling in order to produce a soft, diffuse light, and he painted the room grey in order to suppress contrasts even further. The walls; were damp and the paint cracked; fungus made grotesque patterns on the wall. There is a window that doesn’t go anywhere, a wooden floor with a simple mattress and an atmosphere of total isolation from the world around. When he started to make his photo-graphic confession about 20th-century man in this “studio”, he could scarcely have foreseen that he would live there for a full seven years.

In front of the crumbling walls, which become, in the Shakespearian sense, an unchanging stage, on which only the actors change, he photographed the people the “belly of the night” threw up: adolescent girls, women marked by life, pregnant women, couples, and even himself. His arsenal was a very limited one; a few discarded theatrical cos turners, a corset, some dolls, a straw hat, a single 500—watt bulb, an ancient monophonic record player, few crackling records with rowdy rock and roll music and cheap alcohol. During the daytime he worked in a factory and most of his photographs were taken at night during feverish sessions; they contain a little Celine’s bitterness, a little of Fellini’s bizarreness, a little rawness and gentleness, romance and nostalgia.

They are heavily charged with eroticism, without being in the least reminiscent of pornographic magazines. Saudek is fascinated by the whole reproduction cycle of procreation and death, maturation and aging, and he differentiates between the world of man and the world of woman. He is interested in the human body, especially the female body and its metamorphoses; he celebrates female beauty in a whole mosaic of pictures. Saudek glorifies and heroises woman. He depicts her as innocent, provocative, maternal, faithful, enigmatic, proud, dressed, but most of all undressed. “Nakedness is the most natural thing in the world; it makes a woman a woman and a man a man, regardless of whether it is today or a hundred years ago. I undress woman so that she will be eternal” he says himself.

Sometime in the middle of the seventies his work began very distinctly to express the phenomenon of time, the transience of the forms and values of life itself. Franz Kafka wrote: “The decisive attribute of this world is its transience. In this sense centuries mean no more than the present moment. The continuity of transience cannot be any comfort; the fact that new life arises; from ruins is not so much a proof of the persistence of life, as of the persistence of death.” Saudek goes back, and as if in a circle records the same model in the same place at a different time. This gave rise to his first sequences, which he later developed in several variants. Perhaps most effective is the series of three shot is called “Ten Years of Veronica” . He tries to capture the change which has irrevocably stamped itself on the face and body of his model, and how time has even gnawed away at the wall behind her. The theme is also pregnantly expressed in the sequence “Story of Flowers II” , where he photographed a still life with arranged flowers which gradually open, then wither, and then their petals fall, in a series of five shots. In the sixth there is only a framed photograph of the once beautiful blossoming flowers. Time flies, moments are irepeatable, but something does remain. Saudek tries to defy the general passage of time, to stop it – his photographs are the yearning for eternity.

From 1977 he began to hand-tint his prints (it is not without interest that he first played with the idea as early as in 1953). This development is quite logical, on the one hand because Saudek paints as well as being a photographer, but on the other hand because tinting reinforces the artificial effect of his fabricated pictures; they are a further step away from reality and towards romanticism. He went back to his negatives from the fifties and sixties and began adding colour, giving them a new form. He tried to rid them of the here-and-now element, to prevent them from being datable, inclining more towards a certain univer-sality of time and place rather than a specific identification. His encoded message, the stories or images are thus in essence a mystification, with the formal marks of the classical studio work for family albums at the start of this century, reinforced by the artificial coloring which gives them an unreal yet nostalgic atmosphere. They are absurd in their time dimensions in front of the disintegrating wall a procession of people from the second half of the twentieth century passes in the borrowed costumes and poses of their great-grandparents. This absurdity creates a special tension the present and the past, and poses the question of the very essence and meaning of human existence.

At the start of the nineteen eighties further sequences appeared, revealing his love of comic strips. They consisted for the most part of series of six to twelve pictures forming small studies, stories usually having a shocking end, not lacking in grotesque humor or a deeper philosophical message.

Later he confined himself to two pictures only, in the manner of mirror images of the same scene, com-bining illusion and reality, Pairs of models in theatrical poses, allernately dressed and undressed, reminis-cent of old stereoscopes, are a provocative paraphrase of the studio double portrait. A further aspect enters here, a sort of simultaneity of views of the subject from two sides, a duality of reality. Saudek wants to present recto and verso at the same time. These manneristic games with human bodies are at the same time erotic manipulations revealing Saudek’s internal images. In this manner he progresses to “Cards” a series of many photographs where the separation of pictures is abolished by copying the negatives in such a way that they overlap, thus forming a new superreality in which the figures are reflected in themselves, one growing out of the other. They are placed opposite each other like the figures on cards, so that a woman can be seen at the same time dressed and in the nude, from the front and from the rear… and again he seeks the eternal opposites: age and youth, masculinity and femininity, virtue and vice, weakness and strength. This polarity of vision, this tension opens up to him a broad field of motifs and becomes a source of inspiration and a means of defining irreality within the framework of reality.

“Between men and women a merciless struggle is being waged”, he once wrote on one of his photographs… and his works, filled with an almost baroque passion, seem to tell of that unrelenting war and to constitute a deep probing into human sexuality. His figures seem to float in space, attracting and repelling each other at the same time, longing for each other, and at the same time turning away from one another. They fall they creep up from their crumpled rags to the clouds which intermingle with the crumbling plaster… The window is open, and the woman surrendering herself is like a mediaeval icon with the suppliant man on his knees before it. The drama of the projections wells up from an intense experience, gestures and desire.

Saudek tries to put everything into his photographs; he has sacrificed his life to his art. He is living out one of his stories, and thanks to his amazing strength of will and self-discipline (and perhaps also stubbornness), he is able to work even at moments of desperation when others might, turn to alcohol or drugs… In the greyness of days any flash of light on a hill in the distance is a spark of hope which is capa-ble of lighting the fire of vital energy. Often an encouraging letter is enough, and since Saudek is a graphomaniac: waiting for the postman is a time of suspense, and Saturday and Sunday are the worst days of the week, since there is no post. The isolation in which he lives in his own country, where he is practically unknown and the official critics ignore him, is no more than a natural defence against external influences, an attempt to preserve his own internal richness — a natural reaction today, when man is assailed on all sides by information, pictures; images and views are imposed upon him, and he is robbed of the most precious thing he has, his own imagination, his identity. “I’ve built walls which no one can penetrates” Simon and Garfunkel sing in one of their songs. Saudek doesn’t like travelling, and you won’t find him at exhibitions and vernissages (and certainly not his own). He wants to live in his own world, and does not want another one to be forced down his throat.

The whole environment in which Saudek works, the world he has laboriously built, is like a thirteenth chamber, where everthing is allowed, where nothing is real, where there are no rules and no limitations, where reality is a game and games are reality, where day is night, with a shining moon painted on the screen of the starry sky. Where the present is the past, lies are truth, where you can easily forget the whole world. Here in an underground cell, far from the turbid life of the street, his models became willing players in his gairie, faithful accomplices to his dreams, to his tales where the common denominator is love, hope, desire, passion, fulfilment… everything which defies desperation, emptiness and death.

Saudek is above all a passionate disciple of female beauty. His contribution consists mainly in being able to make any woman beautiful through the magic of love. He does not therefore photograph only beautiful, slim girls who fulfil the criteria laid down by the fashion magazines; for him every woman is the most beautiful in the world simply because she is a woman. Woman steps out of the mould stains on the plaster, appears like a phantom, like the demon desire with her body revealed and beckoning from the open window, in front of which Saudek himself kneels with outstretched arms, his muscles tensed as if he had been struck by a bolt of ecstasy, expressively demonstrating his blinding by femininity. This absolute adoration of woman appears in many works but along with it comes another viewpoint: the expression disappointment, desperation. Woman is a weight he at first carries on his back with pride, faithfully, but later the weight begins to wear him down… he gives way, plaintively begs for mercy, grieves. Woman is the target of his thoughts, the substance to which he turns his being. In this his work is perfectly autobiographical; many pictures seem to illustrate his life: a life filled with scandals, dramatics cenes, tension, amorous adventures. And, just as each moment of happiness is bought with hours of unhappiness, so his photographs are something he has had to pay for with considerable suffering.

Saudek provokes with his disdain for the conventions, the taboos, the hypocrisy we have become accustomed to wear like a mask… he lays bare his own feelings, proves that his human family is made of the same material, that for many it is a strange company of visionaries, eccentrics, tragic heroes, actors of life seeking the thread that leads out of the labyrinth of life; but is the world any different? His pictures are perhaps the desperate attempt of a mere mortal to combine in a single cry the whole world of experience of life, all the joy, the self-denial, the yearning, all the love and desperation, the torture, all those short moments of extreme irritation and the long, interminable moments of uncertainty and want, all the evil, but above all the admiration for and fascination with beauty, which blinds him and which he tries to snatch away from reality and record on a piece of photosensitive film.

After 1989, when the totalitarian regime collapsed in Czechoslovakia and freedom finally returned to the country, Jan Saudek’s work can finally be shown in public. His ensuing success and popularity have even brought him the opportunity to moderate his own TV talk show. In this medium too, Saudek proves to be a great storyteller, who knows how to comment in an amusing way on a range of issues. During this time he has started painting oils again after many years. He has published several bulk monographs and arranged countless exhibitions in many countries around the world. Saudek has also started writing short stories that interpret his life experiences in a somewhat self-ironic way.

His photographic work in the new millennium is becoming increasingly grotesque, often intentionally teetering on the edge of kitsch. It is becoming ever clearer that his primary profession is as a storyteller. Humor is a vital ingredient in his photographs, which serve as illustrations, and he often accompanies his pictures with a short text.

Many photographers tried to follow, or even directly copy, his distinctive style. But none managed to do so as starkly as one woman, who turned up one day to offer herself initially as a model and assistant, until she became a sort of female incarnation of Saudek himself. She changed her name and began to photo-graph, write, and speak like him. She soon took over his daily affairs and finances, and began trading with his images and copyrights. After the subsequent breakup, Saudek discovered that his royalties were going to someone else and that he had lost property and negatives. The incredible story is now the subject of a film, which begins shooting this year.

For many people what Saudek shows in his photographs has very little to do with what the vast majority of them understand by the medium, since they are used to regarding photographs as, up to a point, an objective reflection of reality, or a transfixation of the world, a document of an event, whether signifiant or random; its being recorded makes it a glorification in its own right, shifts it to another level, cut off from the flow of events, with pretensions to being an accurate proof of what once was. Saudek’s photographs are often shocking from this point of view, as a proof, as evidence of what actually existed at the moment of exposure in front of his camera’s lens. But his work should be understood in the whole context of European culture as a rebellion, a provocation against intellectualism, as a call for a return to sensualism.

May 22 2:00 ~5:00pm

Eroticism and Yardstick: Conversation between Jan Saudek and Liu Zheng

An Exclusive Interview by Southern Weekend

Academic Host: Wang Ge ( Visiting Scholar in Germany and Post Doctor For Philosophy)

Guests: Jan Saudek (artist), Miroslav Ambroz (curator), Martin Hosek ( Counselor for Culture, Embassy of Czech), Liu Zheng (artist), Wang Yin( journalist from Northern Weekend and poet), Wang Xue ( journalist from Lens Magazine), Zhang Yueran ( writer)., Lv Le ( director), Amber ( Director), Hua’er (Artistic Director of see+)

Venue: see+ gallery

May 23 6:00 ~8:00pm

Sweet Dew in Black Coffee: Joint Exhibition by Jan Saudek & Liu Zheng Opening Reception

Jan Saudek and Liu Zheng will be present at the opening ceremony( admission is by invitation only).

Venue: Ambassy of Czech Republic in China

May 24 2:00~5:00pm

Press Conference of Exhibition of Photographs by Jan Saudek

Guests: Jan Saudek (artist), Miroslav Ambroz(curator), Wang Yin(journalist from Northern Weekend and poet), Amber(director), Hua’er( Artistic Director of see+), etc.

Venue: see+ gallery

May 25 4:00~6:00 pm

Opening Reception of Exhibition of Photographs by Jan Saudek

Jan Saudek and Miroslav Ambroz will be present at the opening ceremony( admission is by invitation only).

Venue: see+ gallery

Reservations required. Please note that you can enter for the opening ceremony through contacting http://weibo.com/seegallery on line.

Courtesy of the artist and see+ gallery, for further information please visit www.seegallery.net or contact seegallery@vip.126.com, Tel: 010~59789266 / Fax: 010~59789166.

Xu Bing, Mustard Seed Garden Landscape Scroll (detail), 2010; Handscroll, oil-based ink on paper

Since 2008, the Hong Kong Museum of Art has organised the exhibition series “Hong Kong Art: Open Dialogue” with the purpose of exploring different aspects of art in Hong Kong and providing a diversified art experience. It includes “Digit@logue” (curated by Ms Ellen Pau), “New Ink Art: Innovation and Beyond” (curated by Mrs Alice King), “Looking for Antonio Mak” (curated by Ms Valerie C. Doran) and “Charming Experience” (curated by Ms Grace Cheng). “The Origin of Dao: New Dimensions in Chinese Contemporary Art,” curated by Professor Pi Daojian, will be the final one of the exhibition series.

Viewing the development of Chinese contemporary art, the unique essence of traditional Chinese art has been incorporated into various new practices which give voice to contemporary values and spiritual pursuits. More than 30 Chinese artists from mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and overseas will be exhibiting paintings, lacquerware, ceramics, installations, video and animation which represent the transformation of artistic creation as well as cultural reflection in Chinese contemporary art.

A two-day international symposium will also be held at Lecture Hal l with an aim to thoroughly discuss the practice and discourse of Chinese traditional art medium in contemporary art.

Hung Keung, Dao gives birth to one, (version III), 2009; Digital video installation

About the exhibition

Duration: 2013.5.17 – 8.18

Venue: Special Exhibition Gallery and Contemporary Hong Kong Art Gallery (2/F) at Hong Kong Museum of Art

Courtesy of Hong Kong Museum of Art, for further information please visit hk.art.museum.

Open to the public, CAFA’s annual Graduation Exhibition was inaugurated with “A Lifetime” –2013 Graduation Exhibition by School of Urban Design, which features work in a wide range of media created by 377 undergraduates on May 14.

Each student showcases a final body of work produces as the culmination of his or her experience in five specialized subjects: Urban Information Design, Urban Graphic Design, Urban Fashion Design, Urban Image Design, Furnishing Design. With custom-constructed galleries within 6 separate exhibition halls, students are given the opportunity to showcase multiple pieces or installations for their thesis work to summarize their four-year campus life in life. Themed “ A Lifetime”, it conveys “a unique experience of four years in life”–the manifestation of four years of study, experimentation, thinking, honing of their craftsmanship and expressive capabilities. It features not only the teaching achievements by the faulty from School of Urban Design, but also it comprehensively presents the thinking and exploration in “City of Art, City of Culture, City of Originality”

The exhibition will remain on view until May 19.

The Schedule of 2013 CAFA Graduation Exhibition

May 13 – May 20 School of Urban Design

Venue: Underground Gallery, Multi-function Hall, the ground floor of the Library, 2nd , 4th and 7th Floor at the Building 7;

May 21 – May 30 School of Design

Venue: 2nd , 4th and 7th Floor at the Building 7

May 21 – May 28 Department of Experimental Art, School of Humanities, School of Chinese Painting

Venue: Underground Gallery( Department of Experimental Art, School of Humanities)

Multi-function Hall( School of Chinese Painting)

May 29 – June 5 Department of Sculpture, Department of Oil Painting

Venue: Underground Gallery ( Department of Sculpture)

Multi-function Hall ( Department of Oil Painting)

May 31 – June 10 School of Architecture

Venue: 2nd , 4th and 7th Floor at the Building 7

June 6 – June 13 Printmaking Department, Department of Mural Painting

Venue: Underground Gallery (Printmaking Department)

Multi-function Hall (Department of Mural Painting)

Pékin Fine Arts is proud to present Lover and Artist, the first solo exhibition in Hong Kong of work by Beijing-based artist Fang Lu (b. 1981, Guangzhou). The exhibition continues Fang’s collaboration with the gallery following her participation in last year’s Wong Chuk Hang Roof Video Party, a group exhibit of 16 video artists’ works curated by Carol Yinghua Lu. As the title suggests, Fang’s latest exhibition explores the surprising symmetries that exist between an individual possessed by amorous feelings and a person compelled by creative impulses.

Fang’s three-part multi-media installation at Pékin Fine Arts in Wong Chuk Hang includes two related video works and a new, text-based LED installation. In Automatic Happening (dual-channel video, 29’, 2010) the main character stands in a half-empty space holding an array of random objects, busying herself by assigning strange tasks to each item. She drifts from food preparation to object decorating, all to no obvious end or purpose. She works incessantly, without finishing anything, her face hidden behind the pink motorcycle helmet that protects her against risk of injury from household work. As the critic and curator Chen Tong observes, “This work does not intend to ridicule the tedious nature of housework, but attempts to blur the limits between the act of representation (artistic labor) and what is being represented (housework). Therefore the pointlessness of the action becomes the consciousness of the artist.” (Home, or Studio? Chen Tong)

In Lovers Are Artists II (single channel video, 11’50”, 2012) the scene shifts to another moment in a similar space. Wearing an off-white dress, the main character has become a woman (and artist) in love. Alone, she keeps herself busy by painting and incorporating food-related materials into her art. About this persona, Fang Lu writes: “Is she a builder or a destroyer? There is no clearly defined role for her.” Continuing her exploration of this character’s interior world, Fang’s new LED installation On the Sea (2013) transforms fragments from the artist’s novel into an LED light display.

“In a pragmatic world like ours, anyone who allows him- or herself to fall in love is adventurous, since entering such a state means to be consumed, confused and isolated,” Fang Lu states. “This is not unlike the artist’s experience as he/she works alone in the studio. The imaginary character of ‘lover’ and the persona of ‘artist’ co-exist via absurd actions invented in my videos, so that they can interact creatively, sharing the same physical space, building experience from premeditated ‘accidents’ that happen in a lovers’ space that is also called the artist’s studio.”

As M+ Curator and critic Pauline Yao writes: “This crafty layering of improvisation, performance and documentation lends Fang’s practice overlapping qualities that neither can be nor wish to be fully resolved. In this context we can only continually witness the ways in which the body is a conduit for movement and gesture, and how the camera works as a tool of interpretation—recording, revealing, showing what we know but at the same time subsuming it within the murky sea of our surrounding reality.” (Fang Lu – Between the Staged and the Unstaged, Pauline Yao).

Fang Lu (b. 1981, Guangzhou) received her MFA from the New Genres department at the San Francisco Arts Institute in 2007. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Space Station, Beijing (2010) and the Borges Libreria Institute of Contemporary Art, Guangzhou (2011). Recent group exhibitions include ON/OFF: China’s Young Artists in Concept and Practice, Ullens Center of Contemporary Art, Beijing (2013), Art is Not a System, Not a World: the 7th Shenzhen Sculpture Biennial (2012) and the 1st CAFAM Future Exhibition, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing (2012).

About the exhibition

Gallery Opening Hours: Tue – Fri, 10 am to 6 pm daily.

Sat, 12 am to 6 pm daily

Sundays & Mondays by appointment only.

Venue: Pékin Fine Arts (Hong Kong)

Address: Union Industrial Building, 48 Wong Chuk Hang Road, 16/F, Aberdeen (Wong Chuk Hang), Hong Kong

Tel: (852) 2177 6190

Fax: (852) 2177 6183

Email: info@pekinfinearts.com

Courtesy of the artist and Pékin Fine Arts, for more information and images, please visit www.pekinfinearts.com or contact us at info@pekinfinearts.com.

The Prints of Wu Hao

Dates: March 17 – July 14

Venue: Gallery 102

WU Hao was born in Nanjing in 1932. After crossing the strait to settle in Taiwan, he served in the army and learned painting under LI Chun-Sheng’s instruction when off duty. In 1956, he co-founded the Dong Fang Art Association with other artists; altogether they are addressed as the Eight Pioneers. In addition, he is a founding member of the Modern Printmaking Society and takes up the position as chairman of LI Chun-sheng Modern Painting Foundation. He is a recipient of various awards for honorary accomplishments, such as Duke Award in British International Print Biennial, Gold Seal Award, Taiwan Society of Printmaking, and Gold Noble Award, Art Society of China. In recent years, along with the persistently constant artistic creation, he has established the LI Chun-sheng Modern Painting Foundation Award so as to contribute to nurturing young talents of arts.

WU Hao is renowned for his printmaking and oil painting. His oil paintings contain the interest of prints while the grains and texture of oil painting are revealed through his prints. He acquires knowledge concerning modern painting under the tutelage of LI Chun-sheng, and inspirationally absorbs the essences derived from Dunhuang grottoes, new year pictures and embroidery. He highlights the important configuration of lines through delineation of Chinese painting techniques such as ink and wash, fine brushwork and outline drawing. As a result, he successfully initiates his own distinctive artistic style. In his artwork, the oriental spirits and colors are the focal point and converged with the singular formation and composition of folkloric arts. With the multiple layers of saturated color hues by way of color processing, the unique esthetics of oriental folklore is fully represented in his depiction with themes, whether characters, landscapes, houses, animals, or flowers are all breathed into life with vigor; likewise, the lines simultaneously convey a sense of plainness, delight, simplicity, childlike joy as well as a sophisticated charm. The printmaker is highly recognized and acclaimed in the art scene for his explicitly bold, unstrained and overwhelmingly exhaustive strokes which are suggestive of a subtle power of delicacy and grace.

WU Hao’s artwork with themes mainly adopted from life experiences is imbued with profound nostalgia for homeland. Through dialogues with his hometown in the artwork, he transforms certain elements into his artistic creation, such as dazzling colors within a picture while flower planting and gardening in his childhood and the bucolic kaleidoscopic tints with boisterous festive totems. Against the contrast backdrop of cornucopian, unrestrained composition, the flowing lines converge and result in a distinct style with strongly individual formation and language of arts. WU Hao has his artistic career lasted over sixty years. This exhibition presents a complete collection of his prints created over the years. Apart from the highly popular representatives such as Old House among the Reeds and Twelve Musicians, there are a lot of magnificent prints that are first displayed to the public; meanwhile, the artwork comprises and well reflects the quintessence of the artist’s lifelong art. At this exhibition, it is expected to witness the purified immaculate beauty conveyed through WU Hao’s artistic creation after all the vicissitude experienced in his life, as well as the sublimated lofty full self at one with nature after transcending the earthly prosperity.

Chou Ying An Ode to Printmaking: A Retrospective

Dates: March 17 – July 14

Venue: Gallery 104

CHOU Ying (1922-2011) was widely acclaimed and highly honored for his accomplishments in printmaking. His works were selected and applauded by many important international exhibitions such as the São Paulo Art Biennial Exhibition, Brazil and the Graphic Art Biennial Exhibition, Korea. He devoted his time and efforts to various art activities to help promote printmaking. In 1970, he co-founded the Taiwan Society of Printmaking with some printmakers. In addition, he dedicated himself to teaching art and educating young artists. For forty years, he had taught at National Taipei Teachers College (now the National Taipei University of Education), where he nurtured numerous celebrated artists, such as HSIAO Chin, HO Chao-Chu, HO Cheng-Kuang, LEE Shi-chi, NI Chao-long, LIANG Yi-Fen, and LIN Pao-Yao. Undeniably, CHOU Ying is one of the most influential figures in the art circles of Taiwan.

Most of CHOU’s early woodcut prints centered on country and farming folks. Prints made in this phase typically depicted in a realistic manner the psychological aspects of human beings and different situations in human life. The refined and flowing lines, woven into a realistic picture of country life by his artistic hand, brought out and highlighted the literary nature of his prints. A deep sense of nostalgia saturated every piece of his work. Amid the anti-Communist climate of the 1950s, CHOUhad published in newspapers and magazines some prints that reflected the spirit of the time and that served as political propaganda. Apart from woodcut blocks, he kept on experimenting with different mediums of printmaking such as cane-fiber boards, paper and lithographic limestone. In his late years, he continued his exploration of the art world and ventured further into the field of multi-medium arts, seeking to innovate new printmaking techniques.

The Ode to Stone series was the fruit of his efforts, in which he revealed the innate structure of stone in an abstract way. By adopting techniques of frottage, he used rubbing instead of carving to create prints. Successfully capturing the subtle variances of stone textures in light and shadow with these unique techniques, he breathed new life into the cold and lifeless natural object and made it radiate light and warmth. Under his hand, the dynamic rhythm of stone textures brings out the vigor and vitality of the seemingly lifeless object. His brilliant performances won himself twice the CCA Chairman’s Award, International Biennial Print Exhibition R.O.C. Up to now, the Ode to Stone series has been widely lauded by the printmaking circles ever since its first appearance. This exhibition highlights this series and exhibits at the same time CHOU’s masterpieces from different periods. Held in honor of CHOU Ying the distinguished artist and educator, the exhibition aims to show the world his ceaseless efforts and full devotion to art by presenting his works as a whole.

Old Plates New Prints – A Solo Exhibition by Shaih Lifa

Dates: March 17 – July 14

Venue: Gallery 103

Born in 1938, SHAIH Lifa graduated from the Department of Arts, Provincial Normal College (now National Taiwan Normal University). He travelled to Paris in 1964 to study sculpture, and subsequently departed for New York in 1968 to study the theories and history of art. He is one of the best post-war artists in Taiwan. He is an active member of the Fifth Month Art Group. In addition, he played a crucial role in the birth of some important arts and cultural organization such as Paris Foundation of Art, Taiwanese Literature Association and Taiwan Cultural Exchange Center. In addition to artistic creation, he has been working at organizing exhibitions and writing art criticism. It should be added that for years he has devoted himself to compiling historical documents on the history of art movement in Taiwan. He has published several books on art, among which History of Taiwanese Art Movement during Japanese Occupation is one of the most renowned. He takes a firm stand on Taiwanese cultural identity when writing the art history of Taiwan. His contribution to the literary and art circles in Taiwan is beyond dispute.

SHAIH is a versatile and impressively productive artist, who is steeped in various fields of art such as printmaking, oil painting, sculpture and installations. His versatility testifies to his ceaseless efforts and exploration of the art world. Adroitly and freely he channels his dynamic creative energy into his artworks, sometimes with admirable restraint and sometimes with carefree abandon. His creative philosophy manifests itself in his artworks, which show the world his ideas about aesthetic ideal and artistic creation. His works have been selected by several important international exhibitions, such asthe International Biennial Exhibition of Prints in Tokyo. In addition, his prints are collected by the Prints and Photo Department of the National Library of France (Bibliothèque national de France), MoMA, and National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts.

SHAIH’s prints were in the main created in the decade of his youth, a decade renowned as “Ten Years of Printmaking,” starting from his school days in Paris in 1964 to his apprenticeship in Westbeth Artists’ Housing in 1974. In terms of style and themes, prints made during this period can be roughly classified under five categories: the religious themes, Baby and Incubator, War and Peace, Pure Form, and Life in New York. These prints not only signify the transformation of SHAIH’s ideas about life at a different stage but also reveal his reaction to art trends. In these works, SHAIH deconstructs and remolds the mundane values of this world and presents different creative tensions flowing from the conflict between ideas and practices. This exhibition puts on display the linocuts and zincographs that SHAIH created during his overseas sojourn in Paris and New York. By presenting SHAIH’s ten-year printmaking journey, this exhibition aims to give the viewers a glimpse of his earlythinking and ideas about art.

Courtesy of the artists and Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, for further information please visit www.kdmofa.tnua.edu.tw.

“Encounter Art: ‘The Democracy of Art’ and ‘The Politics of Images’ – Book Launch and Forum of Wang Chunchen” was held at UCCA of 798 district, Beijing, from 14:00-16:00 on May 11, 2013. Guests present included Duan Jun, Zhang Xiaotao, Xue Jiang, and the media, as well as readers had an interactive exchange on the book, paintings and people. The author outlined the general content, writing opportunity, and the spiritual path of the publication which was in cooperation with Xue Jiang. Curator Duan Jun made a general review of Wang Chunchen writings and translations, and gave a high evaluation of the new media artist Zhang Xiaotao by expressing recognition and appreciation of Wang’s writings and the academy, from the perspective of an artist.

As curator of the Chinese Pavilion of the 55th Venice Biennale, Wang Chunchen shows the academic study of daily life in the new books “The Democracy of Art” and “The Politics of  Images”. If the Venice Biennale represents a point in time, the series of books records his staged learning and practices, reflecting the life history of a young scholar through his discussion on related issues in the art circle and the focus on social phenomena. The book is not important, but people can feel art, the sincerity of the artist which is also the original intention of Wang.

Recommended Contents of “The Politics of Images”

While “Art Intervenes into Society”, the last book of Wang Chunchen had a reflective fight between the critic and art, “The Politics of Images” solves the problems of contemporary artistic appearances. Demolition, ink and wash, cultural reviews, social sculpture, conceptual abstract painting, the curse of ideology, Greenberg, Baudrillard, political expression, intervening into life, artistic utopia, the dream of modern desire, MoMA, CAFA, Super-organism… Wang Chunchen’s scattered thinking is the wake-up call, which is one of the symptoms of contemporary art. For example: art that appears in contemporary art is not equal to contemporary art…, taking a photo is not equal to photography.

Recommended Contents of “The Democracy of Art”

The book launched the author’s fragmented essays and criticism about some keywords on the vision of contemporary art. Entrances everywhere, everywhere is an exit, as Baudrillard said “fragmented text is the art of democracy”. It’s believed that the text of democracy is easier to find than extraordinary readers. Professor Yi Ying, a noted art historian from CAFA said: “Reading Chunchen’s criticism, I could appreciate the academic study that is diverted from daily observation.”

Professor Zhu Qingsheng, a noted art historian from Peking University, “Chunchen’s books are the images of the academic life of a young scholar.

The famous artist Xu Bing said: “Like a sensitive search engine and a sound process, his mind analyzes “the fast-changing art landscape” at any time, never sparing any signs, correcting people’s cognition to the nature of art.

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

May in Hangzhou, the most beautiful season, Inna Contemporary Art Space invites creators from different countries and nations to come to join this exhibition. Following the feet and paces of spring, people have already felt and tasted the fresh air of the summer time. From the South to the North, People are coming and going. And people have been pushed onto a next stage while not contemplating and tinkering with us and our lives yet. The relationship between us and lives, wheeling and turning, is just like the gears fed with oils meshing and gnawing against each other.

For years, people have been eagerly staring at their own lives and discovering the world itself has never changed – but the hearts themselves. And still we are engaging and enjoying. Except all those inner and outer experiences, unnerving and perplexing, we are trying to unlock those puzzles and mysteries hidden in the clues… There are so many doubts and questions, so many routes and crosses, without the answers, we have never stopped thinking and pursuing.

Coming and going, protecting and keeping the inside innocence and ignorance, perhaps it is just the way that we come to discover and understand the world.

About the exhibition

Duration: 19 May – 18 Jun 2013

Venue: Inna Contemporary Art Space

Opening Ceremony: 19 May 2013 Sun 19:00

Host: Inna Contemporary Art Space

Artists: Candida Höfer (Germany), Chen Dongfan (PRC), Christelle Herve (France), Fang Wei (PRC), Handrina Krawinkel (Germany), Xiao Yingxian (PRC), Yu Qiongjie (PRC), Ying Xinxun (PRC)

Tel: 0571-87023522

Add: No. 465 Hefang street, Hangzhou, China

Courtesy of the artists and Inna Contemporary Art Space, for further information please visit www.innart.org.

Guanlan International Print Biennial is an international academic exchange activity, permanently held in the Guanlan Original Printmaking Base, jointly organized by Chinese Artists Association, the Shenzhen Federation of Literary and Art Circles, Management Committee of Longhua District, and People’s Government of Bao’an District, Guanlan International Print Biennial is held every two years, since the first Biennale, held in 2007.

The international exhibition of 2013 has collected 3965 pieces from 2667 artists from 80 countries and regions, of a better quantity and quality than in previous years. With a rigorous examination and appraisal by the jury composed of experts from the printmaking circles of China, France, Belgium, Poland etc., 285 prints are selected from the 845 works of the finalists, including 15 pieces that won the “Guanlan Printmaking Awards”, embodying the latest look and academic achievements of the development of k international printmaking art. It is especially gratifying that many young artists’ works are selected.

Liu Libin wrote in the Preface for the 4th Guanlan International Print Biennial that after the end of the Cultural Revolution, the “times” of printmaking gradually retreated, though the “regional” was still an important feature of printmaking, such as Wu Changjiang of Tibet, Su Xinping of Inner Mongolia, Wang Huaxiang of Guizhou, Chen Qi of the Yangtze River, as it appeared to loom into the consciousness of language, the “regional” was no longer a primary issue. A few major features performed an exploration during this period: firstly, to highlight the characteristics of various types of languages of print, to push the operation of some types of printmaking language to the extreme, such as the lithograph of Su Xinping, and the Woodblock of Chen Qi, etc. of the 1980s; secondly, a printmaker shows his or her interest into the abstract formal language, and even towards abstraction, such as Tan Ping. At the same time, a lot of questions come are asked about “the consciousness of language”, for example, many printmakers are fascinated with the printed history or meet the transcendence of printmaking language (performance of skill), a lack of rational knowledge, which made it popular. In fact, printmakers began digging, and reflecting the features of printmaking language from the 1980s, such as Xu Bing, who understood and used the “plural” of print again. Today, there must be a relationship between the fascination of language and the core issues of creation, such as the printmaker Kang Jianfei, who emphasizes that everyone is an artist, makes the subject of the artist absent; Yang Hongwei expands the shape and form of printmaking to the extreme, where the subject goes onto the screen. They begin to expand the extension of the prints on the basis of their creation over the years. Overall, the Guanlan International Print Biennale features the works, which have highlighted these results, but the addiction problems have never been eliminated.

The economic development affects the cultural development, which affects the artistic development, and finally the development of the category of art, it’s a bottom-up relationship, instead of top-down, the most important revelation given by the Guanlan International Print Biennial.

Members of the jury discussed the finalists.

The List of Prize Winners

Hosts: Chinese Artists Association, Shenzhen Federation of Literary and Circles, Shenzhen Longhua New District Administrative Committee, Shenzhen Bao’an District People’s Government

Organizers: Printmaking Committee of Chinese Artists Association, China·Guanlan Original Printmaking Base, Shenzhe Longhua New District Guanlan Subdistrict Office

Duration: May 15th – June 15th, 2013

Venue: Guanlan Original Printmaking Base, Shenzhen (Exhibition Hall 1), Guanlan Art Museum, Shenzhen (Exhibition Hall 2)

Partically translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

Hung Keung, I Love My Country’s Sky, 10”, HD Digital Video 1920 x 1080
Edition of 5, 1997-2013

Schoeni Art Gallery present the first retrospective exhibition of Hung Keung in conjunction with his solo representation of the gallery at Art Basel Hong Kong (Booth 3D16). The show feature five of the artist’s most acclaimed short video works between 1997 and 2007, including award-winning I Love My Country’s Sky (1997-2013), Transmigration (1998-2013), CD ROM: Human Being and Moving Images (2000), Upstairs / Downstairs: Stories of Human Activities Told in the 1440 Minutes of a 24-Hour Stretch (2005-2012) and Eating Noodle (2007-2013).

This exhibition provides an overview of his artistic progression over the decade, as well as the inspiration and conception behind each of the works. All works (with the exception of CD ROM: Human Being and Moving Images) has been reworked by Hung Keung and will be presented in a new HD Digital version for the purpose of this exhibition.

Hung Keung, Transmigration, 9”, HD Digital Video 1920 x 1080, Edition of 5, 1998-2013

Hung Keung, CD ROM Human Being and Moving Images
Interactive CD ROM, Edition of 10, 2000

Hung Keung, Upstairs/ Downstairs: Stories of Human Activities
Told in the 1,440 Minutes of a 24–hour Stretch, 12

In his installations and performances, Hung Keung explores how people relate to the moving image. His works create a dialogue between the space, the viewer, and the artist’s research in technology. An art form influenced by the West, new media art is the experimental platform Hung Keung uses to play with the materiality of time and space. Since 1995, the artist has been involved in the creative and research aspects of film, video and new media art internationally. He focuses on the relationship between the limitations of human beings and the extension of such limitations through interaction and moving images. In one of his latest works, Dao Gives Birth to Thousand of Things / Dao Give Birth to One, Chinese calligraphies, cockroaches, ladybugs and other shapes are projected on the wall in constant motion. This movement, captivating in itself, becomes even more entrancing when a viewer becomes part of it, by walking into the space of the artwork. The interactive installation now uses the image of the spectator, integrating the subject with the projections, the shapes now swarming around and following the moving image of this new body.

About the exhibition

Duration: 22 May  -  22 June, 2013

Venue: Schoeni Art Gallery

Courtesy of the artist and Schoeni Art Gallery, for further information please visit www.schoeniartgallery.com.

The Grand Canal of China, a living cultural heritage and the theme of this collateral exhibition, was dug to open up the exchange of human and material resources, and led to an encyclopedic dissemination of art, ideas and culture consistent with today’s globalization. This exhibition shows the fusion of contemporary Chinese art, history, tradition and the material world. In an exploration of the Grand Canal’s cultural and practical significance, Chinese artists deal with complementary dichotomies including manmade/natural, traditional/contemporary, male/female and material/spiritual. (China´s Grand Canal applies for World Heritage status)

Venue: Museo Diocesano, Sale espositive, Castello 4312, 30122 Venezia (VE).

Preview on 29 30 31 May,2013

Openning: 18:00,30 May,2013

Duration: June 1st – November 24th,2013

Artists:

Bai Chongmin,Gao Jie,He Haoyuan,Huang Rui,Peng Xiaojia,Qiu Zhijie,Shi Qing,Wang Du,Irrelevant Committee (Gao Fei, Chen Zhiyuan, Li Liangyong, Ye Nan,Guo Lijun, Jia Hongyu, Niu Ke, Wang Guilin), Xiao Lu, Xu Bing, Zhang Yangzi

Curator: Xiao Ge

Assistant Curator: Archibald Mckenzie

Commissioner: Paolo de Grandis

Coordinator in Venice: Carlotta Scarpa, PDG Artcommunications

Francesca Romane, Roberto Rosolen

Exhibition planner: Sun Yue, Wei Xingyi, Feng Jiao

Design: Wu Weihe, Zhu Sha

Translators: Archibald Mckenzie, Lu Meng, Luca Zordin, Sun Yue

For further information please visit www.grandcanalart.org or www.labiennale.org/en/art/exhibition/collateral-events/.

The incidental effects between oil painting and printmaking are different. Although both of them are associated with the unconscious, the oil painting has traces accidentally left on it by the body’s motion, while printmaking is generated by an “error procedure”, in the process of production, at the same time, it is also a result of the media itself. There isn’t any independent significance for media itself in traditional art, and it is just treated as the most basic condition in the reproduction of an object. The form relies on the media, which rarely plays a direct role in reproduction, which is constituted by the form. Based on the language of media, Tan Ping’s works build a relationship between the media and the spirit.

The effect produced by the media is determined by the nature of the media and the artist. Regression to media is a historical process of modern art, from the separation of form and image, to the performance of the pure form, to the independence of the media. First of all, the independence of the media was the breakthrough of the traditional graphic art, which has been a common phenomenon, rarely recognised by people. The media determines the form, and also destructs the form. That is, understanding works according to the language of media, the image and form will be excluded, but focus on the effect produced by the media under the action of some force. Generally speaking, etching is shaped by lines, producing the effect of simulation with the dense arrangement, or creating an expressive or abstractive effect by permutation and combination, reaching a spiritual strength. Tan Ping’s copperplates depict only one line, a slender and delicate line, without any image (form), reflecting the traces of the media. Similarly, Tan Ping’s woodcut only features the relationship between the black and white, and the results that are made accidently by the dust left in the printing process, making the contrast between the white and black vivid. The most important explanation of this kind of works is that the limit of the form or beyond the form, from the concrete to the abstract, from the abstract to its limit. Limit isn’t the form, and directly appears through the media. It has developed with postmodernism by following the idea of modernism. The media is presented by way of form, but the meaning is the relationship between the artist and the media, the process of the artist practicing with the media, and the result of simply rendering the media characteristics, rather than the form. From the image to the abstract, schema plays a decisive role, different types of media can even achieve the same or similar schema, while the expression of media can be without any purpose, it isn’t capable to determine and predict. In fact, this is also the advantage of the media. It’s impossible to analyze the works of Tan Ping in accordance with any off-the-shelf schema, and the exclusion of the schema is what Tan deliberately pursues. Tan has created a series of minimalist paintings, where, in the huge canvas only a single color features, extremely like the works of Minimalism, which is also a product of the media. Tan isn’t the originator of the media, but as far as possible makes use of the characteristics of the media expression that are not copied or interchangeable, to create a form that is different from any form of modern art. A color was repeatedly painted on the huge canvas, covering the previous paintings time after time, featuring a single color on the surface, but each layer reveals a hint of the background below. Therefore, the work is not an interpretation of the visual surface, instead by a covered process, which is a record of the spirit and will, a performance through the purity of media.

Tan Ping’s work “+40 M” is a limit, the simplest material and technique, the simplest trace that is created by the action on the material by the body. Compared with the copperplate lines which are rational and a technique, woodcut lines are related to the body and original. It commences in a broad space, as Fred called “theater effect”, it isn’t a visual experience which is able to be grasped at a glance, instead, it follows the traces and experiences the time in the process.

The process of realization of “+40 M” isn’t the destination to the final visual effect, the characterization of the media is to indicate the symbol of the life process, although its characterization is simple, people won’t feel it easy to understand, what the artist pursues is neither a nice visual effect, nor the understanding of the audience, especially without explanation. Compared with other works, “+40 M” pays more attention to the role of the media, when the body practices on the media, which must has the condition to interact with the body, the language of the body is hidden in the characterization of the media. As the characterization of life, media doesn’t refer to a literary poetic fiction, instead, a creative pressure. The minimalist limit itself is not the purpose, while the concept can’t cover all the visual results, he is exploring the non-traditional expression in the traces of the media, even if we believe that the images of the language and the abstract resources are facing a crisis, traditional media can still create a new expression. The materials, tools, production are all original, or can be said to be traditional, as people are traditionally constructed, the expression of media is a form of contemporary art, so that Tan Ping’s media is a regression, that’s the nature of media, because it’s the body acting on the original media. If life is understood as a type of creativity, challenging the limit of the media is to create the ultimate challenge.

In a sense, the characterization of the media is the characterization of the body, unconscious physical activities create new objects in the media. Just as Tan Ping’s works did. Tan Ping’s sketch is abstract, ultimately abstract, and the traces, unconsciously left by charcoal by the body, rather than a generalization and simplification of the objective images. Modernist painting stresses the unconscious function of the lines, the unconscious construction and accumulation of history, culture, and identity reflect on any line. It’s certain that Tan Ping’s lines have this nature, what is different from the modernist lines, generally used to shape or compose, is that his lines are independent. His lines don’t express any object, is the result of the body directly having an effect on the media, the dense arrangement of lines and respectively floating feeling is like the different survival states of life. Alternating with the media, this effect would disappear, that he has made full use of the incomprehensible and smoothness of the media, media speaking itself, certainly under the joint action of the body and the media. It’s possible that Tan Ping has a better understanding of skill and ideas than other artists, his arbitrary lines always have a better expression than others, more directly reaching into his psychology, with a more attractive force under the action of the media. It’s possible that it has both.

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

Jin Shangyi, Tajik Bride, 1983, 60x50cm

Hosted by CAFA, organized by the Printmaking Department of CAFA, CAFA Art Museum, planned by Su Xinping and Jin Jun, the exhibition features 35 prints of Jin Shangyi’s Classics. Among them 15 oil paintings, including “Tajik Bride”, “Plateau Love”, “Zhan Jianjun”, “Old Farmer from Yan’an”, “Huang Binhong”, etc., the classic works of the 1980s and 1990s; there’ are 20 prints and sketches, presenting the journey of the early exploration of Jin, which had been always adored by students. The exhibition aims to offer a chance for the public to enjoy the classics and the art lovers to study them closely. As Yue Jieqiong said, Jin Shangyi was an important figure in studying modern Chinese art history, especially the history of oil painting, and his works are exemplary. Therefore, it not only expands the propagation effect of the classics, but also offers the public an improved knowledge of the print of the classics, certainly for some, especially collectors who are able to improve the ability to appreciate the works. The introduction of these prints of classic works reduce the distance between the master and the public, who are able to visit the exhibition, see the album, and buy it. Works are presented in the F4 Exhibition Hall, and lasts until May 26, 2013.

Jin Shangyi, Sketch of Sanmenxia Building Site, 1956, 45x30cm

Jin Shangyi, Tibetan Herdsman, 1978, 39.3×26.2cm

Jin Shangyi, Huang Binhong, 1996, 115x99cm

Jin Shangyi, Drunkenness, 2001, 80x75cm

Jin Shangyi spent a lot of time and effort in this, directly involved in the whole process of printmaking, strictly controlling each link of each set of printmaking, paying attention to each subtle link, repeatedly taking the trouble to adjust and proofread the color of each print until attaining a good effect.

Over the years, there has always been a debate between the academic and business relationships of the art of printmaking. Jin Shangyi frankly stated: printmaking was different from other genres of art, with its own characteristics and functional properties, the art of printmaking should develop down the road of popularization and become more popular. If printmaking ignored the needs of the community, confined to the scope of the ivory tower of the academy, it would not develop and progress. Therefore, he suggested that printmaking should establish a relationship and cooperation with galleries and commercial organizations, to get out of the limitation and enable prosperity.

––Su Xinping

The prints of Jin Shangyi’ classics have restored the true feelings of the work, because the process of the replication of the works used a variety of techniques, including traditional means of replication, the most important being that of the use of high-tech digital means, in addition to various staff participating into the process, it is a new working way, filled with challenges and creation. With the mixture and staggered use of the traditional replication technique and digital technology, and the close cooperation of the artist and craftsmen, the complex and volatile process are made to accurately and delicately reflect the visual true and artistic feelings. The prints are the perfect renderings of the combination of art and technology.

––Tan Ping

About the exhibition

Duration: May 15 – May 26, 2013

Venue: F4 Exhibition Hall of CAFA Art Museum

Opening Time: 15:00 pm, on May 15, 2013

Organizers: Department of Printmaking of CAFA, CAFA Art Museum Curators: Su Xinping, Jin Jun Exhibition Coordinators: Wang Huangsheng, Tang BinEditor of the Atlas: Yue Jieqiong

Designer of the Catalogue: Lu Ying

Designer of the Exhibition: Yi Yi

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

During the Cultural Revolution, Zhu Jinshi was an active participant in underground cultural and literary activities and in the late 1970s emerging as a member of the renowned and groundbreaking ‘Stars’ (Xingxing) avant-garde artist group alongside Ai Weiwei and Ma Desheng. Working in Berlin in the 1980s and influenced by Kandinsky, Zhu began his lifelong commitment to the language of pure abstract form. His involvement with abstract expressionist painting is not simply a desire to emulate Western antecedents however, but to invest that art form with characteristics that are specific to Chinese traditions of free brush (xie yi) and ink painting. Zhu’s paintings are a visceral means of expression and whilst being embodied with preoccupations of his own culture the works take on a physical presence of their own. Moorhouse has described Zhu’s paintings as dense tapestries of interconnected experience, in this respect their thickness is essential, giving tangible form to the fleeting and ephemeral.

Highlights of the exhibition include Water Lilies, 2006, which Moorhouse has included deliberately for it importance in the stylistic and material evolution of Zhu’s work; it marks his move towards a more vibrant palette whilst hinting at his preceding work and connection to Gerhard Richter. Featured works include the enormous triptych Season of Paralyzing Strokes, 2012 which is almost 5 meters wide. The piece represents Zhu’s tribute to modern Chinese poets, including Bei Dao, with whom Zhu became close friends in Berlin after he was exiled from his homeland in the 1980s. It is a record of this formative period of time in the artist’s life as well as the artist’s expression of the deep emotion felt towards Bei Dao, particularly after hearing that his friend had fallen ill in 2012.

The series of three paintings Hard Roads in Shu, will also be on show for the first time at this exhibition. Inspired by the literary works of renowned Tang dynasty poet Li Bai (701 – 762 AD) that describe the sublimely majestic mountains and impassable valleys in Sichuan (Shu). The influence of traditional Chinese landscape genre paintings can also be seen here with large areas of blank canvas left (liu-bai), a noticeable departure from his previously covered canvases. Zhu Jinshi has said of his series “Although these painting are not able to move mountains or break stones, the exceptional power of these paintings lies in their ability to clear the mind of all worries… [unblocking] creative and spiritual pathways.”

Zhu describes how his works’ completion hinges on the influence of time, material and environment. “There is a distinct visual difference in the painted surface now and from when the paintings had just been completed. The passage of time bestows upon the artworks new life, as if the material itself were living and breathing.”

“Zhu Jinshi is one of China’s leading contemporary artists. His highly distinctive approach was apparent from the early 1980s, when he made his first abstract paintings…His paintings assert themselves on their own terms, but they are not simply inert. Colour, light, texture and atmosphere are vital elements that animate these extraordinary works, informing them with the mysterious aura of life,” said curator Paul Moorhouse, former curator at Tate Britain and now Senior Curator at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

“It is an honour to be presenting Zhu Jinshi’s first solo show in Hong Kong to celebrate the first anniversary of the gallery. Bringing this important artist to Hong Kong at a time when the city is becoming a major art hub both in Asia and globally represents another milestone in Pearl Lam Galleries’ mission to promote artistic dialogue between the East and West. Zhu’s engaging and unmistakable paintings attempt to reconcile two traditions and underline how Chinese abstract has been a major undiscovered force in contemporary art. ” Althea Viafora-Kress, international gallery director of Pearl Lam Galleries.

About the exhibition

Duration: 21st May– 3rd July, 2013, Monday – Saturday, 10am – 7pm

Venue: Pearl Lam Galleries 601-605 Pedder Building 12 Pedder Street, Central Hong Kong

Tel: +852 2522 1428

Fax: +852 2840 1088

Courtesy of the artist and Pearl Lam Galleries, for further information please visit www.pearllam.com.

Guest Speaker: Jacques Rancière

Guest artists and critics: Wang Jianwei, He Chi, Wu Xiaojun, Yang Beichen, Tie Ying

Time: May 13, 14:00, Monday

Venue: Auditorium, CAFA Art Museum, please get into the museum through the West Gate.

Organizers: Art Time Magazine, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art(UCCA)

Co-organized by: CAFA Art Museum

Brief introduction: Jacques Rancière will explain his theories of  “The Politics of Aesthetics” and “Disagreement” to the audience. Also, he will discuss the status and questions of contemporary art as well as its possible outlets with Chinese artists.

About the lecturer

Jacques Rancière is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris (St. Denis), and Professor of Philosophy at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee. He first came to prominence under the tutelage of Louis Althusser when he co-authored with his mentor Reading Capital (1968). After the calamitous events of May 1968 however, he broke with Louis Althusser over his teacher’s reluctance to allow for spontaneous resistance within the revolution.Jacques Rancière is known for his sometimes remote position in contemporary French thought; operating from the humble motto that the cobbler and the university dean are equally intelligent, Jacques Rancière has freely compared the works of such known luminaries as Plato, Aristotle, Gilles Deleuze and others with relatively unknown thinkers like Joseph Jacototy and Gabriel Gauny.

In The Future of the Image (2007), Jacques Rancière argues that, through the image, art and politics have always been intrinsically linked. Drawing on a series of art movements, filmmakers like Godard and Breson, as well as theoreticians such as Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Theodor Adorno, Roland Barthes, Jean-François Lyotard and others, Jacques Rancière claims that artists and theorists often suffer from mystical tendencies. Jacques Rancière believes that there is a bold choice to be made in art; either it can reinforce a move towards radical democracy, or it can remain mired in reactionary mysticism. Jacques Rancière argues against the idea that a revolutionary act is located within the art work itself; instead he argues that the revolution exists prior to the work of art. Revolutionary impetus exists rather in the worker’s emancipation, in his chance to view a work of art versus work in itself. Jacques Rancière writes that what happens in the aesthetic regime of art is that artists create objects that escape their will.

Jacques Rancière’s translated works are, among others: Reading Capital(1968), The Nights of Labor: The Workers’ Dream in Nineteenth-Century France(1989), The Ignorant Schoolmaster; Five Lessons in Intellectual Emancipation(1991), The Names of History; On the Poetics of Knowledge (1994), On the Shores of Politics (1995), Disagreement: Politics and Philosophy (1998), The Politics of Aesthetics: The Distribution of the Sensible (2004), The Future of the Image (2007), Hatred of Democracy (2007), and The Aesthetic Unconscious(2009). His most recent title, The Emancipated Spectator, was released in November, 2009.

For further information and lectures by Jacques Rancière, please visit JACQUES RANCIÈRE – VIDEOS.

2013 Caissa Rising Artists: 2013 Exhibition for Nominated Students from Art Academy (in short: Nomination Exhibition 2013 or Nomination Exhibition).

Organizer: Today Art Museum. The Organizing Committee of Today Art Museum’s Annual Nomination Exhibition for Students of Art Academies (in short: Organizing Committee of Nomination Exhibition or Organizing Committee) is responsible for implementing.

Review: The Review Committee of Today Art Museum’s Annual Nomination Exhibition for Students of Art Academies (in short: Review Committee of Nomination Exhibition or Review Committee).

Producer of the Exhibition: Xie Suzhen, Chen Xiaobing

Artistic Director: Xu Lei

Academic Chair: He Guiyan Exhibition

Director: Gao Peng

Review Committee (in alphabetical order): Hang Chunxiao, He Guiyan, Qu Guangci, Su Xinping, Shao Fan, Sun Zhenhu, Wang Xiaoshuai, Wang Chunchen, Kawaguchi Azuma, Xu Bing, Xu Weixin, Xu Lei, Xie Suzhen, Yang Fudong, Zhou Jingxin

Selection of Works & Awards for Artists

1.  Selection Method:

(1) Primary Selection: Reviewers nominate the artists into selection by the works they uploaded on the internet for application. Review Committee determines the selected works according to the voting ranking of the works.

(2) Reexamine: After works of primary selection being sent to the Organizing-Committee-named place, Review Committee determines the works selected for the exhibition by reexamination.

(3) Awarding: After the exhibition opens, Reviewers nominate awards to works by open voting. Review Committee determines the works winning Special Award, Gold Awards, Silver Awards, Bronze Awards and Excellence Awards by comprehensive consideration of votes and scores; the Artists Named Awards are selected by the naming artists; Best Curatorial Team Award is determined by votes from both Review Committee and Organizing Committee; Best Popularity Awards of Exhibition and Internet are won by the most popular artists in exhibition and on official site respectively.

(4) “Popularity of Works” on official site is not taken into account in the selecting of Review Committee.

2.  Rewarding Means:

(1) Exhibition Entry certificate and an album are issued for every work selected for the exhibition.

(2) Award-winning works are issued award certificates and bonus or prizes.

(3) Excellent artists win opportunities to be reported by professional media and to sign contracts with excellent art institutions.

(4) Awards Setting:

Awards                                               Quota                        Bonus & Prizes(In RMB, tax included)

Special Award                                  * 1                              100000.00,one award certificate

Gold Award                                      * 3                              20000.00,one award certificate

Silver Award                                    * 6                              Maldives Travel Card(valued at 13000.00),one award certificate

Bronze Award                                  * 12                           South Korea and Japan Cruiseline Travel Card(valued at 6999.00),one award certificate

Best Curatorial Team Award    1 team                      10000.00,one award certificate

Artists Named Award                    4                                Memorial gift, one award certificate

Excellence Award                         several                      Memorial gift, one award certificate

Best Popularity Award              1 for each                  magazine “Oriental Art” (sent randomly)

(Exhibition and Internet)

Note: Special Award, Gold Awards, Silver Awards, Bronze Awards, Excellence Awards, Artist Named Award and Best Popularity Awards of Exhibition and Internet can be won all at the same time; works of Special Award, Gold Awards, Silver Awards, Bronze Awards are collected by the Organizing Committee. We collect the selected works completely, including the work itself and its back board, the frame and other mounting objects; after being collected, the works are not allowed to be changed or lent, if a copy is needed, please do it before sending us the complete works.

Requirements for the Works Selected Into Exhibition

1.   The Content: according to two themes (Heartbeat, Arrival) based on the name “Travel and Art” of the exhibition, depending on your own artistic views and methods to interpret relevant expression. The media include but are not limited to      Chinese painting, oil painting, prints, sculpture, calligraphy, installation, mixed materials, photo and video.

2.  Work Specification: In principle, graphic work not exceeding 200cm×200cm in size, 3-dimensional work not exceeding 300cm (h) ×200cm×200cm in size, and video work not exceeding 6min in length.

3.  Intellectual Property:

(1) Participating artists must have full ownership of the works, and sending sold or donated works to apply is not accepted.

(2) The copyrights of all works on this exhibition belong to the artists. Artists should authorize the works to the Organizing Committee to produce various propaganda items, albums and news propaganda.

(3) All the pictorial and textual materials provided to the Organizing Committee by the artists do not commit infringement to the intellectual property rights of any third party. Artists take full responsibility for all losses caused by the infringement and bear the compensation.

(4) The Organizing Committee guarantees the integrity of the award-winning works collected by the Organizing Committee; the authorship and publishing rights of the works remain belonging to the artists, and other rights are taken by the Organizing Committee.

Application Methods and Requirements

1. Participation Qualifications: In principle, full time fine art major junior college students, undergraduates, postgraduates for a master or doctor’s degree, and graduates who have left the fine art academies within 3 years (including 3 years) can log in the application system on the official site to apply. Related restrictions can loosen properly if the applicant has a relatively high artistic achievement.

2.  Application Time Period: From 0:00 of April 5 to 23:59 of June 20, 2013

3.  Application Methods: Please log into the application system on official website(n2013.artnow.com.cn) within the Application Time Period to apply. It is deemed as invalid application and not granted entry into judgment if not within the Application Time Period or not through the application system on the official site. Be careful when filling each blank of your personal information when you log in to the application system to apply. The information you filled must be real and valid. If it is found out that the info is not true, the qualification will be canceled. If your contact information changes, please update your application materials on the website in time.

4.  Publicity of Works: Show space for 3 works of each theme for every applicant is provided on the official site of the Organizing Committee. In each space, the picture format uploaded should be jpg, the color mode RGB, and no “symbol” in the file title; 3 pictures of each theme share a total size within 1M or cannot be uploaded. (Data mentioned above can be modified in the route of Image Size in the menu of Image in the software Photoshop.) During the publicity period on the official site, every application work can be commented and voted by the members of the site. Comments and votes are not taken into consideration by the Review Committee, but serve only as the evidence for competing for Best Popularity Award.

5.  To guarantee the quality of selecting, please send the entire work of your video and work picture via QQ online customer service to the Organizing Committee within one week after your application. Participating artists have to provide two formats of their works: DVD and any one of wma, avi or swf. Picture of your work should be one picture composited with 8 video screenshots, only allowed in the format of jpg or tiff, color mode of CMYK, picture size within 297mm (h) ×210mm (w), and the resolution ratio as 300p/cm. (Data mentioned above can be modified in the route of Image Size in the menu of Image in the software Photoshop.) This picture will appear on the album and be used in related report and propaganda items.

6.  Repeated application and excessively uploaded works will be deleted. Anyone who has maliciously repeated applying, spread network virus, been recognized as cheating in a network voting process by network technology personnel and the Review Committee commonly, will be subject to deletion of their application materials and cancellation of participation qualification.

Courtesy of Today Art Museum, for further information please visit n2013.artnow.com.cn/art2013 or contact pub@todayartmuseum.org.

Red Gate Gallery is proud to present a new exhibition Wang Lifeng. Being one of the early practitioners of Chinese contemporary abstract paintings, Wang Lifeng is known for his creation with mixed media materials such as rubbings, foil and silk, as well as his continuing re-interpretation of Chinese classical art. We are delighted to see that his relentless pursuit has reached another milestone with his new series of work Ji.

Unlike previous works which are crafted using mixed media on canvases, Wang experiments on rice paper in the Ji series. The result is a lighter and more poetic series, which is a contrast to the solemn tonality conveyed using canvases. In the Ji series, Wang uses his signature materials such as foil, rubbings and silk in the collages and meticulously replicates the masterpieces of Chen Hongshou (1598-1652) and Ren Bonian (1840-1896), thus disrupting the narratives of the original classics.

While Wang’s respect and appreciation for the nation’s artistic traditions is evident, he has cleverly shied away from indulging in frivolous nostalgia. Instead, the artist injects components of traditional art into his own creative thread of thought to find a balance between the new and the old.

About the exhibition

Duration: May 18, 2013 – Jun 12, 2013

Opening: May 18, 2013, 15:00, Saturday

Curator: Brian Wallace

Venue: Red Gate Gallery

Courtesy of the artist and Red Gate Gallery, for further information please visit www.redgategallery.com.

Zhang Biying graduated from China Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2008, and in 2011 she graduated from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts of Boston in affiliation with Tufts University in Medford USA with MA degree.

The feeling of the Cultural collision between east and west during she was in the United Sates, impelled the artist to explore the life experiences, emotions and memories of people in cities. Tradition and modernity, privacy and public space, violence and fear, the history of society and memories of individual agglomerated to be different images appeared to us. Gazing at the circumstances that seems to be very familiar even be accustomed aroused a feeling of alienation and strange. Who am I – the old philosophy proposition is forward again by Zhang Biying’s personal visual narratives.

This is the first solo exhibition of Zhang Biying in China which features video and paintings, covered her typical works in recent years, reflected the status of the artist comprehensively.

Zhang Biying: Readme

I make art about human life experiences, memory, and perception. I explore how these concepts relate to my place of residence in China and the United States. I question whether people and the places where they live are dispensable or whether the two cannot be separated. I am also fascinated to study the perceptions we hold that align us with mainstream society or direct us towards a physical or mental state of marginalization.

I am interested in the ways that history and personal memory intersect in visual narratives. I paint pictures of emotional situations. My paintings explore a zone that fuses familiar landscapes with a sense of alienation. My paintings explore loss, displacement, and anxiety. In my current series, I am also interested in the energy and power of medium and color. I use bright colors like neon orange, pink, and blood reds. I paint landscapes and cityscapes with mattresses as a central theme. In my work, the mattresses become characters with personal memory and a social history. They are set in public and private worlds simultaneously. The beds are sometimes placed in front of old temples, sculptures, demolished machines, highways and sewage tunnels. It’s my hope that the viewer can identify with the mattresses as though they were living beings. The beds are fragile and must make their way through a landscape of threatening events. In several paintings, the beds appear as if they were pulled from a private bedroom and exposed to the freezing night highway. I am interested in the relationship between comfort, despair, and purpose. I hope the audience can relate to my work while considering their own experience and values. I hope my work can be a starting point for discussion about who we are and how we fit into a world that is forever entangled in conflict, contrast, comfort, despair, and an enduring hope for the future.

About the exhibition

Duration: May. 8 – Jun.22, 2013

Location: Beyond Art Space

Address: 798 East Street, 798 Art District, No. 4 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100015 China

Tel: 86-10-59789561／59789579

Courtesy of the artist and Beyond Art Space, for further information please visit www.beyondartspace.com.

The new round of the original design competition “Design for Sitting” calls for submissions. After the brewing dormantly, it’s powerfully planned. Presided over by Prof. Jiang Li, from CAFA, the levy of the “6th Design for Sitting Competition” performs across the planet, on schedule. The theme of the contest is “Sitting and the Senior Citizen”. “Senior citizen” means the person who is older than us, and our lives, livelihood, and growth are inextricably linked with them…Participants are allowed to perform the ideas of “sitting” and desk design, inspired by the coexistence with the elderly, around their living environment or their growth.

The competition upholds the tradition, promotion of the original, forward-looking and artistic design, and the concept of experimental design runs through the appraisal process of the competition.

Preliminary deadline is on July 15, 2013, and the results of the preliminary round will be announced on July 25 through to August 1, notification of the production stage is with a telephone call and e-mail, the specific requirements and rules of production will arrive at the designers together with the notification of the rematch, please stay tuned to the official website: www.d9design.com.

Together with “‘Sixty Chairs’ Invited Exhibition of Internationally Renowned Designers”, and “Chinese Good Design – Celebrity Recommended Exhibition of Chairs”, the real works of the selection of the rematch will feature in Beijing at the end of December 2013, meanwhile, domestic and foreign designers will come together for an academic exchange with the participants. It will be an international visual feast of the highest specification, organized for the supporters and followers.

Organizing Committee of “Design for Sitting”, April 24, 2013

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

Born in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, in 1969, Zhu Yamei graduated from the Department of Chinese Painting, Huaqiao University, majored in the Landscape Painting. Currently she teaches in the College of Art, South-Central University for Nationalities. Her works have won the second and third National Landscape Painting Exhibitions, and featured in a lot of large scale exhibitions such as the Chinese Art Exhibition – Contemporary Ink Painting Exhibition, New Works of Outstanding Chinese Contemporary Young Artists, Chinese Art Biennale, Annual Invitational Exhibition for Chinese Artists in the 21st Century, Nature and People – Exhibition of Chinese Landscape Painting • Landscape of Oil Painting. In addition, Zhu Zhengeng and his daughter Zhu Yamei’s joint Exhibitions were held in Taiwan, Shanghai, etc. Her works are published in the “Chinese Contemporary Artists Illustrations”, “Biographies of One Hundred of Young Artists from the Mainland China” “Trend of Women Painting at the Ends of the Centuries”, “Chinese Contemporary Painter Illustrations – Landscapes”, “Today Chinese Art Illustrations”, etc. and her publications include “23 Artists of Chinese Painting – Zhu Yamei”, and “Noted Artists of Chinese Painting – Zhu Yamei”. Her works are collected by the National Art Museum of China, Liu Hai Su Art Museum, Revel Art Foundation, etc.

“A painting should be the perfect combination of a painter and the symbols of painting form. “The Bleak and Faint” was a realm that the ancient landscape painters longed for. Ni Zan’s works are the representatives of the empty and ethereal feelings from the Yuan Dynasty, and even affect the works of the contemporary landscape painters. On the one hand, people are dramatically changed in the face of the natural world by the increasing industrialization and urbanization, on the other hand, in the face of the deep and vast landscape painting tradition, as a landscape painter living in the contemporary world, it’s more difficult to choose than the other genre of artists. I believe, a landscape painter should avoid the temptation of various possibilities, the hustle and bustle noise of the outside world, and return to the mind and listen carefully to the mind, the call of tranquility, to make a really suitable artistic choice.”

　–– Zhu Yamei

“Zhuya Mei’s works not only have a strong personal vocabulary, but also contain the essences of traditional landscape painting. The unadorned and vivid character like a small dot, diverted from the plastic of the characters in the bricks of Han Dynasty, it’s a sharp contrast between the light ink outline of the white tower, simplified hut without modification, and a large area of gray.”

–– Gao Weichuan

“She was born with a magnanimous zeal to reveal the source of the mind, with the use of a rounded brush, elegant ink, simple plastic, her infiltration of the overall atmosphere, revealing the painter’s pure passion and a true plain heart, it’s possible that it’s the rare “virginity” of the artist that makes a painting a unique face, distant to secular flows.”

––Liao Wen

“Zhu Yamei’s landscape paintings have a lot of breadth of spirit, and she has simplified her lines and shapes, focusing on the spatial relationships and visual tension of the ink. This is a relationship of modern art, which is reflected in the traditional themes of her works. It’s a contradiction, which may be diverted from her nature, or an unconscious dictate.”

“Zhu Yamei is a special case, if alternating the theme, she would enter the field of experimental ink; if she changes the visual relationship, it would be still a traditional painting. This contradiction is what makes her painting a unique charm.”

––Yi Ying

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

Image Courtesy Zhu Yamei

“Pending– Su Xinping’s Solo Exhibition” will be inaugurated at the Art Museum of Nanjing University of Fine Arts, at 16:00, on May 10, 2013. The exhibition is planned by Shu Kewen, the famous scholar, deputy editor-in-chief of LIFEWEEK the Magazine, hosted by CAFA and Nanjing University of Fine Arts, organized by the Art Museum of Nanjing University of Fine Arts, in cooperation with Jiangsu Keyi Cultural Industry Group and L’OFFICIEL ART magazine. It will highlight 27 pieces by Su Xinping from 2007, including the series of “Landscape”, ”Gray”, “Figure”, and “Eight Things”.

Entering into a new century, especially since 2007, Su Xinping returns to the experimental personalized language, sorting out some elements of the early works, integrated with individual experiences and expressions. The so-called individual experience refers to the way and method of expressing language that accumulates after a long term practice in printmaking, such as the nature of a flat screen, pure composing structure, etc., in addition, the application of the experience and accumulation of oil painting, in an expressive way, he uses laissez-faire strokes and the material features of pigment, offering respect to the inner feelings in the works. Su Xinping frankly admits, it is difficult to define it, whether it is “Landscape”, “Gray” or “Eight Things”, it is not a real objective world, but the images in his mind, possess a certain degree of ambiguity, which try to find a way to accurately express the inner feelings, describing the individual world by way of “seeming vague, but it’s accurate in reality”.

Curator Shu Kewen pointed out that Su Xinping creates “adventures” for himself, because he was willing to allow himself to be thrown into a non-autonomous status, none of the figures, wilderness or scenery work as images in modern symbolic structure, gaining an open space, a growing vitality of an open-consciousness, distant from systems, symbols and the iconic. In recent years, Su Xinping has been more interested in thinking of the ideas and methods of traditional Chinese painting, the possibilities of the conversion between the traditional and contemporary art, as well as personal artistic language.

The exhibition will last until May 26, then it will be held at Beijing Today Art Museum on September 14 through to September 23, starting the one-year touring exhibition across China.

Transalted by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

Image Courtesy Su Xiping

V ART CENTER cooperating with School of Visual Arts present 67 selected video works from 2008-2010 for the first time in China from May 7 through to May 31 .The MFA Computer and Animation Art Department emphasize creative experimentation and a multidisciplinary approach. The programs offer concentrations in animation, digital video, motion graphics, digital fine arts, interactive media, sound art and performance. During the show, the videos and its special effects plays important role and it will be continuing screening in the entire month.

The MFA Computer Art department at School of Visual Art is dedicated to producing digital artists of the highest caliber. This is accomplished through a progressive curriculum; a faculty comprised of well-known artists, curators and working professionals; state-of-the-art facilities and our location in New York. Students follow a broad curriculum, including studio work, art history and programming. Each student’s curriculum is individually tailored from our over forty course offerings per semester. While multidisciplinary in nature, areas of specialization include animation, motion graphics, video art, interactive media, installation and digital fine art and performance. Graduate student creative work has appeared in many international venues, including the Student Academy Awards, SIGGRAPH Electronic Theater, Art Show and Screening Room, Prix Ars Electronica, Whitney Biennial, Annecy, Ottawa and the New York Animation Festival. Students come from all over the world geographically and bring diverse cultural heritages and artistic influences to their studies. It is expected that graduates of this program will become leaders in redefining the computer art field and be instrumental in charting its future course.

— Bruce Wands

Chair, MFA Computer Art

Director of Computer Education

The exhibition is organized and sponsored by V ART CENTRE (Shanghai Institute Of Visual Art) and co-organized and supported by School of Visual Arts(SVA).

About the exhibition

Duration: 2013 5.7-2013.5.31 (11:00 am -18:00 pm, closed on Monday)

Schedule:

5.7-5.10

65TH ANNIVERSAY: BEST OF ANIMATION REEL 2012 10 video works

5.11-5.16

COMPUTER , ANIMATION ART :BEST OF 2012 10 video works

5.17-5.22

MFA COMPUTER ART: SELECTED WORKS 2011 17 video works

5.23-5.26

FILM &ANIMATION FESTIVAL: BEST OF 2010 4 video works

MFA COMPUTER ART: SELECTED WORKS 2010 3 video works

MFA COMPUTER ART: SELECTED WORKS 2009 4 video works

5.27-31

MFA COMPUTER ART: SELECTED WORKS 2008 18 video works

Courtesy of V ART CENTER, for further information please visit www.vartcenter.com.

Organized by “China Art Development Strategic Study Center” of CAFA, “Art History: Going towards a New Global Dialogue Discussion Series I: Basic Theory – Boundaries and Future” was held at F1-109 classroom at 14:30, on May 6, 2013. It was presided over by Professor Song Xiaoxia, lectured by Professor Lydia Haustein, a member of the Center for International Studies of the Humboldt University in Berlin, Chairman of the Advisory Board of Austria Ludwig Boltzmann Society, and Director of the Department of Science, the House of World Culture in Berlin.

Professor Lydia Haustein said she had presented a lecture about the Kassel Documenta at CAFA last year, on how to deal with the turbulence conditions of art in an extreme way, and discussion on art from the perspective of science, sociology, philosophy, had become an important issue, which should be treated with a critical eye. Lydia believed that Western authority would end, emerging a shift in global power relations, the right might be transferred to China, India, or Africa, instead of the Western countries.

Secondly, in the era of extreme change, fracture transitions had taken place in not only the philosophy, sociology, art theory, but also all the aspects of society. She presented her philosophical insights and thinking in recent years, so that we could have a better understanding of art. Recently, people have been thinking about how to set free art from the rigid, isolated, one-sided system, how to find a new mode of artistic thinking. And she cited the works of the Dutch artist MIK and the “October” magazine (US). Lydia talked about two current situations in art development: on the one hand, art had a close relationship with sociology, philosophy, history, and society, etc. it is not simple any more, on the other hand, we should still think about what art was. She used the works by Kandinsky, John Cage and Marcel Duchamp as examples. Lydia said Professor Walter Benjamin and Agamben(Italy) were both very important theorists. However, we need to have our own thinking and theories on modern art.

Finally, Lydia raised three focuses points in current art: firstly, we had to study the theory and position of Hegel again; secondly, attention should paid to the picture science or pictures art; thirdly, on the theory, it was not necessary and unfounded to discuss whether there was an end of art, because the art history never ends, history was the presence of human beings.

It was necessary to see the new theoretical issue with the use of a global viewpoint, and it was not postmodern, nor a new surrealism. When we want to put forward a new issue, Duchamp gave us direction. In addition, American visual artist John Milton Cage had summarized some art views and positions. Theodor Wistuqrund Adorno had deeply studied the art market or art theory, proposing the concept of “market-oriented art”. All kinds of images, such as photos, are called image art.

Journalist: Yu Ya/ CAFA ART INFO

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

RAWsome – the retrospective will be the Ronald A. Westerhuis’ exhibition which displays his last 12 years of work. 12 years of designing, creating and building stainless steel sculptures. Besides showing art in the inspiring setting of River South Art Centre, Netherlands Embassy in Beijing China will create a platform. This will build a bridge, not just between the East and West but also between many disciplines.

A platform where creativity, technology and different cultures meet to develop interests and share thoughts and built acknowledge of diverse disciplines.

About Ronald A. Westerhuis

Artist Ronald A. Westerhuis is the creator of large stainless steel sculptures and landmarks placed around the world. In the old former warehouse River South Art Centre 30 of the main piecesand projects that he executed over the last 12 years will be shown.

About the exhibition

Opening Hours: 13:00-20:30 Tue-Sun

Venue phone: 021-63598989

Add: No. 1247 South Suzhou Lu, Shanghai (Near XinZha Road, WuZhen Road)

Courtesy of the artist and Netherlands Embassy in Beijing China, for further information please visit www.riversouthsh.com.

Marina Abramović , installation view of performance art “The Artist is Present” at MOMA, 2010 © 2010 Scott Rudd www.scottruddphotography.com scott.rudd@gmail.com

A panel discussion on “Marina Abramović and Chinese Performance Art” – “When Marina Abramović Dies: A Biography” was held at Yuan Art Museum in Beijing. Published by Jincheng Publishing House, the Biography is divided into three parts, firstly her early years in Yugoslavia, then cooperation with her lover Ulay of 13 years, finally the solo experience after breaking up with Ulay, reflecting a comprehensive picture of her artistic life experiences. The author of the book is James Westcott, who has published articles on the art, architecture and the political aspects in the “The Guardian” (UK) and the “The Village Voice” (USA), etc., he has also served as an editor in lots of publications including artreview.com. Checking the files of the artist’s performance art, and interviews of more than 60 people form Abramovich’s family, partners, artists and gallery owners, he accomplished this heavy Biography.

Marina Abramović was born on November 30, 1946 in Belgrade. Serbia is a New York-based Montenegrin performance artist who began her career in the early 1970s. Active for over three decades, she has recently begun to describe herself as the “grandmother of performance art.” Abramović’s works explore the relationship between performer and the audience, the limits of the body, and the possibilities of the mind.

Selected works include Rhythm 10(1973), Rhythm 5 (1974), Rhythm 2(1974), Rhythm 0(1974), Lips of Thomas (star on stomach, 1975/1997), AAA – AAA (1977/2006), Breathing in / Breathing out (1977), Relation in Time (1977), Imponderabilia (1977, reenacted in 2010) in which two performers, both completely nude, stand in a doorway. The public must squeeze between them in order to pass, and in doing so choose which one of them to face. Art Must Be Beautiful, Artist Must Be Beautiful (1975), Freeing the Body (1975), Role Exchange (1975), Balkan Baroque (1997), The Hero (2001), Rest Energy (1980/2006), Black Dragon Standing (1988/1989), Green Dragon Lying (1988/1989), Chair for Departure (1990), Inner Sky (1991), Chair for Mineral Room (1995), The Lovers (1988), Nude with Skeleton, Count on Us (2003), Self Portrait with Skull, Portrait with Scorpion, Balkan Erotic Epic (2005), Cleaning the House (2005), Carrying the Skeleton (2008), From March 14 to May 31, 2010, the Museum of Modern Art held a major retrospective and performance recreating Abramović’s work, the biggest exhibition of performance art in MoMA’s history. During the run of the exhibition, Abramović performed “The Artist is Present,” a 736-hour and 30-minute static, silent piece, in which she sat immobile in the museum’s atrium, while spectators were invited to take turns sitting opposite her. Ulay made a surprise appearance at the opening night of the show.

 Partially translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

With his solo exhibition currently on view at Magician Space, I’m not not not Chen Zhou centers around the artist’s colleagues, friends, and curators. Chen describes the work as a ‘yellow journey’. They explore fragments of the ego and the blurry relationships that connect together these pieces to reveal a path that this Chen Zhou (who isn’t Chen Zhou) is about to embark on. The exhibition will remain on view until June 16, 2013.

Preface for I’m not not not Chen Zhou by Su Wei

About three months ago, by chance I began discussions with Chen Zhou regarding this exhibition. It began with one unpredictable exchange in that moment. Many words were spoken here and there, there were many desires to search for answers, and there were many times when we looked repeatedly at the role of the ego – all these things were accounted for within these contours of the time portrayed.

I first came into contact with Chen Zhou’s work two years ago. In his video work, there was never a moment when the experiments with aesthetic languages stopped. Whether he enlarged or simplified forms to direct how meaning could be expressed, he would also obscure or even mock his own relationships to meaning. He alternatively performs between the role of Chen Zhou the filmmaker and Chen Zhou the artist – it is this casual attitude, which reinforces the aesthetic indeterminacy of his practice. Chen Zhou boldly uses the term ‘hedonism’ to describe the current stage of his work. To some extent, there are always certain things that impede the nourishment of an artwork. If hedonism is what Chen Zhou indulges in – what can we put in the straw hat to save and keep him grounded a little?

Applying the word ‘exposure’ for myself, the pressure of my role to perform increases with a split moment. In the imagination of people, between the artist and the curator there is no danger of going without an identifiable connection to bridge these separate roles. Inevitably, I have become implicated in Chen Zhou’s predicaments. Under the pressure of this word, I view the non-presence of Chen Zhou as a ‘delusion’. Even if the unbridgeable gap between Chen Zhou and myself could ever be reconciled, we can still give answers to our own individual hopes. Following on from these gradual step-by-step exchanges, we have initiated the beginning of a kind of ‘return’. In other words, we have not continued in the direction that goes forward, but this time our biggest inspiration has been to accept the failures of our fantasies.

In Chen Zhou’s film I am not not not Chen Zhou, he deliberately uses yellow as a dubious mock tribute to ‘failure’. I am grateful for not appearing in the work and I am also glad to see a silent dialogue between the space of ‘You’ and ‘I’ – there are two twin brothers perform alternatively as Chen Zhou and his artist companions. Inexplicably and for no apparent reason, a soliloquy to oneself appears in the midst of the narrative movement. There are a plethora of ambivalent cues and teasers that still stubbornly subside. But undeniably, there is a suppression of aesthetics, which responds to the revelry of an expanding field of sociology. Following a return to the ‘distance of origin’ (Urdistanz) and by bringing to contact these blurry connections that take ideas of ‘you’ with remnants of the ego. This time, he seems to be compelled to embark on a ‘reality trip’ and this time he is seemingly destined to go on a detour.

About the exhibition

Duration: Apr. 18 – Jun. 16, 2013

Venue: Magician Space

Address: A 798 East R.d, 798 Art Zone No.2 Jiuxianqiao R.d, Chaoyang Dst, Beijing 100015

T +86 10 5840 5117 / 5978 9635

F +86 10 5978 9635

E info@magician-space.com

Courtesy of the artist and Magician Space, for further information please visit www.magician-space.com.

After Xin Haizhou’s Solo Exhibition at Today Art Museum in 2008, this brand new solo exhibition of Xin Haizhou will open at White Box Museum of Art on May 19th 2013. The exhibition is curated by critic Duan Jun, scheduled from May 19 to June 18 2013. The essential works of Xin Haizhou form last five years will be rerealed, as to present the phased thinking about art, life and the society.

The Real is a kind of psychoanalysis concept from the French psychologist Lacan. The real does not mean the real life or reality, but the crossroads of reality and illusion. For example, the real, just like the perspective vanishing point in painting, exists for real, although it is can’t be described. Recently, the field that Xin Haizhou is exploring just is the real, especially the actor’s life his presents. For the actors, the realities are their real life, and the performances are also their real life, so the performance is not all illusion. The overlapping area of the real life and the performances is the point that Xin Haizhou focuses on, and the main difficulty is that the real can’t be described by the words or forms directly, it can only indirectly maps to or projects on a certain form.

About the exhibition

Curator: Duan Jun

Presented by: Sun Yongzeng

Exhibition Director: Liu Chenya

Exhibition Cooperation: Cao Maochao

Organizer: White Box Museum of Art

Opening: 16:00, Sunday 19th May, 2013

Date: May 19- June 18, 2013

Museum Opening Hours: 10:00- 18:00, Tuesday- Sunday

Venue: WHITE BOX MUSEUM OF ART

Address: 798 Art Dist., NO.2 Jiu Xianqiao Road, Chaoyang Dist., Beijing, China

Courtesy of the artist and White Box Museum of Art, for further information please visit 798whitebox.com.

Work by Niña y Medusas

As part of the cultural project “Maratón latino” (Latin Marathon), the Consulate General of Mexico in Shanghai and Miguel de Cervantes Library inaugurate the exhibition of contemporary Mexican art.

The consulate has been collecting these pieces of art since the commemoration of the bicentennial of Mexico’s independence and the centenary of the Mexican Revolution, in 2010. The result is a careful selection of works that come from the donation and support of artists of all disciplines, including painters such as Alexandra Phelps, Ana Queral and Virinia Lizardi. For the first time, part of this great collection leaves its home so that more eyes can appreciate the richness and color of Mexico.

The opening ceremony was presented by Mr. Rolando Garcia, Consul General of Mexico in Shanghai. The coordinator of the collection, Mr. Guillermo Salceda offered a guided tour of the exhibition.

Green Cactus by Lorraine Pinto, 80x100cm

Work by Veracruz Prehispánico

About the exhibition

Duration: 5 May – 30 Jun 2013 10:00-19:00

Venue: Cervantes Library Shanghai

Opening ceremony: 4 May 2013 Sat 16:00

Tel: 021-54670098

Add: 1F Cervantes Library Shanghai, 208 Anfu Rd.

Courtesy of the artists and Cervantes Library Shanghai, for further information please visit biblioteca-shanghai.cervantes.es.

Someday at the end of 2011, out of sheer boredom, I created a small portrait painting with the frame I had ordered 6 months earlier. I transferred a scene in my studio onto the painting, although without too much passion, the creative process is peaceful, steady and sure. Unexpectedly, I seemed to have found the feeling I have been searching for. In the following days, I became more and more interested in portraying the objects and corners around the painting–I observed them from different perspectives every day, gazing at it from different angles with a trace of the unfamiliar. I ought to portray my own life, I think. Compared with the incomprehensible and profound theories, I prefer to summarize my own creations using an approachable language.

Mi Jie, “Here I Am, Without a Move VI”, 2012;
acrylic on canvas, 100×80cm

Mi Jie, “Here I Am, Without a Move V”, 2012;
acrylic on canvas, 120×90cm

Actually, I would like to be a “Minor Poet” according to renowned Japan contemporary writer Yoshiyuki Junnosuke, a sincere and backboned minor poet–I might not be a first-class poet, though I should not be overlooked. Although as tiny as the subject matter of creation is, I sincerely expressed my comprehension of society and life. Thematic figures in my paintings have always been painted following my inclination, not tied to a particular subject but coming from an image in my heart. Almost every one of them dresses up in a suit which seems always so uncoordinated that their pathetic restless expressions expose everything. How could the colors underneath of a Nobody be covered up by an handsome wardrobe?! He is well-nourished but pale with a gorgeous appearance and a cruel reality that disconcerts them. Occasionally he might have thought he would be deceived or fooled but immediately he was pulled back by rationality－this is a silly question for the answer is definitely yes. Or he should stand at the corner? That might be a more secure thought. After they were completed, friends said that every piece looked like a self portrait. A striking resemblance! They are nervous and helpless, they remain as a nosebleed symbolizing a small appetite, raising aphtha(mouth sores) and acne. I combine my own physical experience with the images, just to express my inner struggle and perverse character.

Mi Jie, “Here I Am, Without a Move VIII”, 2012;
acrylic on canvas, 120×90cm

Mi Jie, “Your Happiness Was My Sadness”, 2012;
acrylic on canvas, 120×90cm

Admittedly, the vast majority of us have been classified into vulnerable groups, yet the development of the country seems to indicate that we’ll remain weak, what shall we do about it? This series of paintings can be taken as both the depiction of my current life and the result of thinking of its root causes. The answer is not readily available and it does not seem realistic to answer it in an artistic way. However, the persistence of questioning will become the responsibility I have to face.

 – Mi Jie,  “Here I Am, Without a Move”

Mi Jie, “Here I Am, Without a Move XII”, 2013;
acrylic on canvas , Φ100cm

About the exhibition

Duration: May 7 – May 27

Opening: May 7, 2013, 17:00-19:00

Venue: hi Shop

Address: Chaoyang District, Beijing Road, 798 East Street

Courtesy of the artist and CAFA ART INFO.

It is half a century since the establishment of National Art Museum of China (NAMOC) and the opening to the public. In the past five decades, it has actively explored and offered important contributions to the outstanding achievements of Chinese art, accumulating a national wealth of arts, strengthening public cultural services, performances of international artistic exchanges, and the promotion of the specialized art museums. Over the fifty years, the National Art Museum of China has collected important works from the Song and Yuan dynasties to contemporary times and focuses on featuring modern and contemporary Chinese art. As a national art museum, NAMOC is responsible for displaying fine selections to the public. With this in view, “Developing with the Times – Collection Exhibition for the Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Establishment of the National Art Museum of China” is carefully planned and organized, aimed at uniting the classic, featuring the deep accumulation of the national art for the public, a chance for the public to share the outcomes of the art creation. On the basis of previous academic research and exhibitions, relying on the fine collections, the exhibition further combs through the collections, deepening the study, making an effort to construct an exhibition, integrating the classical and historical with good visual taste, comprehensively demonstrating the development process of modern and contemporary Chinese art over the last hundred years. It features six sections of heritage and an introduction, the suffering and struggle, the exploration and extension, the master and home, reflection and openness, diversity and prosperity, reflection of the magnificent historical narrative of Chinese art over more than one hundred years. The genres include Chinese painting, oil painting, print, sculpture, cosmic books, new year painting, rice paper, watercolor, installation, comprehension, etc., many are going to make their debut.

About the exhibition

Duration: May 18 – July 8, 2013

Organizer: National Art Museum of ChinaVenue: Hall 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,13,14,15,16,17

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO, for further information please visit www.namoc.org.

Jointly organized by the Zhejiang Art Museum and CAFA Art Museum, and planned by Feng Boyi, “Boundless – Wang Huangsheng’s Works (2009 – 2013)” is a large-scale exhibition following his solo exhibitions “Post Refined Joy” in 2012 (Beijing), and “roaming | apparition/ los.ge.löst” in Berlin, Germany in 2013, and presents more than 50 creations from 2009 through to 2013, including ink and wash paintings, installations, and videos.

Through the juxtaposition of the black, white and gray exhibition spaces, themed “Boundless”, the exhibition focuses on the display of the creations, the thinking and the judging during this stage, at the same time, meaning that his creation is in the process of experimental exploration, and is always in a status of “roaming” and “boundless”. Wang Huangsheng’s creation of experimental ink studies, a phenomenon of boundless conflicts between the personal artistic poetic romance and reality, and he tries to seek a visual tension of transformation and alienation in this tense inter-relationship, which constitutes the three themes of the exhibition, including “Separated”, “Intervention”, and “Intermediate”. The lines surround, cross, entangle with each other, roaming without any end; the interactive images created by intervention that are covered in newspapers, subvert and dismantle what the media ideology carries; In the fragmented structure and scene of the tangible and intangible, the virtual and real, and the light and shadow, it becomes so that a man feels the property is a reality, like roaming in the critical points between these works, floating accompanied by the shadows, without any boundaries.

About the exhibition 

Curator: Feng Boyi

Organizer: Zhejiang Art Museum, CAFA Art Museum

Duration: April 28 – May 10, 2013Venue: Hall 5 – 6

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

Invited by the well-known Italian art project “Venice Project”, Zhong Biao, a well-known contemporary artist will launch a grand comprehensive art project “The Universe of Unreality: Zhong Biao’s Visions 2013 in Venice”, a combination of various elements such as painting, installation, video, music and interactive design, at Santa Maria Church in Venice, Italy, on May 31 through to October 27, 2013.

The art project is hosted by Today Art Museum, in cooperation with Winshare Art Museum, and Prof. Xu Gang, Head of the Department of East Asian Studies of the University of Illinois, the noted active international curator serves as the curator, Prof. Jonathan Feinberg, the famous American art historian serves as the academic advisor, Associated Press journalist Daniel Wagner serves as the international media consultant. The English album of Zhong Biao is published by Charta, the world-renowned press company and issued in Venice during Venice Biennale 2013.

Born in Chongqing, on November 11, 1968, Zhong Biao is one of leading artists emerge from the late 1960s generation. His works are full of passion and strong visual imagination. He studied in the Department of Oil Painting at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (now the China Academy of Art) from 1987 to 1991, and is currently an associate professor of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, he lives and works in Beijing and Chongqing. Zhong Biao experiences the limits in society, and understands the infinite limits of the universe, combining the view of life in the real world and the view of the universe in the world of energy.

Venice Projects is officially organized by the municipal government of Venice, to promote the tradition of Venice, creating a space for international contemporary art in Venice. Part of the project was found by the Berengo Center for Contemporary Art and Glass, as an independent academic contemporary art project, it has held a number of important exhibitions worldwide, and plays an important role in the Venice Biennale. Santa Maria Church is next to many large scale academic institutes and important collections in Venice, and initially opens as an art exhibition.

The press conference of “The Universe of Unreality: Zhong Biao’s Visions 2013 in Venice”, was held on the 2nd floor of Building 2, at 16:00 on April 28, 2013. Curator Xu Gang, artist Zhong Biao, Xie Suzhen, Director of Today Art Museum, and Zhang Daxing, Director of Winshare Art Museum were invited to present at the press conference.

Xie Suzhen said it was a relative international action to initiatively go abroad, and wished everyone could achieve his/her own Chinese dream.

Zhong Biao and Xu Gang respectively introduced the overview of the exhibition from various angles, and had a discussion on the items. In addition, Zhong Biao made use of a slideshow to present the installation for the show at the Santa Maria Church for the media.

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

Photo Courtesy: ICA

Liu Ding, Beijing-based artist and curator, will invite friends and colleagues to a party with a DJ mixing Baroque music and Chinese voices; 2-D reproductions of Tate artworks; and a spinning disco ball for a new work made for the BMW Tate Live Performance Room. “Almost Avant-Garde” was created especially for an online audience and will be performed live on 16 May. Everyone is invited to enter the online BMW Tate Live Performance Room via www.youtube.com/user/tate/tatelive.

The recorded voices are taken from interviews Liu Ding conducted with Chinese artists and art critics active in the 1990s in which they describe their work, experiences, expectations and understanding of art. Liu Ding uses the work to reflect on the Chinese art community’s aspirations to be modern and contemporary. Translations will be projected onto the walls of the Performance Room.

This innovative format offers international audiences an opportunity to experience entirely new live works at Tate and to join a discussion about the work online. Each performance is archived and available to view online after the live event. Previous artists in the series are Jérôme Bel, Pablo Bronstein, Emily Roysdon, Joan Jonas and Harrell Fletcher.

BMW Tate Live is a four-year partnership between BMW and Tate, which focuses on performance, interdisciplinary art and curating digital space. Now in its second year, new commissions for 2013 include those online for BMW Tate Live: Performance Room and live performances at Tate Modern for BMW Tate Live: Performance Events.

BMW Tate Live is curated by Catherine Wood, Curator, Contemporary Art and Performance, Tate and Capucine Perrot, Assistant Curator, Tate Modern.

Media Information

Date: April 15, 2013

Subject: BMW Tate Live Performance Room: Liu Ding “Almost Avant-Garde”

BMW Tate Live Performance Room

Audiences are invited to enter the online BMW Tate Live Performance Room via www.youtube.com/user/tate/tatelive at 20.00 hrs in the UK and exactly the same moment across time zones on the specified dates – 15.00 hrs on the East Coast of America, 21.00 hrs in mainline Europe and 23.00 hrs in Russia. The global audience is encouraged to chat with other viewers via social media channels during the performance and to put questions to the artist or curator following it using their Twitter, Facebook or Google+ accounts. To get the latest updates follow @TateLive, using #BMWTateLive; Tate Facebook or Tate Google+.

BMW Tate Live

BMW Tate Live is a four year partnership between BMW and Tate that features innovative live performances and events including live web broadcast, in-gallery performance, seminars and workshops. BMW Tate Live aims to reach an international audience through new forms of art,addressing audiences changing needs, tastes and interests in art. The initiative creates a new space for collaboration and a programme that encompasses performance, film, sound, installation and learning–areas where artists can take greater risks and experiment freely. The programme investigates transformation in all its guises and aims to provoke debate on how art can affect intellectual, social and physical change. More information at www.tate.org.uk/bmwtatelive.

BMW’s Cultural Commitment

For over 40 years now, the BMW Group has initiated and engaged in more than 100 cultural partnerships worldwide. The focus of this long-term commitment to culture is modern and contemporary art, jazz and classical music as well as architecture and design. BMW has worked with artists such as Gerhard Richter, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Olafur Eliasson, Jeff Koons, Zubin Metha, Daniel Barenboim and Anna Netrebko and commissioned architects such as Karl Schwanzer, Zaha Hadid and Coop Himmelb(l)au. In London, BMW in partnership with the London Symphony Orchestra, hosts the BMW LSO Open Air Classics, a yearly live concert free of charge in Trafalgar Square, and supports Frieze Art Fair. The BMW Group takes absolute creative freedom in all the cultural activities it is involved in for granted – as this is just as essential for groundbreaking artistic work as it is for major innovations in a successful business. www.bmwgroup.com/culture and www.bmwgroup.com/culture/overview

For questions please contact:

Dr. Thomas Girst

BMW Group Corporate and Intergovernmental Affairs

Head of Cultural Engagement

Telephone: +49 89-382-24753, Fax: +49 89-382-10881

Jeanette Ward

Senior Press Officer, Tate

Telephone: +44 (0)20 7887 4942, E-mail: pressoffice@tate.org.uk

Mao Yan, “Hua”, 2012; oil on canvas, 1100x750mm

Pace Beijing is presenting a solo exhibition by one of China’s most influential portrait artists, Mao Yan. This exhibition is also the first exhibition of Mao Yan since his representation by Pace Beijing.

Mao Yan is well known by his portrait art. His artworks reveal the momentary glory of peace and attract audience into his artworks through the very straight expressions without any metaphor. Mao Yan insists the spiritual dominances in his paintings and depicts the same object though years, in which he has controlled the arbitrary sorrows and the flow of emotions and showed the tension of strokes in a show but calming way. Through the unique image he created and the motion he captured, Mao Yan expresses the light atmosphere that is attracted by a certain moment in memory and weakens the characteristics of a certain figure. Therefore he focuses solely on the language of art and shows the theme that is both magnificent and decadent. We could say that the art of Mao Yan has represented the whole face of an era that is remote but real.

Mao Yan, “Faerie on the Chair”, 2013; oil on canvas, 3300X2000mm

In Mao Yan’s portrait, the feature of time on a figure’s appearance has been removed, and only the common spirit of human beings is still maintained. The gray tone shows his experience and observation over the long and dim modern history. Mao Yan chooses an individual as his standpoint and his personal opinion as the foundation, and he dimes any relations with his personal symbol and gets rif of subjective emotional judgment to avoid any symbolic or metaphoric meanings. Mao Yan depicts the same figure over years. Such behavior is bases on the opposite of his own spiritual power. Yet in his nob-sketching creation process, he not only removes the steadiness and flatness of photographs, but also revert the reality of scene and the vividness of the material, which expresses his personal pursuit to the figure. Mao Yan keeps his pursuit to spirit and the vague memory, embeds his personal feelings into the tone of era, and by making use of his talent and feelings, he presents the dim light of human soul and shows a unique figure that is calm and peaceful. Other than new works from the series of Thomas, which the artists has been continuing since late 1990s, the first-time large scale painting of female body will be another focus of this solo exhibition. Faerie on the Chair and the Plump Nude show the rare female figure in portrait paintings. In these two paintings, Mao Yan depicts and compares the flirting slim model sin the chair and the plump lady who curls up at the exact same place. In addition, Mao Yan will present artworks about animal heads which are unorthodox. For example. Fish Head for Goya is a tribute to the Spanish romantic master Goya, who has a huge influence on Mao Yan. We can look forward to seeing Mao Yan’s technique on controlling the painting’s atmosphere and the rare talent the possesses again in this solo exhibition at Pace Beijing.

Mao Yan, “Posie Musgran No.2″, 2010; oil on canvas, 537x726mm

About Mao Yan

Mao Yan (b. 1968, Hunan Province, China) is considered as one of China’s outstanding contemporary portrait artists. Under his father’s influence, Mao Yan began studying painting at an early age. By the time he was a teenager he has already mastered advanced techniques, and his talent was recognized even before he was admitted to the Central Academy of Fine Arts. In 1991, after graduating from the Oil Painting Department at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, Mao Yan began to delve into portraiture. In his article Exploration in Realism, renowned art critic Li Xianting stated Mao Yan’s works depict the “portraits of a generation whose emotions are gradually disappearing”. Gray tones, delicate molding, and mottled brushstrokes allow Mao Yan’s works to retain all detail and vitality, whether displayed under natural or gallery lighting.

Around 1995, Mao Yan’s paintings began to move from the standards of conventional portraiture towards smaller, quieter pieces. His impudent, flaming colors and warm browns gradually became sober-infiltrated by gray, ashen tones that concealed the paintings foundations. At the end of the 1990s, Mao Yan began using Thomas, an exchange student from Luxembourg, as model, spending ten years on one portrait. The series continues to this day, but the artist also continues to pursue a more dynamic path. He gains a sense of inherent classicism and security from using familiar symbols, yet only with unceasing concentration and focus can a painter’s style be used as a tool to give form to abstract reflection, and that still requiring a callous inhibition of ever-present, hovering uncertainty. In his recent works, Mao Yan focuses on the experiment o depicting female portrait and sill life, rendering his homage to Romanticism masters such Goya and Delacroix. The meaning in Mao Yan’s endeavors does not lie in the idea of “portraits”. Rather, his works are “paintings of portraits”—borrowing the contour and movement of a character in order to substantialize outline, color and composition. It is within the framework of realism that such deep, subtle inquiries into human mentality can be made.

In the end, a simple paintings is no more than another way of viewing the world; the significance of Mao Yan’s works has been displayed in large-scale exhibitions both at home and abroad, including Mao Yan at Pace Beijing(2013), 30 Years of Chinese Contemporary Art at the Mingsheng Art Museum, Shanghai(2010), Longing for More, Mao Yan’s Solo Exhibition at the Shanghai Art Museum( 2009), China, Construction and Deconstruction at the National Gallery of St. Paul, Brazil( 2008), Today’s China at Beivue Museum in Brussels(2008), and Paris: Beijing at Espace Pierre Cardin, Paris(2008).

About the exhibition

Duration: May 11, 2013 – Jun 22, 2013

Venue: Pace Beijing

Address: 798 Art District, No. 2 Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100015

Tel: +86 01 5978 9781

Fax: +86 10 5978 9781-818

Tues – Sat 10 to 6

Courtesy of the artist and Pace Beijing, for further information please visit www.pacegallery.com or contact with Sylvie Tiao pr@pacebeijing.com/+86 10 5978 9781# 811.

Art Beijing 2013 was inaugurated at the National Agriculture Exhibition Center on the evening of 30 April. “Art Beijing 2013” is an “art event” that puts the art circle of 2013 into the spotlight where gallery owners, curators, collectors, artists, media, government officials, celebrities and people from all walks of life gather. This is the eighth anniversary of Art Beijing, which has become an important art logo in Asia.

The installation was crowded with numerous people, while all the galleries were full of viewers, many of whom were in conversation making inquiries with gallery owners and mangers. Platform China Contemporary Art Institute, Triumph Art Space, Star Gallery, Author Gallery, Beijing Best Seasons Cultural Communication Co., Ltd. Chin Der Jyu Gallery, Line Gallery, Art-surprise (Collector’s Union), Xin Dong Cheng Gallery, Litvak Gallery (Israel), Amy Li Gallery (formerly known as Dialogue Space), etc. had impressive pee exhibition sales.In addition, organized by the Academic Committee of Art Beijing, the two theme exhibitions were also the highlights in the fair. Firstly, the public sculpture program “PARK” initially combined sculptures, installations, lights, and images, creating an “ART ZONE” for visitors to play with in the boulevard in the front of the hall. Secondly, “Being Asia – Promotional Exhibition for Japanese and Korean Artists”, featured the works of 15 cutting-edge young artists from Nova Art 100 and 37 outstanding artists, recommended by 19 top galleries from Japan and Korea, reflecting that more and more collectors and media have begun to pay more attention to young artists, and respond enthusiastically.

Art Beijing 2013 rang down the curtain on May 3.

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

In recent years, outdoor interactive advertising has become popular again, mainly because of its appearance on video websites can produce a viral effect. According to my observation, the interactive advertising vending machines have emerged in major cities throughout the world, in numerous forms including selling drinks and potato chips, insurance and to encourage customers to donate money, etc., since 2011. I like vending machines, basically they are the tools that intuitively reflecting the concept of “investment = reward”, when one puts money into it, he/she will be sure to have the reward and object, in addition, vending machines have been used for a long time, people of all ages including older people and children, can easily accept them.

Generally speaking, interactive advertising installation is a mechanical device, placed on the street or an indoor space, whose sound or lights attract pedestrians that are passing by, with an interactive beginning. The same as the machine for clamping dolls, it is the action of clamping dolls or the dolls in the showcase that attract the attention of the pedestrians making them stop. The design of interactive advertising installations must be very simple, because it must ensure that all the people including older people and children know how to use them, knowing how to operate them before they use them, so keeping people interested in it. Therefore, most of the interactive advertising installations make use of the devices that we are already familiar with in our daily lives, such as: slot machines, vending machines, pinballs, etc.

The following three cases are related to interactive advertising of vending machines, I personally prefer the creative “The Journey of 2 Euros 2012”. Firstly, it is a very creative public service ad, by which people clearly see the places that the coins they donate go to. Customers need to operate them simply, most of the time, the customers are just watching the advertising content, exchanging with the spirit, like watching TV commercials. More over, different from the other two interactive installations, “The Journey of 2 Euros 2012” prefers the interactive beginning, process, and result rather than a simple result.

Along with a large number of social networking viral marketing cases that are emerging, large numbers of novel and simple interactive advertising installations will be used by the advertisers, transmitted to every comer of the network by the way of a video, without any geographical limitation, we will be impressed by the advertisers, propaganda objects, even in countries faraway.

Delite Reward Machine 2012

Will you crow to pay homage to a vending machine in public to get a packet of free potato chips?

Delite from Australia launched a funny vending machine, if one completed the action following the prompts on the screen, he/she could get a pack of free Delites potato chips. It made use of various nonsensical ways to test people, to understand what people will do in public for a free packet of potato chips? The naughty machine may make you click on the button 5000 times, or dance for a while, even unreasonably crowed to pay homage to it in public. Oh, My God! As a result, the curious people really did it without hesitation. This originality is provided by the Clemenger BBDO Adelaide, an Australian advertising agency

Reference: http://agbeat.com/business-news/vending-machine-makes-people-stunts-free-treats/

The Journey of 2 Euros

An obscure vending machine, a digital entertainment donation machine supported by visitors to Catholic Charities MISEREOR, is placed in a corridor of the Germany Hamburg Airport, when you put the € 2 coins will shuttle in the childlike screen, and every step reflects where your money will be used! Finally donations help poor children realize their dream to go to university. Avatar of the donors will be photographed by the camera hidden in the machine and uploaded to Facebook on the official website. The originality is provided by KolleRebbe, a German advertising company.

Reference: http://www.simonsticker.com/2012/03/05/change-a-lot-with-2e-an-interactive-poster-by-misereor

The Making of Singapore’s Biggest Tip Jar 2011

“Can You Serve” is a TV reality show contest themed “customer service”, a player faces various complex and downright customers on the TV show, who will be able to win it, if they service him well. The vending machine, placed in the mall is an interactive installation to promote their second season of the program, as long as the internet user clicks the button in “favor” of the official website of the program, the machine will donate a dollar as a tip. The originality is provided by the BBH, a Singapore advertising agency.

Reference: http://creativecriminals.com/online/can-you-serve-interactive-billboard/

NTUC: Jackpot 2011

It is an interactive installation for Singapore National Workers Union Congress to promote their retirement insurance products, to convey the uncertainty of life after retirement, a metaphor revealing that an unplanned retirement is as dangerous as playing a slot machine. Without a planned retirement, the rest of your life will be filled with uncertainty and gambling, to remind people to make a plan for retirement, and as soon as possible to buy the insurance products for whole and term lives. The originality is provided by the BBH, a Singapore advertising agency.

Reference: http://creativecriminals.com/outdoor/ntuc-jackpot/

Further reading:

20 Interactive RewardMachines Campaigns

http://www.viralblog.com/trends-innovations/20-interactive-vending-machines-campaigns/

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

About The Garden of Forking Paths – Exploring Independent Animation

by Mariagrazia Costantino

The Chinese expression Qu Jing Tong You – literally “a winding path leads to quiet seclusion” – adequately conveys the idea of a conceptual space out of time, or better, a space suspended in a non-linear and non-eschatological time, where (and when) visions of life’s countless circumstances can be repeatedly materialized and delivered.

The inner wisdom of this proverb seems to be elaborated in Jorge Luis Borges’s novel “The Garden of Forking Paths”. Its protagonist, the spy Yu Tsun, while hopelessly trying to escape capture from his enemy runs into a revelation about the ancestor Ts’ui Ben and his unfinished literary work, planned as an inextricable labyrinth – the “garden of forking paths” itself.

Borges’s narrative strategy, as it is articulated, contains a core of simple truth: the world is just too layered to be embraced and understood at a glance, so are its phenomena. To enumerate them is impossible, therefore, instead of making lists, it is far better to look into the mechanisms of their functioning: repetitions, recurring patterns or slight shifts in perspective, and again turning points and unexpected convergences. In the hypertext Borges manages to construct, time and space become unbreakable, as in the modern (and postmodern) theoretical framework. The labyrinth is the space and the time one employs to walk through it. This is also at the core of time-based technologies and multimedia art. A careful combination of time and space generates coordinated movement, which is the premise of animation. The exploration of all the chances animated images involve and allow is the premise of independent animation.

Animation is also one of the directest ways for artists to explore their personal imagery, as well as the collectively inbuilt visual culture(s). Starting as a pure investigation into the depths of mind, with its fears, expectations, disillusions, temporary or long-term escapes, it becomes paradigmatic of a certain human condition and can be shared through its exposure: the unbridled layout of its contents and the amplification of the evils we are confronted with can relieve from the pain of being alive, and deliver from the sense of threat existence occasionally entails; or on the contrary amplify it. In a word, by liberating from the burden of unspoken words and hidden images, these works can represent/show alternatives to pre-established models and new ways of dealing not only and simply with what is real, but with what we see as real.

This exhibition is aimed at introducing to the Chinese and international public the most interesting outcomes of recent independent animation by young yet well-assessed artists, as well as the finest achievements of renowned artists making occasional or exclusive use of animation language and technology. Conceived as a maze to get lost in and reemerge, just like a labyrinth, or the path the title refers to, it can be temporarily deceitful, but it also represents the unlimited possibilities artists have to imagine, hence create, and opens up new ones for people to get closer to their visions.

To present these works, we would like to start from the idea of exploration: exploration of virtual worlds and exploration of time in the form of sequences of images on the screen. Like every other art form, it hinges upon an in-depth knowledge of history and contemporaneity, but representing an expression of the so-called “Cross Media”, it also relies on the capacity to anticipate new directions and put them in relation with each other.

Animation should be also seen as the personal adventure of artists into a terrain full of uncertainties. We are strongly persuaded that the painstaking research they carry on embodies in the best way the contradictions of a technique which through apparent fun and disengagement conveys disruptive messages.

Special thanks go to Shenzhen OCT Loft for allowing us to take a selection of works from the first Shenzhen Biennale of Independent Animation, held at OCT Loft from 22 December 2012 to 22 March 2013.

OCAT Shanghai has added to the number – comprising AES + F, Cao Fei, Chen Shaoxiong, Federico Solmi, Sun Xun, Zhou Xiaohu – other fundamental artists who have worked with and on animation: among them Gu Dexin, Feng Mengbo, William Kentridge (who has regenerated, even revolutionized the language of independent animation), Lu Yang, Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg (whose clay motions are exhibited in China for the first time), and Riccardo Arena, specifically dealing with the city of Shanghai. The works of all these artists will be placed within a conceptual frame in which the city of Shanghai is a crucial crossroad of cultural experiences and a platform for international dialogue.

A century ago or so, the barges that sailed down the Suzhou river, flowing just outside the exhibition halls, carried all sorts of goods to a warehouse where today priceless fantasies are collected and shared.

About the exhibition

Date: May 3, 2013 – Jul 28, 2013

Opening: May 3, 2013, 17:00, Friday

Venue: OCT Contemporary Art Terminal Shanghai

Curator: Mariagrazia Costantino, Wang Chunchen

Organizer: OCT Contemporary Art Terminal Shanghai (Shanghai, China)

Courtesy of OCT Contemporary Art Terminal Shanghai, for further information please visit www.ocat.org.cn.

ShanghART is pleased to present the first solo exhibition in this season, “The Rhymes of Ruins: TANG Guo Solo Exhibition”. Highly recommended by M50 joint openings, this exhibition will be shown in ShanghART main space from May 11th through June 10th, 2013.

Five years have passed since TANG Guo had his last solo exhibition, while his creative inspiration seems to stay the same. In his early years, the inspiration was mainly from his obsession with handmade paper using traditional techniques; then in “Shui Kou (Water Source)”, it was from the temperament of river characterized by its placidity yet tenacity, haziness and elusiveness; later in “Human Territory” it was manifested as the immortal figures flying against the wind; and now his latest video work “The Rhymes of Ruins” once again returns to the unforgettable memory of overwhelming flood of water. The work is done in the form of stop motion animation derived from black and white photography, featuring a composition of natural materials, such as dead branches and dry leaves. Though succinct in form, the effect is astonishing and far-reaching, as if it were stretching into endless reincarnation. Dubbed by the artist himself, the work reveals mixed feelings of sorrow, grace, casualness and discontent, being resentful while at the same time admirable, with the intermittent blanks enhancing the impression of a perpetual struggle in the hope of nirvana. This exhibition will also feature TANG’s latest paper works, which stand as a resourceful book depicting the fine virtue of frozen ruins.

TANG Guo was born in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province in 1955. He studied at Nanjing Art Academy and Central Academy for Arts and Crafts, Beijing from 1986 to 1989. Now he resides and works in Nanjing. Major solo exhibitions include Emanation, Bund 18 Creative Center, Shanghai (2008); TANG Guo, Zhu Qizhan Art Museum, Shanghai (2006); Human Territory, ShanghART H-Space, Shanghai (2005); Water, ShanghART Gallery, Shanghai (2002); Long Life, La Galliavola, Milan, Italy (2000); TANG Guo New Works on Paper, ShanghART Gallery, Shanghai (1998) and Paintings by TANG Guo, Guofu Museum, Taipei (1996).

About the exhibition

Opening: May 11th, 2013, 17:00-19:30

Date: May 11th – June 10th, 2013, daily 10:00-18:00

Venue: ShanghART Main Space, Bldg. 16, 50 Moganshan Road

Courtesy of the artist and ShanghART, for further information please visit www.shanghartgallery.com.

NO WAY!

Shanghai Gallery of Art is pleased to present NO WAY!, Gao Weigang second solo exhibition at the gallery. The Beijing-based artist questions the nature of communication using a unique contemporary visual language.

In this ambitious project, Gao has extended one of his signature sculptural forms throughout the gallery, in the form of a monumental installation, bringing the SGA space into full play and expanding the scope of his oeuvre. As an undulating mirrored stair form weaves its way through the gallery architecture, the artist submerges the viewer into endless web of reflections, which distort, unsettle and reconfigure our spatial logic.

A number of new sculptures and mixed media paintings are also on view, and compliment the large installation. Rendered with delicate technical skill, the artist then subverts the artwork’s apparent meaning by inserting visual alterations that make us question what we see. Gao’s simple yet surprisingly powerful images function as an ontological inquiry, and they reveal the web of signifiers that underlay our experience.

Winner of 2011 ART FUTURE prize at ART HK, Gao Weigang (b. 1976) is a versatile artist who works in a wide range of media. Using traditional media as a point of departure, the artist often incorporates natural phenomenon such as light and recorded sound into the work, to link disparate forms and narratives.

TRACKING BAUDELAIRE

Shanghai Gallery of Art is pleased to announce the launch of a new platform, SGA WING. This series emphasizes new paradigms of transformation and production in visual culture. With a particular focus on Asia, SGA WING’s programming invigorates the field of contemporary art by exploring interdisciplinary creations. By expanding the boundaries of art and engaging different discourses, SGA WING explores the numerous avenues, theoretical and practice-based, endemic to contemporary curatorial practice.

It is with pleasure that SGA WING #1 presents TRACKING BAUDELAIRE by Map Office, winner of the Sovereign Asian Art Prize 2013 for their photograph “Back Home with Baudelaire, No. 5” (2005).

TRACKING BAUDELAIRE recalls MAP Office’s 2005 work, Back Home with Baudelaire, where the duo accompanied the cargo ship named Baudelaire from the Yantian port in Shenzhen to Hong Kong. Throughout the voyage, they documented the 24-hour operation of cranes and moving containers, and produced a series of eight photographs and a 16-minute film that captured the world of global production and distribution. TRACKING BAUDELAIRE recalls the original trip, where they looked back to their personal archives, and extends the initial dialogue with their findings, into Shanghai. Across history and time, the Hong Kong-based artists embarks on a nautical route, acknowledging the port city as a new leader in the field of maritime movement.

Techniques of observation – and their geo-politic impact – play a key role in MAP Office’s work and function as an entry point for broader investigations into perception, mapping, and understanding. For their first Shanghai exhibition, they present a three-part installation. Juxtaposing a light-box diptych of stacked shipping containers in a night setting, a series of 8 radar plot etchings and an illuminated map of the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), their installation highlights the built environment, each element framing a different aspect of the same project.

Further complemented by the imagined reconstruction of a ship’s Captain’s Quarters; this project elaborates on the temporal aspect of tracking of Baudelaire. To this day, MAP Office time and again creates work at the intersection of art, territories, and time-based media.

MAP Office is a multidisciplinary platform devised by Laurent Gutierrez (b. 1966, Casablanca, Morocco) and Valérie Portefaix (b. 1969, Saint-Étienne, France). This artist/architect pair, based in Hong Kong since 1996, has explored real and imagined territories through various media: drawing, photography, video, installations, performance, and literary and theoretical texts., A monograph on their work, MAP OFFICE – Where the Map is the Territory, was published in 2011.

MAP Office has exhibited in major international art, design and architecture expositions including: 7th Asia Pacific Triennial (2012); 1st Kiev Biennale (2012); 6th Curitiba Art Biennale (2011); 7th, 11th and 12th Venice Architecture Biennale (2000, 2008, 2010); Prospect.1 New Orleans (2008); 7th Gwangju Biennale (2008); 10th Istanbul Biennial (2007); 52nd Venice Art Biennale (2007); 15th Sydney Biennale (2006); 2nd Guangzhou Triennial (2005); 2nd and 3rd Hong Kong-Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale (2007, 2009); etc.

About the exhibition

Duration: May 19, 2013 – Jun 30, 2013

Opening: May 18, 2013, 18:00, Saturday

Venue: Shanghai Gallery of Art

Courtesy of the artists, for further information please visit www.shanghaigalleryofart.com. 

The press conference of the “Exhibition of Chinese Pavilion for the 55th Venice Biennale” was held at the underground floor hall of Juran Building, Dongzhimen, Beijing, on April 23, 2013. Guests present included Han Ziyong, Vice Chairman of the China Arts and Entertainment Group, Fan Di’an, Director of National Art Museum of China, Xie Jinying, Deputy Secretary of the Department of Outreach of the Ministry of Culture, Yan Dong, Vice General Manager of the China Arts and Entertainment Group, Wang Chunchen, Curator of Chinese Pavilion of Venice Biennale, as well as seven participating artists: He Yunchang, Hu Yaolin, Miao Xiaochun, Shu Yong, Tong Hongsheng, Wang Qingsong, Zhang Xiaotao.

Honorable guests and artists addressed at the conference. Wang Chunchen gave a comprehensive report on the news media and the public, initially introducing the curatorial concepts, then prominent expressive themes, programs of the artists, and other details. He talked about an important change in the Chinese Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2013 as the huge oil tanks were removed, with the help of the Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, who repeatedly negotiated with the Italian organizer, effectively solving the problem of a narrow space and dim light in the pavilion. Fan Di’an said, with emotion, it was a new level for the exhibitions at the Chinese Pavilion, a new starting point!

The 55th Venice Biennale will be held in Venice from June 1st through to November 24th 2013, China will participate in this international event of contemporary art in the form of a National Pavilion. Commissioned by China’s Ministry of Culture, “Transfiguration – the Chinese Pavilion of the 55th Venice Biennale” will be held by the China Arts and Entertainment Group in the Venice Virgin Garden and Armory from May 29 through to November 24, 2013, organized by the China International Exhibition Co., Ltd, affiliated with China Arts and Entertainment Group, featuring seven sets of conceptual installations which are separated but interrelated to each other.

“Transfiguration” is about to be presented in Venice

Wang Chunchen’s proposal of “Transfiguration” was selected during the assessment of the committee organized by Ministry of Culture of China, in February 2013. “Transfiguration” refers to contemporary changes in art and its thinking, especially referring to the surpassing of the gap between life and art, the transformation of life to art, of the commonplace to artworks or art performance, of non-art to art, etc., which contains one of the essences of contemporary art.

Seven artists are going to feature their works in the exhibition at the Chinese Pavilion. He Yunchang is a sincere and honest artist, and has always conceived and questioned the world, by using his own body as an expressive object, the exhibition features his work “Seawater of Venice”, which stresses that the communication between people is the continuum of social behaviors; In recent years, Hu Yaolin engaged in protecting, repairing and reconstruction of the buildings of ancient Chinese style, which have gradually disappeared from our vision, because of the rapid development of the cities. “Thing in Itself” symbolically imitates the shape of the large dome of the Pantheon in Rome, revealing the complex nature of the artist that as the reproduction of Chinese cultural heritage; Miao Xiaochun is a researcher of new media art, and his works are the observation and interpretation of history and culture, by a contemporary Chinese artist; Shu Yong focuses on the public participation and interaction, the installation “Ancient Song Bricks” is a collection of the vocabulary of cultural phenomenon, written by himself to portray the information of the philosophy of life, popular state and social change in contemporary society; Tong Hongsheng prefers to express his own inner feelings and beliefs in daily things, “Still Life Series” has symbolized the faith, which has become a cultural relic; Wang Qingsong’s photography can be seen as the symbolized images of Chinese reality, as well as the visual expression of the reading installation and educational landscape in Chinese transformation; Zhang Xiaotao is an artist of cross media, from the early creation of oil painting to the new media art used today, exploring the possibility of painting language with digital art, his animations can be regarded as the fables of the social changes and future prospects.

The word “Transfiguration” originated from the English language which originally referred to Christ’s appearance when Christ transformed into the images of the characters, extending to transformation, change, deformation, etc. Today, it has various directions, and is the combination of the tradition and contemporary, and its roots contain the meaning of “figure” or “image”, which coincide with the spirit of “the confluence of the dreams and images of humans”, advocated by the 55th Venice Biennale, themed “The Encyclopedic Palace”; “transfiguration” also contains geographic, spatial, and graphic concepts, such as position, location, and diagram position, carrying and symbolizing the characteristics of the times in its connation, prominently reflecting the features of the contemporary international community, not only China in upheaval, but also the world changing through globalization. One of the characteristics of art is to reflect and respond to the changes of the times, showing the dreams of humans and rendering of new images, because the change and development of the picture and image are composed of visual civilization and knowledge of humans. Transfiguration means that transforming a thing to a shape and even an image, and then the evolution of art and history.

“Read China Again” promotes international exchanges and dialogues

The exhibition in the Chinese Pavilion will highlight Chinese culture and the characteristics of Chinese contemporary art to Europe and the world, indicating the developmental trends of Chinese contemporary art, narrowing the distance between the world and Chinese culture, also hoping this exhibition become a platform for international exchange in art circles, and a focus for the media from all walks of life, according to its own features, at the Venice Biennale.

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

PinchukArtCentre is proud to present China China, a major group exhibition including eleven Chinese artists of different generations, focusing on the tension between individuality and collective thinking, a subject which not only defined Chinese history and continuously shapes contemporary society, but equally gains importance in the West.

China China is an exhibition about two Chinas, about the present and the past and about choices for the future. Dealing with the continuous search for history and with a reality that is shifting from local to a global context. It highlights the different approach in the generation of artists living through the Cultural Revolution, who find their subject in researching the past while dealing with the present, and the new generation, who engages in an uprooted society, moving forward into a new social-cultural future.

With eleven artist-devoted spaces, PinchukArtCentre offers a complex view on how this theme developed across three generations of contemporary Chinese artists. The exhibition includes iconic work from, among others, Ai Weiwei and Chen Zhen together with major new produced works of Sun Yuan & Peng Yu, Xu Zhen and Cao Fei.

The exhibition includes the works of Cao Fei, Yang Fudong, Zhang Huan, Ai Weiwei, Yan Xing, Sun Xun, Zhao Yao, Sun Yuan & Peng Yu, Zhao Zhao, Chen Zhen and Xu Zhen.

PinchukArtCentre is the largest and most dynamic private contemporary art centre in Central and Eastern Europe. It is dedicated to fostering artistic education, creation and appreciation in the Ukraine. The PinchukArtCentre is a leading international centre for contemporary 21st-century art. It provides a sustainable contribution to the cultural participation and emancipation of Ukrainian art and society. It also gives a significant contribution to the cultural dialogue between East and West, and between national identity and international challenge. Recent events have included personal exhibitions by Jeff Wall, Gary Hume, Olafur Eliasson, Candice Breitz, Damian Ortega, Sergey Bratkov, Subodh Gupta, Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor, and others. The art centre has founded prizes to support national and international young artists up to 35. The PinchukArtCentre represented Ukraine at the Venice Biennale on several occasions.

The show will be open in the PinchukArtCentre (Kyiv, Ukraine) from May 18 till October 6, 2013. Admission is Free.

The press preview will take place on the 16th of May 2013 at noon. The vernissage will take place on the 17th of May 2013 at 6.00 p.m.

For further information please visit pinchukartcentre.orgor contact +38 044 590-0858 or info@pinchukartcentre.org.

Thesis work of 275 students completing graduate degree from the China Central Academy of Fine Arts(CAFA) will be on display in CAFA 2013 Annual Graduate Thesis Exhibition at CAFA Art Museum from May 2 through May 17. The exhibition includes work by graduates students in Chinese Painting, Oil Painting, Printmaking, Mural Painting, Sculpture, Experimental Art, Design, Architecture, Comic and Animation, Photography, Architecture, City Planning, Landscape Architecture and other professions.

The work selected represents the culmination of each student’s experience in CAFA’s dynamic, diverse and demanding graduate studies. The exhibition located in all the galleries of CAFA Art Museum is free and open to the public daily 10:30 am-4:30pm.

The arrangement provides ample space for the students, allowing each the opportunity to showcase multiple pieces, or large installations from their individual thesis work. Also it enables viewers to gain insight into the thinking and process behind the work.

About the exhibition

Duration: May 2-17

Venue: CAFA Art Museum

Organizer: CAFA Art Museum, Postgraduates Administration Department of CAFA

Address: No. 8 Hua Jia Di Nan St., Chaoyang District, Beijing, P.R. China

Phone: 86-10-64771575

Fax: 86-10-64771699

Zip Code: 100102

Email: museum@cafa.edu.cn

Web: www.cafamuseum.org

The detailed maps of leading Chinese artist and thinker Qiu Zhijie redefine our world in a close examination of its actual and conceptual territories. During his residency at Spring Workshop in May 2013, Zhijie re-imagines this terrain with expansive, large-scale maps made of ink and tape. Found objects and engraved spheres of glass, wood and steel are placed throughout, resulting in a landscape of new interrelationships. The maps’ journey began in Rotterdam with Qiu’s exhibition “Blueprints” (2012) at Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art which also featured the Map of Reactivation that served as the artistic statement of the 2012 Shanghai Biennale. The exhibition will be open to the public free of charge from May 23 to August 15, 2013. Exhibition times will be posted here once the show has opened.

Related Programs

Student Workshop, May 10/11, 2013

Qiu Zhijie will be holding a two-day student workshop in which Hong Kong-based art students will collaborate with the artist and contribute to the installation. Please email us to participate.

Artist Talk, 630pm, May 11, 2013 (Drinks, 6pm)

Qiu Zhijie will give a sneak peek of the installation at Spring and talk about his work-in-progress. Please click here to register.

Art Basel Wong Chuk Hang Art Night, 5-11pm, May 23, 2013

Guided tours will be offered during Art Basel and on weekends.

Family Day, June 2013

Spring welcomes families to visit on a special weekend day when we will have food, fun and games for the little ones.

About the artist

Qiu Zhijie (b. 1969, Zhangzhou, China) lives and works in Beijing and Hangzhou, China. Qiu’s diverse practice embraces sculpture, painting, printmaking, video, photography, and performance. His work, which frequently translates traditional techniques into conceptual forms, examines the intersection between political history and current social realities in China.

Qiu has had solo exhibitions at such institutions as Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China (2010); Haus der Kulturen del Welt, Berlin (2010); Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2009); Zendai Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai (2008); Long March Space, Beijing (2007); Fundação Oriente, Macau, China (2000); and Gallery of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing (1999).

Group shows featuring Qiu’s work include Community of Tastes: Chinese Contemporary Art Since 2000, Museu de arte contemporânea da universidade de São Paulo (2011); Photography from the New China, Getty Center, Los Angeles (2010–11); Shanghai Biennial (2010); Thirty Years of Chinese Contemporary Art, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai (2010); Contemplating the Void: Interventions in the Guggenheim Museum, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2010); Breaking Forecast: Eight Key Figures of China’s New Generation of Artists, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (2009– 10); Media Art China 2009: Timelapse, A Swiss-China Media Art Exhibition, National Art Museum of China, Beijing (2009), and Centre PasquArt, Biel, Switzerland (2010); Fukuoka Triennial, Japan (2009); Venice Biennale (2009); Guangzhou Triennial, China (2008); Poetic Realism: A Reinterpretation of Jiangnan, Centro de arte Tomás y Valiente, Madrid (2008); The Real Thing: Contemporary Art from China, Tate Liverpool (2007); Moscow Biennial: We are your future (2007); Trading Place, Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (2005); Yokohama Triennial, Japan (2005); Alors la Chine?, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2003); Transience: Chinese Experimental Art at the End of the Twentieth Century, Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago (1999); and Inside Out, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York (1998).

Courtesy of  the artist and Spring, for further information please visit www.springworkshop.org.

Kang Jianfei, New Beijing Series 04

Today, as contemporary art has gradually become a part of mainstream culture in society, the art market now begins to boom and is like a bubble. Painting has become fashionable again, partly because of the driver of the market. Many of the conceptual artists begin to paint. The so-called conceptual paintings both large and small are filling the professional and non-professional galleries. Even if this phenomenon is temporary, it presents us with a question that we couldn’t avoid: “What does painting mean today? What does it mean for the artists?”

This question has always echoed in my mind after I travelled through a dirty little village in a summer rainstorm evening in 2007, seeing most of Kang Jianfei’s works over the past few years. Kang Jianfei and I were students of the same generation at CAFA, wandering for a few years in society, he went back to school, graduated with a masters degree, and now teaches in the school. It seems that Kang is separated from the contemporary art circle, because he spends most of his time in school. However, this special environment gives him a relatively simple creative atmosphere, but it seems that the artist has lost his confidence. Compared to the hustle and bustle of the times, what do these personalized images mean? Are these paintings very “contemporary”?

Kang Jianfei, Watching

The hustle and bustle of the times, as well as the symbolic and social pursuit of contemporary Chinese painting, make the thinking of the subject of painting seem somewhat “obsolete”, and the abstract thinking and expression of history and civilization has become somewhat like “metaphysics”. I admit that, as a viewer, a part of the hustle and bustle of the times, I am pulled back by Kang’s paintings, in particular thinking about opportunity, pause and thinking on some basic issues again.

Compared to a lot of artists, Kang Jianfei really loves painting, which is a basic point, also a rare quality in this market bubble. From various wood carvings to oil paintings, Kang has constantly continued to create images over the last ten years. Even if there are more restrictions in the language of woodcut than in any other media, the artist explores various possibilities in a limited world. It is clear that what he is concerned with is the expression of the contemporary spirit, rather than the images. In these prints, the individual is always in a weak position being manipulated and camouflaged, while it seems that they haven’t realized this manipulation and camouflage, and enjoy themselves. These symbolic expressions and simple symbols, point to the contemporary spirit, also suggesting the connection between the artist and traditional Chinese literati painting, especially Shi Tao and Badasharen. As a Ming loyalist, Badashanren expressed his views of the social illnesses with the use of large numbers of flower and bird paintings. Although it is a reflection of his suspections of the Manchu regime, his personal expression of the individual in the paintings has a metaphysical sense, therefore sometimes, he is seen as the beginning of “modernity,” of a period that places emphasis on personality and individual value. An icon selected by the artist usually implies his/her value judgment. His works are a continuation of the thinking of contemporary society, which shouldn’t be obscured with the mainstream aspect of contemporary art. Kang’s images have a feeling of “alone” rather than “proud” and are cute, revealing a well-intentioned sarcasm and humour.

Kang Jianfei, Birdy Painting

Compared to many contemporary artists, Kang Jianfei is a serious painter, because he clearly and constantly promotes the logic of the changes of image and language. As a symbol of personality and self, bird was transformed into a “Rye of the times” in his oil paintings. Between the vast heaven and earth, the men either standing alone, or flying or staying, suggest a watchman of the era. In this scenery, timing is always ambiguous and they are always placed in the transition between darkness and light, neither night nor day, neither dusk nor dawn. It seems that the ambiguous timing implies some kind of rapid change, while the standing and sitting birds presumptuously attempt change time, to obtain a residence.

Kang rarely talked about his pictorial language, but these paintings remind me of “Twilight of the Idols”, a book by Nietzsche, reminding me of Wagner’ s music, the performances of the ruins of the medieval church in the dust by the German Romantic painter Friedrich, and a poet standing on the top of the mountains in his painting. Badashanren, or Nietzsche or Friedrich all pointed to a common period in the history of human society, during which, people found it difficult to control their minds in the rapid changing realities, to pursue some kind of eternal spirit that is beyond reality. From this perspective, I believe that Kang’s painting is the closest to the nature of expressionism painting in the spiritual sense.

Different from the peers’ paintings, Kang had never used a cheap popular news photo to exaggerate the expression of compassion, while he is different from cartoon artists, who transform themselves into inane clowns to express the inane feeling of the times, in fact they are worse.

Kang Jianfei, Untitled, Net Series, 1996; woodblock printing

Most of Kang’s paintings are quiet, too quiet so we are able to hear the sound of wings going across the breeze, behind the quiet screen, it reveal sadness and energy. His paintings remind us of a troubadour walking in the vast land, sad but penetrating our souls. In some screens, the performance of the times are expressive brushstrokes like garbage debris, sometimes, space is simplified to plain images of doors and windows, suggesting a desire to rush out. With the rich texture of the brush strokes and rich spatial levels, it seems that the artist finds the possibility of symbolic language in this era again, as well as the regress of the painting subject. Living in the hustle and bustle of the times, his dedication to guarding the whole heart and personality, his persistence in personality was transformed into the persistence in painting. Compared to the hustle and bustle, the persistence of personality is the greatest significance of this era for artists.

After reading Kang Jianfei works, I went out and found that the sky was about to clear up, revealing the sunset. A beam of strong light appeared among the Western clouds, like in his paintings. It hard to determine if the beam of light is sunset or dawn in his painting, even for the artist, I hope that it is dawn after hundreds of years of spiritual persistence.

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

Professor Daniele Bloch

Sponsored by the School of Humanities, CAFA, the lecture “Contemporary French Art” was held in Room 107 of Building 5, at 16:00, on April 26, 2013. Presided over by Dr. Yu Runsheng, Professor Daniele Bloch, from the Louvre College, was invited to give a lecture on contemporary French art. She not only works in the school, but is also a curator and consultant, etc. Bloch mainly researches the history of art from the 19th century through to the 20th century, and this is the second time that she was invited to lecture in CAFA.

Through introducing the works of the major representatives of contemporary French artists, the audience had a better understanding of contemporary French art. She pointed out that because of domestic policy issues, French contemporary art had hardly been encouraged to produce outputs, so that the United States accounted for the dominance in contemporary art after World War II, though, there were a lot of outstanding artists in France. Bloch initially introduced Daniel Buren born in the 1930s, one of the most internationally influential artists. Buren used the striped “free canvas” in his creation, instead of using a brush, and the width of the stripes had a fixed pattern in his works, which precluded personal feelings when he created, so it’s a typical “non-personalized art”. Buren set up an art group in 1967, all members of the community had to follow the painting principle of “Zero”, painting without a brush, the intention was to show the most essential characteristic of the material. In his late years, Buren transformed his art into a genre of “Field Art”, shifting the location from galleries and art museums to streets, outdoor spaces, etc. Born in 1930s, Clyde Villar was also in pursuit of the “Zero” effect, but he made use of painting, in a casual form, and he hoped to render the various textures and senses of form. He also established an art group, called material surface group, the last team of great influence in the French contemporary art, whose works fought against the American Abstract Expressionism, excluding emotional factors, mysticism and symbolism, in addition to the characteristic of the “Zero” painting. Louis Cana, a member of the material surface group, created large scale works, his presentation forms were still in the range of painting, but the creative method shifted from “hand-drawn” to “printing”, the majority of works were in an abstract form, similar to Roscoe(USA), etc. The majority of the works of Christian Boltanski were strongly conceptual, and the themes were related to life, death, memory, etc., as well as the experiences the boy had during World War II.

Different from the above artists, Gerard Jarvister, was a painter of profound learning. His works continued in the classical tradition, creating a sacred atmosphere. Jean – Michelle Ottenier was an artist of the new generation, born in the 1960s, the genres of his works including sculpture, video, photography and so on. The most representative works of the artist were his decorative art with a combination of sculpture and jewelry, at the same time, it was also a “field art” due to the scattered display of his works.

After that, Professor Bloch talked about the two representatives of the female artists, Annette Messager and Sophia Tarlo. Annette Messager was the wife of Boltanski, and her works were a strong art feature of feminism. Sophia’s works mainly focused on photography, video, and performance, being full of provocation and more personal, doping the complex emotion of a woman. Finally, Bloch briefed the summary of the status of the French contemporary art, she thought the figurative or abstract painting had fewer than the majority of contemporary works which were more personal and diversified. Meanwhile, along with the gradual disintegration of art groups in the second half of the last century, more and more artists preferred to appear as independent artists, which was of benefit to the study of the history of art.

Text and image by Journalist: Sun Tianyi, translated by Chen Peihua/ CAFA ART INFO

The group exhibition, “Pessimism or Resistance?” being on view at Taikang Space, consists of more than 30 artworks by 27 artists that span a period from the late 1980s to the present, with a focus on politics. These artworks include photographs, video, paintings and installation. Moreover, a few artists will display their precious manuscripts.

Today, all is “politicized”. However, the exhibition “Pessimism or Resistance?” focuses on politics of reality and of the visible. Here “pessimism and resistance” neither refers to the categories of the artworks, nor to the artists’ creative intensity, or are those the keywords in understanding this exhibition. This title is a question thrown to the artists and the audience, asking ourselves as artists and the audience, what can we do and how to go about politics on a visual threshold? The exhibition attempts to present the artist’s creative process in dealing with this subject matter, by focusing on the artists’ subjects of interest and their semiotic shifts, as well as the artists’ interpretation and representation of the subject, and the relationship between the two. The exhibition aims to provoke further discussions and enthusiasm on this topic in the artistic world.

These artworks are centered on five main topics, “spiritual axis”, “great portraiture”, “the everyday and the collective”, “rehearsal”, “local affiliation and international imagination”. Due to various setbacks and limitations, many wonderful artworks will not be displayed in the exhibition space. To compensate, the exhibition will be divided into the visible and the invisible and the latter will be converted to 2D codes and dispersed throughout the exhibit. While visiting the exhibition, Taikang Space encourage visitors to use their smart-phone to scan these codes, through which to open a channel in understanding the exhibition and the works on display.

About the exhibition

Duration: 2013.04.20 – 2013.06.08

Curator: Su Wenxiang

Venue: Taikang Space

Artists: He Yunchang, Song Dong, Lu Hao, Zhao Zhao, Xu Qu, Ai Weiwei, Jiang Zhi, Wu Junyong, Li Songhua, Wang Guangyi, Wang Jin, Polit-Sheer-Form Office, Mao Tongqiang, Ge Lei, Sui Jianguo, Yang Zhenzhong, Li Songsong, Jiao Yingqi, Hu Xiangqian, Qin Ga, Song Ta, Zheng Guogu, Xu Zhen, Liu Xinyi, Shi Wanwan, Zhou Xiaohu, Huang Yong Ping

Courtesy of the artists and Taikang Gallery, for further information please visit www.taikangspace.com.

Light before Dawn: Unofficial Chinese Art 1974-1985 presents a revealing look at the creative spectrum of China’s most influential contemporary artists from three different artist groups of the period: Wuming (No Name), Xingxing (Star), and Caocao (Grass Society). More than one hundred artworks, including a significant number of paintings and sculptures, will be on view, together with ephemera and personal items.

Wuming, Xingxing and Caocao were formed by like-minded artists in Beijing and Shanghai during the 1970s. Spanning two generations, the artists never ceased to create artworks, sometimes working quietly and even secretly, until the Communist Party’s decision to relax restrictions on artistic practices in 1985. Between the pivotal years of 1974 and 1985, the young members of Wuming, Xingxing and Caocao sought to resist the proliferation of official art by innovating through new interpretations of nature, abstraction and ink painting. Crossing the boundaries of subject matter and style, they often questioned, re-evaluated and redefined the forms, the nature of beauty and the art of China. Works in the exhibition trace the beginning of modernism in the post-Mao era. The exhibition aims to shed light on the little-known artwork of this era, which helped to set the stage for the emergence of a contemporary art movement in China and also on the global scene.

About the exhibition

Duration: 15 May 2013 – 1 September 2013

Address: 9 Justice Drive, Admiralty, Hong Kong

Tel: +852-2103-9511

Courtesy of Asia Society Hong Kong, for further information please visit asiasociety.org.

Li Wenguang, Fallacy study piece C1, 2012; pen, acrylic, ink on rice paper, 54.4x38cm

James Cohan Gallery Shanghai is pleased to present new works by Shanghai-based artist Li Wenguang, opening May 12 and running through June 22. This will be the artist’s first solo exhibition at the gallery.

Li Wenguang is known for his highly subjective and idiosyncratic works, many of which have been based on notions of pseudoscientific equations, personal diaries, and dream interpretation. Continuing his exploration of these themes, his recent works are delving further into the territory of the subconscious. Li, who is a completely self-taught artist, presents his works on rice paper mounted to traditional Chinese silk scrolls, using a combination of pen, brush, tea, ink, acrylic and oil paint.

The exhibition will feature new works from three distinctive and ongoing series: Withered Plant, Solo Dance, and Science Fiction. Extending the idea of botanical illustration of traditional flower painting, Li’s drawings and mixed-media works are labor-intensive diagrams of half-blooming, half-withering plants. In the Solo Dance scrolls, the artist uses his own footprints to create a choreography and movement staged against a grid resembling bricks or tiles. Together with the artist’s footsteps, words in Chinese and English (“loneliness”, “faith”, “pursue”, “courage”) suggest a transition from past to future, but without imposing rational connections to the meanings of the words or phrases, and thus leaving it open to interpretation by the viewer.

Also on view will be Li’s latest Science Fiction works. Here we encounter spaces where the traditional and futuristic collide. In this series, too, there are apparent commentaries on environmental concerns, specifically about water, and the exploitation of water resources on the planet. Li’s vision is a post-human, non-carbon world where water itself has become a living, conscious entity. The creation of these new pieces is also based on accident and chance, and on the artist’s use of fundamental chemistry: oil and water. By first pouring water and oil paint on sheets of plastic, allowing the paint to mix as thoroughly as possible against the film, it is then transferred to the surface of the rice paper. When it is removed, it creates a traditional shan-shui effect, leaving traces which often appear as mountains or geological formations.

Li Wenguang was born in Shanghai in 1985. Previous exhibitions include Stir Gallery Shanghai in 2011; Huating Space Shanghai; Songjiang, Shanghai in 2010, 2011; and the Shangyuan Art Museum, Beijing, 2012. His work was also featured in group projects at the James Cohan Gallery Shanghai in 2012.

About the exhibition

LI WENGUANG: New Works

Duration: May 12, 2013 through June 22, 2013

Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 10:00 to 6:00 p.m.; Sunday 12:00 to 6:00 p.m.; and Monday by appointment.

Press Preview: May 12, 2013, 2-4 pm

Opening Reception: May 12, 2013, 4-6 pm

Venue: James Cohan Gallery Shanghai

Address: 1/F, Building 1, Lane 170 Yue Yang Road, by Yong Jia Road

Courtesy of the artist and James Cohan Gallery, for further information, please contact Ivy Zhou at izhou@jamescohan.com or contact the gallery at +86 21 54660825.

Mostly known for his photographs from the series “Hiding in the City”, a work he initiated in 2005, almost everyone often forgot that Liu Bolin is also a sculptor. Born in 1973 in Shandong, a province in eastern China, in the south of Beijing, he first obtained a degree in sculpture at the University of Fine Arts of Shandong. He then taught art for nearly four years, before undertaking two further years on studies at the Institute of Fine Arts in China. The exhibition returns to this type of work exhibiting the latest sculptures of the artist. Now internationally recognized as one of the leading figures of the contemporary Chinese art scene thanks to his photographic “camouflage” around different cities of the world, Liu Bolin proves with these pieces that art of concealment can also find is place in his sculptural work. “The man goes blind in the world, he can’t see clear. He hides himself in many things, and we hide him things too, ” said Liu Bolin.

Despite his worldwide fame, it is the first time ever in Shanghai one can see the complete line of Liu Bolin’s work from the beginnings until the present days. Known for his “Invisible Man” photo-performance, Liu Bolin has through the years been working on different subsequent themes. Media as sculpture being one that can’t be ignored, for they provide variation in his consistent research. Sculptures, as his photographs, show how the outside can blend with the inside and vice versa. Liu Bolin’s work requires meticulous planning and execution. It all lies in the perfection of the vision, whether it is an illusion or just a mirror surface. Liu Bolin uses the city around him as a backdrop, painting himself to blend in with a landscape in constant flux. By literally blending into the city, Liu creates a tension that challenges the viewer to question what is above and beneath the surface. For Liu, the most important element of his images is the background. Each image requires rigorous planning and execution: as both artist and performer, Liu directs the photographer on how to compose each scene before entering the frame. Once situated, he puts on a monochromatic uniform, which he wears for all of his Invisible Man photographs and, with the help of an assistant and painter, is painted seamlessly into the scene. This process can sometimes take up to 10 hours with Liu having to stand perfectly still. Although the end result of Liu’s process is the photograph, the tension between his body and the landscape is an important aspect to the process.

About the exhibition

Title: Liu Bolin Part 2 The Crawling Man

Duration: 11 May 2013 through to 29 June, 2013

Opening: 11 May, 2013 from 6pm to 9pm

Venue: Gallery Magda Danysz

Address: 188 Linqing Road ( x Pingliang Road), Shanghai

Courtesy of the artist and Gallery Magda Danysz, for further information please visit www.magda-gallery.com or contact info@magda-gallery.com.

Museum of Contemporary Art in Shanghai are delighted to present the “Gao Xiaowu &Joyce Ho Joint-Exhibition”. The first floor of the museum will be presenting a series of large-scale sculptures with the theme of “Quest” by Gao Xiaowu, a well-known artist in mainland. Moreover, on the second floor, the new generation artist Joyce Tsai You Ho from Taiwan will be expressing her observations with the theme ‘Mimesis’ by her creation of paintings and installations.

GAO Xiaowu: Quest

Gao Xiaowu, who is well known by his signature bowing sculptures, is also a victim of plagiarism and imitation. Among domestic sculptors, Gao Xiaowu’s art pieces have been copied and imitated so many times all over China, most in inferior and poor-quality ways, that it’s beyond his ability to put a stop to these unethical behaviors. Due to the frequent plagiarism, Gao Xiaowu has changed his humorous and cute artist style in recent years. Instead, a new direction in both form and concept in his new series emerged, which tend to show humanistic concern in their connotations, by diversification and installation in their forms and they are often created with a larger volume. Gao Xiaowu considers the significance of art in society as ‘art should play a role as a reminder, to send out the warning message to the world.’ His art enables the audience to not only understand but admire his sense of humor and also the deeper message behind it. In addition to format itself, his sculptures bring inspiration and serious reflection to the audience, where artists seem to be able to pour some positive energy into the society.

Joyce Tsai You HO: Mimesis

Joyce Tsai You Ho immigrated to United States from Taiwan when she was 14 years old. While she enjoyed a liberating life in the states, she also felt unsettling about the sudden sense of dislocation. This experience had a huge impact on Joyce Tsai You Ho’s life and hence to her art work. The images she painted always contain some disturbing vibe, whether it’s the angle of the character’s head or the awkwardness of the distorted bodies. Through her use of luminescent palette and theatrically styled compositions, she was able to create a decidedly feminine perspective that embodies her generation’s precarious psychological state of un-balance and instability. Despite art, Joyce Tsai You Ho also crossed over to theater and stage creation, including directing and script writing, which enables her to describe the essence of what the painting was trying to discuss. She hopes to provide the beginning of a story and allow the audience to finish their own versions of the ends.

About the exhibition

Duration: April 28 – Jun 12. 2013

Opening: April 27, 2013

Venue: Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai

Courtesy of the artists and Museum of Contemporary Art, for further information please visit www.mocashanghai.org. 

ShowHand Group was founded in 2013 by 10 young contemporary artists. The young artists union dedicates to dissemination, innovation and communication of art, and tries to introduce art to all walks of life. ShowHand Group is interested in artists’ individual creation experience. In every group exhibition, members show their latest artistic achievement through the “ShowHand” style.

“Wei Cun Pan Cai”, the first art exhibition after the establishment of ShowHand Group, opens on the afternoon of April 27, 2013, located in Kong Space—Chaoyang District, Cuigezhuang Xiang, Heiqiaocun Art District, Area F East. This exhibition is also the first art show after the relocation of Kong Space. In the “Wei Cun Pan Cai” exhibition, life and artistic experience are the theme of the art show. Artists are going to present their works in the past year and the objects of their inspiration, providing a more comprehensive perspective into a more complete concept of “artist” to the visitors.

ShowHand Group Members: Wei Luo, Qiaoxi Chen, Ruozhe Xue, Wei Hu, Lili Ma, Song Yang, Ran Yao, Xin Yang, Xiaoyue Zhang and Tianyi Guo.

“Wei Cun Pan Cai” is the initiative exhibition ShowHand Group launched in the artists circle. The group members hope that the art exhibition will act as a summary presenting what the members gained from art, and at the same time, introduce the ShowHand Group to friends of the art community. “Bring life to art” is the theme of ShowHand Group’s exhibition. Kong Space is going to apply both the common gallery scene and living space to arrange artists’ work, which including painting, printmaking, installation, sculpture and video.

The exhibition will be on view until May 18.

In this essay, I would like to discuss the picturesque scene of the Jiangnan residential with the aspect of the facade along a river, the side facade of the building, and the dense relationship and contrast between the roofs and walls.

Elements of Façade

The facades of the water town of the south of Yangtze River were divided into individual units, including: roofs, eaves, the walls with windows, the wooden partitions without windows, the solid wall without windows, the windows of the side façade, Tiaogui/cabinets, doors, Meirenkao/ high back chair, stone bases, and a private pier, etc.

Constituting Mode

The façade of riverside town at Jiangnan is created by an organic combination of various elements in accordance with the principles of reasonable function.

Aesthetic Principles

Refers to the composition of the facade, the links and contrasts between the various elements.

Laws of Composition

Jiangnan residential is an artwork itself, perfect, harmonious, and unified, itself creating a conflict-free world. It is in need of a form of composition on three levels to reach harmony and a conflict-free situation. These three dimensions are the constituting mode, the elements of facade and aesthetic principles.

Grid Illustration

Most of the Jiangnan residential uses a mode of façade illustration, rectangular grid as the modulus. The distances between lines are equal, the horizontal and vertical lines intersect at right angles. Sometimes the distances between the lines may not be exactly equal, but certainly there are rules. It is an important feature of the grid illustration that different elements of the residential appear in the rectangular grids in the form of the surface, so we can also use the surface to analyze the law of composition of rectangular grids, including the line.

Wang Qijun, “Jiangnan Riverside Town”

Different from official buildings, many elements of the Jiangnan residential facade composition often appears in an asymmetric manner, although some elements will be repeated, which is called “tautology”, but these repeated elements tend to appear in the homogeneous arrangement, instead of in the symmetrical form.

A rectangular grid often gives people the feeling of monotony, the reason why the Jiangnan water town residential formed a picturesque scene, is due to the complicated composition concept. If you have a detailed analysis, you would find that the elements constituting the Jiangnan residential facade, are usually the modulus which is similar to the square, as the basic unit, rather than the square. In fact, analyzing the Jiangnan residential space as the modulus, we can sum it up as the cube modulus, but this article is to explore the picturesque scene of the Jiangnan residential, therefore, it is not an in-depth analysis about the relationship of the modulus between the plastic of the Jiangnan residential and the space. Filled into the various constituent elements, rectangular grid of Jiangnan residential facade is regarded as a kind of graph. In the book “Classical Architecture: Poetics in the Order” ⑬, jointly written by Alexander Tzonis and Liane Lefaivne, the author described the architecture with the view in chapter VII of “Poetics” by Aristotle. An artwork is a small world in a grand environment, perfect, harmony, unity and without any conflict. However, to achieve harmony, it should be constituted by three levels of forms. Aristotle thought that the first level is the method and style, which is the reasonable arrangement for different parts of the objects. … the method and style is that a house is divided into several sections, interpreted as architectural elements, composed of a variety of harmonious works. In other words, there are permutations and combinations of architectural elements, to form an architectural space which fits the logical split, which is the method and style. ⑭

In the classical architecture, the composition model of three diagrams perform on the architectural plane, facade and section. Moreover, in the further design, it can also be applied to a smaller part of the design. The model of three diagrams created an interrelated, mesh rules with an interleaving mode. From the associations between the whole and its parts, and between the parts. But, as German architect Rudolf Chomsky said the Jiangnan residential was the “Architecture without Architect”, which was different from the Western classical concept of architecture or design. The masters of Jiangnan residential are ordinary people living in a town or water village farmers. Their architectural concept is to create a fully functional residential which is next to the front street and followed by the river based on the limited homestead. Under this concept, the Jiangnan residential purely pursues these functions. And it is the guidance of this design and thinking that generate the flexible, changeable, and asymmetrical facade composition of the river.

The reason why people have a feeling of artistic concept with the painting, is that some constituent elements in this environment, correspond with the beauty of their minds, resonating with them. When I sketched the Jiangnan water town, I created an oil painting entitled “The Sound of Flute from Lu Bridge”, impacted by a little scene in Wuzhen of Zhejiang Province. The buildings in the painting are the waterfront houses casually created by ancestors according to the narrow terrain and styling. These buildings ignored the symmetry and were dignified, and reflected the natural and simple.

Both Eastern and Western scholars like measuring the beauty of the buildings by using the standard of poetry. Western architectural historian liked to quote the discourse about the regularity of art theory of Aristotle in the “Poetics”, “Aristotle listed the typical elements of artistic creation: color, form, rhythm, harmony, language, and etc.”, these principles “are the same for all kinds of arts in a certain sense”.

“We are told to study the ‘intrinsic principle’ of each element, understanding ‘the appropriate law existing in every thing to make it better’”. “Various elements and their respective reasons are combined together to form a set of fundamental principles.” “Architectural Theory • I • Vitruvian’s Fallacy – History of the Categories of Architecture and Philosophy” ⑮ had expressed this view in detail. When analyzing again the facade composition of Jiangnan residential with the buildings in the painting, we would understand that the external presentation of the different elements are indeed related to its functions. Roof: The roofs of the Jiangnan residential are level, seen from the facade, the back facade and side façade, they are in a straight line, instead of a concave arc, etc. These roofs are easily constructed.

Waist eave: They are horizontal rectangular roofs, consistent with the roofs, seen from any angle, there is no concave arc, the design concept is consistent with the roofs.

High side window: Located on the roof, the high side windows are similar to the dormer windows, the installation for the lighting and ventilation functions, are set in order to take full advantage of the roof part.

Tiaodou: Viewing from the outside facade, it is a tiaodou, while from the interior, it is a closet, and in order to save space, it overhangs.

Window: Most of the underlying on the waterfront side of the Jiangnan residential are kitchens, and upstairs are bedrooms, not the place for the reception of guests or customers, therefore most of the windows are horizontal, and generally without complicated decorative window lattice grids, in order to save costs.

Door: Most of the waterfront doors are of one door, and usually have half of the dwarf waist door, of railing style, for daily indoor ventilation, while guaranteeing safety.

Railing: Railings are divided into two forms of ordinary wooden railing and Meirenzuo/ Beauty seat, depending on the requirement of the owner.

Private Pier: The waterway was the main mode of transport in the past. The house is of large freight built on a private pier.

Diaojiaolou: In the case of an insufficient homestead, it’s a method for striving for greater interior space by extending onto the surface of the water. All the elements above are integrated together, to constitute the facade composition of Jiangnan water town residential along the river.

Wang Qijun, “The Very Jiangnan District”

In the actual creative activities, on the one hand, people consider the functional requirements of the above-mentioned building, on the other hand they consider the harmony with the adjacent architectural styles, the combination following this mature compositional mode. My works “Safety Corner”, sketched at Zhou Zhuang in Wujiang County of Suzhou, clearly reflects the unifying principle of a coordinated style of the traditional residential. As we know, the residential in the large area of the southern Jiangsu Province and northern Zhejiang Province, has maintained this pattern, forming a tradition, which has maintained the continuation of the “artistic concept of painting”.

In addition to the above mentioned, the façade along the river are of rational combinations based on aesthetic composition, and contrast with the density between the concise side façade of Jiangnan residential and the other parts that have been created, this has played a very important role in the constituent of the artistic concept of the Jiangnan residential.

The contrast of the density of relationships of the Jiangnan buildings along the river is good in itself.

Analyzing the external plastic of the building, this dense relationship is mainly created by the contrasts between the white solid walls and gray roofs, as well as complex facades along the river. The side façade of the residential are large areas of solid walls, rare windows, simplicity and silence.

Although the center of the composition of the painting “Sound of the Scull Came from the Other Side of the Bridge” is two bridges, but in fact, the side facades of the residential buildings create the sense of rhythm. Although the side elevation of the building doesn’t account for a large area of the composition, it plays an important role in the finishing touch.

The law of opposites and the unified aspects are the reasons that create an artistic concept in the painting, “so narrow that wind could not go through, so broad that a horse could go through” is the very description for this dense relationship, which is a means of disposing a Chinese painting, arbitrarily placing the figures on a blank screen. For which, it is difficult to declare whether a figure is placed in the space, or the space has a figure. Figure and space are dissolved into a combination, of real endless spirit resonance. The large area of the white walls of the side elevation of Jiangnan residential, like the blank canvas of a painting, it is not a vacuum in the entire artistic concept of the painting, instead with the exchange of the cosmic aura, and the flow of the charm. Da Chongguang said, “The blank space and objects mutually support each other, the blank places create wonderful an artistic concept.” 16. The artistic concept of the painting of Jiangnan residential appears mainly because of the implication of the outside solidness and the inside peace of the building itself. The use of a large area of solid colour in the Chinese traditional building wall is common, in addition to the substantial function such as fireproofing and burglar proofing, and etc., peace is the significance that a concise symbolic form bears. The solid wall creates its individual isolated space, formation of the charm of an outside solidness and inside peace. The thick and steady wall separates the noise of the crying, selling from the bustling street market, and leaving the indoor tranquility.

The dense relationship created by the contrasts between the solid walls with tiled roofs, doors and windows, formation of the blank canvas and activity, the opposed factors of the painting, the images created which, blended together everywhere in the picture, produce a vacant flowing rhythm. The blank screen is no longer the base for placing things, but the vacant “way” dissolved in all things on earth. In the vast space, the walls of the residential reflect the deep silence, constituting an ethereal floating sentimental mood.

What is the best angle to enjoy the elements of Jiangnan residential for the most intense visual effects? In addition to the appreciation from another side of the river, considering the surface of the water at close-range, the best angle is often from looking down from a height. The painting “Return with the Sunset” will set the viewer’s perspective on a bridge.

Overlooking the Jiangnan residential from a height, it is easier to appreciate the characteristics of the painting artistic concept. Overlooking is favoured by ancient Chinese painters and literati. “From the high buildings we can overlook the distance, feeling physically and mentally relaxed.” 17. Looked from a height, the roofs are row upon row, and vacuous of health from the white walls, which is the appreciation angle the most stimulating human emotion.

The principle of three perspectives of Chinese painting is associated with people’s favorite overlooking position. Hiking and near the water, the painters “overlook the wind and water” 18, “viewing around and overlooking the top of the clouds” 19, “overlooking the green suburbs along the river and a familiar road” 20, “proudly overlooking cliffs” 21. “Overlooking” not only contacted the up and down, the close and distant, but also of the magnanimity that holds everything.

Once the literati climbed, they must write poetry. It is easy to experience the artistic concept of the painting of Jiangnan residential from a height, because when people create a bridge over the water town, desiring to facilitate the traffic of ships sailing in the water, the bridge was built taller than a building, so, without a castle, people could overlook the town crossing the bridge every time, which is splendid. Therefore, the artistic concept of the painting of Jiangnan residential could be the main source to inspire the imagination and emotion of the painters.

In fact, each art form has a sense of space and shows the connection between them when they are mutually transferred. The painting of the Western neoclassical style is the awareness of building space which is prone to sculpture, while the spatial awareness of the Chinese painting emphasizes an unique spatial implication in the Chinese traditional buildings

Traditional Chinese residential has a long history, where the ancient painters lived.

Notes:

13 Classical Architecture —- The Poetics of of Order, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, published in 1986, ISBN 0-262-70031

14 In the poetics of Aristotle, as we have already observed, the work of art is a world within the world, “complate,” “integral,” “Whole,” a world where there is no contradiction.

Noncontradiction is ensured through the functioning of three levels of formal organization. The first is what Aristotle called taxis, the orderly arrangement of parts [poetics, bk, VII, para.35]. It will be dealt with here … Taxis divides a building into parts and fits into the resulting partitions the architectural elements, producing a coherent work. In other word, taxis constrains the placing of the architectural elements that populate a building by establishing successions of logically organized divisions of space.15 “Architectural Theory • I • Vitruvian’s Fallacy – History of the Categories of Architecture and Philosophy”, [British] David Smith Capone, translation: Wang Guixiang, Chinese Building Industry Press, 2007, 191.

16 “Hua Quan”, [Qing Dynasty] Da Chongguang, note: Wu Silei, Sichuan People’s Publishing House, 1982, the 13th phase.

17 Su Dongpo, “Juyuan Building”

18 Du Fu’s “Yusanshou”19 Du Fu’s “View at the Jinhuashanguan/ Jinhua Mountain Taoist Temple in the Winter”

20 Du Fu’s “Tangcheng”21 Du Fu’s “Thirty Poems for the Building of Cui Shijiu, Officer of Baishui Couty”

The end.

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

This article was published in “Art Research”.

Jointly organized by “Art Nova 100” and SURVEY SEIN, “Undercurrent: Sino-Korea Young Artists Group Exhibition” will announce its opening at SURVEY SEIN in 798 Art District at 15:00, on April 27, 2013.

The young artists walk on a road of artistic discovery with courage and imagination, which is transformed into a personalized art look and formal language, based on the personal experience of life, they mix and melt their personal experiences of life into their works, which are directly originated from their social experiences and indirectly from a lot of research. To some extent, the depth of artistic creation depends on the depth of the experience of life, and it impacts on the independence and freedom of the artist in the creative process. It’s obvious that there are different artistic looks of the 12 young artists, who have their own breath for respective independent art styles, and maintain a solid difference between each other.

In “Endless” series, Chen Youyin created a fragmented virtual world, with the exquisite beauty of a woman, revealing the instant eternal, the quiet fleeting four seasons, in a small scale of painting, on the principle of “hidden”. In Guo Zilong’s “Archive” series, he sealed the subject by “heart”, which changes and moves when the subject changes and shifts. Hu Wendan’s work conveys a relaxed and happy artistic conception of landscape, with small paper cranes, bonsai, rockery and the composition of the majority of blank spaces. Kim Sejoong is a one of the youth artists leading Korean Hyperrealism, sky is an inherent image of his paintings, and symbolizes the spiritual eternal, memory like a channel, leading the subject of memory into the eternal world. Ink series is one of the most important works for Li Wei, who created a dual screen that is seen figuratively in the distance while abstract when close, by using an ink blot, blurring the boundaries between the figurative and abstract arts. It features his works “Life Pond”, conveying Chinese awe and respect for life, embodying Buddhism’s spirit of compassion, saving all lives. French returnee Liu Xia made use of the screen as a continuity in a movie screenshot, breaking the logical narrative way, with different combinations of paintings, creating an unpredictable parable outcome, exploring the narrative openness and pluralism. With depiction of the scenes, characters, and toys of childhood, Lu Xi’s works evoke the memory of the times with personal memories. Meng Zhigang completely abandoned the functional and symbolic nature of architecture, and deliberately avoided the influence, instead pursued a simple, independent architecture itself. Detaching from the blur of color and images of the visual experiences to be a new visual feature, Wang Chunli recorded current daily scenes, in the remnants of visual memories. Wang Xi has been concerned with the innovation of the schema. In the works on display, taking the erotic plum as the entry point of the creation, he studied the contemporary road of Chinese Flowers and Bird Painting by mechanical aesthetics, erotic plums and mechanical trunks. Xiao Bin, from a rural area, preferred the artistic creation of original ecology, the latest works uses lotus as media, as the artist had always done, seeing the daily items as art, studying the diversity of the media, and as far as possible, kept the original property of the material. Yu Guo portrayed the current scenery that concerns the public, such as politics, the economy, entertainment and daily life, with the usual screen showing a deep sense of ritual, deleting the signs of scenery, blurring the faces of the figures, a viewer is neither pigeon-holed, nor does he find it easy to stay out of it.

About the exhibition

Duration: April 27 – May 26, 2013 Venue: No.E-06, Taoci one street, 798 Art District, Chaoyang District, Beijing Organizer: SURVEY SEIN

Artists: Chen Youyin, Guo Zilong, Hu Wendan, Li Wei, Liu Xia, Lu Xi, Meng Zhigang, Wang Chunli, Wang Xi, Xiao Bin, Yu Guo, Kim Sejoong(Korea)

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

“I’m living just like a cloud, neither taking anything out of birth nor bringing anything into a tomb”, a poem written in the 1990s by Dong Xinbin, who seemed to already understand the illusory and misty appearance life. His passing away eliminated the suffered censure and self-sustaining aloofness, though thousands of fulfilling and deep works, manuscripts, theoretical writings and literature are left behnd, exuding a confident strength and eternal charm, as Li Xianting said, Dong Xinbin and his art was a “Revelation”.

Sponsored by the China Arts and Entertainment Group and Yan Huang Art Museum, “Zealous Guests – Memorial Exhibition for the 10th Anniversary of Dong Xinbin’s Death” is held at Yan Huang Art Museum from April 24 until May 3, 2013, at the same time “Zealous Guests – Memorial Album for the 10th Anniversary of Dong Xinbin’s Death” is published(Culture and Art Publishing House). People can commemorate the artist and officially study his artistic achievements through the exhibition and album. There are two paths of art treks and art style rheologically around the activity, on the one hand, comprehensively displaying the overall appearance of his artistic creation, the works never on view and published before, covering almost all of his creation stages, from “Jiangnan Scenery” to “Linear Test”, and “World of Colored Ink”, etc., with lots of themes, including landscapes, figures, flowers and birds, as well as a number of class works. On the other hand, it initially reveals the interactive relationships between his artistic growth process, artistic theoretical thinking and creation, featuring a number of articles of literature, theoretical manuscripts as a supplement. Furthermore, it restores his main creative studio “Heaven and Earth Den”, creating a more realistic, objective atmosphere of the original space, as well as an area to feature his collections; Finally, “Heaven and Earth Gathering”, a distinctive small gathering is organized based on the elements of his style and related artistic disciplines.

About the exhibition

Opening: 17:00 pm, April 27, 2013

Duration: April 24 – May 3, 2013

Venue: Halls of the 1st -2nd floors, Beijing Yan Huang Art Museum

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

Organized by SZ Art Center and Art Nova 100 with the academic support by CCAD, “Liu Jinghong & Fan Xuqi’s Solo Exhibitions: the Third Round of “Cream of the Corp – Youth Artists’ Solo Exhibitions” opened at the SZ Art Center in the 798 Art District on April 20, 2013.

The opening ceremony was held on the ground floor exhibition hall of SZ Art Center at 15:00. Wang Peng, Deputy Director of the Planning and Promotion Institute of Art and Culture of Renmin University of China, Chairman of the American Foundation for Chinese Contemporary Art in China, Liu Libin, youth critics of CAFA, artists Liu Jinghong and Fan Xuqi, as well as Wang Xiao, the representative of the young collectors presented and respectively gave a speech at the opening ceremony.

As the Academic Adviser of the exhibition, Liu Libin said it was the 3rd time he had participated in “Cream of the Corp – Youth Artists’ Solo Exhibitions”, and he was deeply touched by the works during the selection. He believed that Art Nova 100 provided a good platform for the young artists, organizing various activities, promoting the development of contemporary Chinese art. Liu Jinghong admitted frankly that it was his first solo exhibition, and organizing an exhibition was really irrefutable hard. Fan Xuqi expressed the value of her painting with the sentence “No dust in the mind, no mind in the painting”.

Wang Peng talked about the works of the artists from the perspective of brand package, he said: “Painting the system of national culture. Firstly, culture includes spirit, by seeing the paintings of Liu Jinghong and Fan Xuqi, I feel “enlightenment”, enlightening and creating with their minds. Secondly, culture includes content, a related subject to portray. Thirdly, culture includes symbols, which involve traditional culture, to express them. I think they have the very three qualities for the painter package.”

In this exhibition, Liu Jinghong and Fan Xuqi feature their paintings of different styles, but it is obvious that they both promote the regression and thinking of tradition, trying to go back to nature through self reflection.

Although they have different styles, their thinking and regression to the traditional are consistent, trying to return to nature through self-reflection. As the artists themselves said “cultivation of our mind through painting”, studying and understanding our lives, practicing our minds and bodies through painting, to return to the original state of a man, art, making our minds become the ultimate peace, a poetic habitat.

The exhibition lasts until April 29, 2013. At the same time, during the exhibition, the two artists shared their journey of understanding of the life of Sina Weibo “Talk” program.

Journalist: Gao Sisi, translated by Chen Peihua/CAFA ART INFO

Shen Shaomin, “I Touched the Voice of God”, 2012; Titanium alloy, 140x200x44cm

Eli Klein is pleased to announce Shen Shaomin’s second solo exhibition at the gallery: I Touched the Voice of God. There will be a reception for the artist on Friday, April 26, 2013 from 6-8PM. Richard Vine, Senior Editor at Art in America, will give a brief talk about Shen Shaomin’s work at 7:30PM. RSVP is required.

The exhibition expresses Shen Shaomin’s deep concerns for the future of our planet. I Sleep on Top of Myself and I Want to Know What Infinity Is are works that reveal the artist’s outlook through hyperrealistic sculptures that illustrate the potential and metaphorical consequences of a world which is over-developed and despoiled. The work from which the exhibition derives its name, I Touched the Voice of God is made from broken sections of a rocket sent into space. Utilizing braille, the sculptures comment on the human inability to truly comprehend the universe.

I Sleep on Top of Myself is a series of hairless, motorized, lifelike sculptures of animals which portend a future where the earth is severely depleted of natural resources-so much so that animals begin to loose their fur. Trapped in deep sleep, these breathing creatures-a cat, a dog, a bunny, and two geese-are forced to sleep on the remnants of their fur and feathers in order to survive. As a metaphor, this quietly troubling piece asks if we humans will be forced to survive on the remnants of our past once we have exhausted all of our natural resources.

Shen Shaomin, “I Sleep on Top of Myself(Dog)”, 2011; 40x100cm

Through a similar methodology, I Want to Know What Infinity Is questions the urge to relentlessly develop and expand our economies at all costs. Similar to the way we strive for development, the old, naked, breathing hyperrealistic sculpture of a woman relentlessly strives for a perfect tan. In Shen Shaomin’s eyes, the consequences of our constant need for development will change the face of our planet, just as the undying urge for beauty transformed this old woman’s body.

The series titled, I Touched the Voice of God encapsulates both of the statements made in I Sleep on Top of Myself and I Want to Know What Infinity Is, but goes one step further to question human intelligence itself. Appropriated from a rocket sent into space, the material used in this series of work is embossed with English braille. Standing in front of these pieces, our vision blinds us from understanding what is written on each sculpture. One must, in fact, be blind in order to read the words within these mysterious objects. As symbols of our greater universe, the artist’s choice to cover these rocket ship parts with a language most English speakers are illiterate in, reveals that the artist believes our typical, normal, and assumed modes of perception render us blind and unable to develop a true understanding of the universe.

Shen Shaomin was born in Heilongjiang Province, China in 1956. He lives and works in Sydney, Australia and Beijing, China. His work has been exhibited in museum shows around the world, including recent exhibitions “Hot Pot: A Taste of Contemporary Chinese Art,” Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, Brattleboro, VT (2013); “Go Figure: Contemporary Chinese Portraiture,” Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Sydney, Australia (2012); “The Floating Eye,” The 9th Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China (2012); “The Unseen,” The 4th Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China (2012); “ARSENALE 2012,” The First Kiev International Biennale of Contemporary Art, Kiev, Ukraine (2012);”Flora and Fauna: MAD about Nature,” Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY (2011); “The Day After Tomorrow,” 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney, Australia (2011); and “The Beauty and the Distance,” 17th Sydney Biennale, Sydney, Australia (2010).

I Touched the Voice of God will be on view at Eli Klein Fine Art from April 26th to June 2nd, 2013. The artist will be present for the opening reception on Friday, April 26th from 6-8pm.

Courtesy of the artist and Eli Klein Fine Art, for further information  please visit http://ekfineart.com or contact the gallery at (212) 255-4388 or info@ekfineart.com.

Painting, still the world’ s most popular art form, by virtue of its nature, traditional and historical background, inevitably poses a litany of rhetorical questions:

In the age of new technology, will painting survive?

Is painting practice relevant to anyone beyond the person immersed in the act of painting?

Have the communicative aspects of paint already been fully realized?

What more can painting hope to achieve?

Is there anything new we can possibly hope to convey with a painting?

When we talk about painting, we inevitably turn to the dialectic between concept and technique, between attitude and aesthetic, that results in the act of turning an idea into art. Painting conjures images of the will to express oneself three dimensionally, to pose questions visually; and, to engage our thoughts on metaphysical questions and the mystery of reality.

In the words of David Sylvester, an optimist when it came to the future of painting: “The paint appears to act like a miraculous teeming substance that actually generates life under our eyes. It is as if matter and energy were being continually churned out, were forever being renewed by the paint”.

The artists in this exhibition are primarily engaged in the act of painting, they share the common trait of being “wedded” to painting. For those less optimistic on painting’ s continued evolution, the spectre of Sisyphus may loom over these artists’ peculiar drive to paint. The works on display have no common style: They present a wide spectrum of brush strokes, paint materials and color palettes, imbued with diverse meaning, gesture and self-conscious acts. The aim is to offer the audience fertile ground to linger, to look, and to ponder, for oneself, the “Why?” of painting.

Artists:

Aniwar (b. 1962, Xinjiang Province, China)

Huang Yuxing (b. 1975, Beijing, China)

Huang Zhiyang (b. 1965, Taipei, Taiwan)

Liang Wei (b. 1966, Hubei, China)

Nashunbatu (b. 1969, Inner Mongolia, China)

Sheng Tianhong (b. 1973, Zhejiang Province, China)

Suling Wang (b. Taiwan, Live and works in London)

Xie Qi (b. 1974, Chong Qing, China)

About the exhibition

Duration: 13 Apr – 3 Jun, 2013

Venue: Pekin Fine Arts

Address: No. 241 Cao Changdi Village, Cui Ge Zhuang Xiang, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100015

Tel: (8610) 5127 3220

Fax: (8610) 5127 3223

info@pekinfinearts.com

Courtesy of Pekin Fine Arts, for further information please visit www.pekinfinearts.com.

Cai Guo-Qiang | Head On (detail)2006 | Deutsche Bank Collection, commissioned by Deutsche Bank AG | © FMGBGuggenheim Bilbao Museoa, 2009 | Photo: Erika Barahona-Ede

Leading international contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang’s first solo exhibition in Australia will be staged exclusively at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) from November 23, 2013 to April 21, 2014.

A centrepiece of the exhibition is a dramatic new commission, Heritage 2013, which features 99 life-sized animals from around the world gathered together at a watering hole. Also featured is Head On 2006, with its stream of 99 life-sized wolves leaping through the air and crashing into a glass wall. Other new work in the exhibition is inspired by the artist’s experiences in Australia, drawing upon local landscape, history and culture. There will also be a special project devised by the artist for children.

Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) Acting Deputy Director of Curatorial and Collection Development Maud Page said ‘Cai Guo-Qiang: Falling Back to Earth’ would encompass all of GOMA’s ground floor, presenting Cai’s signature 2006 work Head On along with two new major site-specific installations and an interactive Children’s Art Centre project.

‘Cai has an enduring relationship with the Queensland Art Gallery, having created major works for the second and third Asia Pacific Triennials of Contemporary Art in 1996 and 1999, and we were among the first public institutions to collect his work,’ Ms Page said. ‘As one of the most senior and respected contemporary artists working internationally, his return to Brisbane to realise GOMA’s major summer exhibition for 2013–14 is highly anticipated. ‘With this site-specific project, Cai looks at Earth as the home that all humans share, exploring nature, globalisation, and ecological issues,’ she said.

Head On will travel to Australia for the first time, on loan from the Deutsche Bank Collection. Two new installations will respond to Cai’s visits to Queensland with his family, drawing on local landscape, history and culture, as the artist takes a new direction in his work.

‘Heritage 2013, an installation of 99 life-sized animal sculptures, including pandas, lions, tigers, and kangaroos, all drinking together from a lake surrounded by white sand, is inspired by a visit to Stradbroke Island, while the second installation draws inspiration from the ancient trees of Lamington National Park in South East Queensland,’ Ms Page said.

Trevor Brown, Vice President Queensland of exhibition presenting sponsor Santos, said it was exciting that Queensland would exclusively host new work by such an esteemed artist. ‘We are delighted that we can help bring the works of Cai Guo-Qiang to Brisbane,’ Mr Brown said. ‘Santos is proud to continue its support of the arts in Queensland through GOMA’s summer exhibition and Children’s Arts Centre.’

Cai Guo-Qiang was born in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, China, in 1957. He lives and works in New York City. His recent solo exhibitions and projects have included ‘Cai Guo-Qiang on the Roof: Transparent Monument’, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2006; his record-attendance retrospective ‘I Want to Believe’, at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York and the National Art Museum of China in Beijing in 2008 and the Guggenheim Bilbao in 2009; Odyssey, a permanent gunpowder drawing installation for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in 2010; and his first exhibition in the Middle East, ‘Cai Guo-Qiang: Saraab’ at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, Qatar, in 2011.

In 2012, the artist appeared in solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Zhejiang Art Museum, Hangzhou, China and the Faurschou Foundation in Copenhagen, Denmark. His latest exhibition, ‘Cai Guo-Qiang: Da Vincis do Povo’, opened jointly in February at the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil and Museu dos Correios in Brasilia, Brazil, and will continue touring to São Paolo and Rio de Janeiro. Cai was Director of Visual and Special Effects for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Ms Page said the artist’s collaboration with the Gallery around his installation Bridge Crossing in ‘The Third Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT3) in 1999 was a landmark in the Gallery’s programming for children and families. ‘Cai has a special interest in working with kids, and has developed projects for children around the world. The Gallery’s work with him in APT3 helped set the direction for QAGOMA’s popular Children’s Art Centre and we look forward to developing the new project for young visitors with him as part of this exhibition,’ she said.

The exhibition will be ticketed and will coincide with ‘California Design 1930–1965: Living in a Modern Way’ at the Queensland Art Gallery (2 November 2013 – 9 February 2014). Individual tickets and joint ticket packages will be available. ‘Cai Guo-Qiang: Falling Back to Earth’ will be realised with support from Presenting Partner Tourism and Events Queensland and Presenting Sponsor Santos.

Cai Guo-Qiang, Heritage (artist’s impression) 2013 99 life-sized replicas of various animals, water, sand Commissioned for the exhibition ‘Cai Guo-Qiang’, Queensland Art GalleryGallery of Modern Art Courtesy and © The artist

About the exhibition

Exhibition period: 23 November 2013 – 21 April 2014 | Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) | Brisbane only | Ticketed

Opening Hours: 10.00am — 5.00pm Monday to Friday

9.00am — 5.00pm Saturday and Sunday

9.00am — 5.00pm Public Holidays

Closed Christmas Day and Good Friday

Courtesy of Gallery of Modern Art(GOMA), for further information please visit: qagoma.qld.gov.au/cai.

The Multitude Foundation and Wuhan Art Terminus (WH.A.T.) present the Multitude Art Prize in collaboration with the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA). Grounded in the concept of the “multitude,” in which the extraordinary (re)emerges from a social group undergoing a geopolitical change, the Multitude Art Prize examines the role of art and its relevance in different regions of Asia. The Multitude Foundation is a Hong Kong registered charitable trust founded to promote Asian contemporary art through international dialogue, and the Wuhan Art Terminus (WH.A.T.) is a contemporary art centre currently being developed in Wuhan that takes inspiration from the idea of the “terminus,” a place that both sends out and receives people and their ideas. UCCA is proud to host the inaugural Multitude Art Prize exhibition from April 28 – June 16, 2013 (opening April 27), as well as a special conference on April 28 placing the situation of contemporary Asian art within a global context. The exhibition, which will be held annually in a different Asian city, will feature five winning artists or artist groups representing the most creative, critical minds in a rising Asian contemporary art scene. In the accompanying programs, invited speakers, including leading Asian curators and scholars as well as Western museum directors involved in the institutional collaborative “L’Internationale,” will provide an eclectic, academic analysis of the present and future of contemporary art in Asia.

List of Prizewinners:

1. Yao Jui-chung, Taiwan

2. Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, Philippines

3. MOON Kyungwon & JEON Joonho, Korea

4. Raqs Media Collective, India

5. Ha Za Vu Zu, Turkey

2013 Multitude Art Prize Discourse Series

Shifting Targets: Approaches to Art and Multitude in Asia

2013.04.28 10:00-18:30 UCCA Auditorium

The Multitude Art Prize Discourse Series is an annual program of discussions that travel with the exhibition program across Asia, opening up thematically with each edition. As a starting point for a long-term conversation, this year’s inaugural conference explores questions fundamental to the project’s inception.

The scale of geopolitical change taking place across Asia can make contemporary art seem powerless to intervene or even participate. As globalization has arguably taken over from where colonialism left off, contemporary art’s often-complicit relationship with this new cultural and economic order complicates or perhaps compromises its role in society. Within this backdrop, how do contemporary artists and institutions help to make culture relevant for society in different parts of Asia? Do they constitute a ‘multitude,’ and what meaning can be generated as their identities continuously evolve with their contexts?

Speakers include:

Zdenka Badovinac, Director, ModernaGalerija (Museum of Modern Art) in Ljubljana, Slovenia

Bart de Baere, Director, Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp (M HKA), Belgium

Patrick D. Flores, Professor of Art Studies, University of the Philippines; Curator, Vargas Museum, Manila, Philippines;Adjunct Curator, National Art Gallery, Singapore

Kate Fowle, Chief Curator, Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture in Moscow, Russia; Director at Large, Independent Curators International (ICI), New York, United States

Mami Kataoka, Chief Curator, Mori Art Museum (MAM), Tokyo, Japan

November Paynter, Associate Director of Research and Programmes, SALT, Istanbul, Turkey

Jack Persekian, Director, Palestine Museum, Jerusalem

Philippe Pirotte, Adjunct Senior Curator, University of California Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, United States; Programme Director, Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing, China;Partner Curator for the Multitude Foundation in Hong Kong, China; Senior Advisor,Rijksakademie(Royal Academy of Visual Arts), Amsterdam, Netherlands

Bartomeu Marí Ribas, Director of the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA), Spain

Georg Schöllhammer, Director, Julius Koller Society, Vienna, Austria; Editor-in-Chief, Springerin – HeftefürGegenwartskunst, Vienna, Austria

Gao Shiming, Executive Director,School of Intermedia Art, China Academy of Art (CAA), Hangzhou, China

Ravi Sundaram, Fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi, India; co-Founder of Sarai (a research program on media), New Delhi, India

The Multitude Foundation is a Hong Kong-registered charitable trust established in 2011 conceived out of the necessity for a genuine and sustainable cultural dialogue between the different regions of Asia. The Multitude Art Prize is the first major undertaking of the Multitude Foundation. For more information: www.multitudefoundation.org, info@multitudefoundation.org

Wuhan Art Terminus (WH.A.T.) is a contemporary art institution currently being developed in Wuhan, China. By basing projects on international collaboration and the investigation of contemporary issues, WH.A.T. endeavors to create experimental projects both in Wuhan and around the world. WH.A.T. is a Wuhan Dingyun project, and is scheduled to open in 2014. For more information: info@what-center.cn

The Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) is a comprehensive, not-for-profit art center serving a global Beijing public. As a platform for contemporary art linking China and the world, UCCA offers exhibitions and public programs which focus attention on the cultural situation in China, stimulate the development of the arts, and advance the public cultural sensibility. For further information please visit www.ucca.org.cn.

Wang Qijun, Year After Year

Huang Jingren of the Qing Dynasty wrote in the “Write a Poem after Seeing the Collective Volumes of Sun Xueju and Dong Qichang in the Collection of Ji Wuxiang Pavilion and Taichang Hut”, “It is said that a painting could not perfectly portray a poem, on the contrary I believe that a poem is a a picturesque scene.” ① In fact, even the beautiful visual scenery is described as “picturesque”, when ordinary people face picturesque scenes, therefore, “painting” is also a byword for beautiful scenery. In this article, the “picturesque scene” of the Jiangnan residential, does not refer to the primary feelings as in the description of the residential objects in the Jiangnan District by the visual senses of the artists, instead, the imagination and ideas of a higher level extend from the integration of the landscape in the eyes of the artist, and the emotions and aesthetic orientation, which is the foundation of an idea for an artist to paint and create, and even becomes the soul of the painting.

The implication of Jiangnan residential is constituted by architectural spatial plastic and regional culture. You could see a lot of residential architectures of goodly form across China, these outstanding residential architectures and the beautiful countryside environment could be the themes of the painters. But among the various residential forms in the paintings, the Jiangnan riverside town residential is the most commonly featured. We can even trace back to the ancient painters.

In ancient times, the majority of literatii were good at painting. Be good to yourself when you are poor, and share with others when you are rich. For a man, either holds office at court or not, the painting is no more than the idle interest of flirtation. In the edification of the “installation of heaven and earth in my house” ②, burning incense, brewing a pot of tea, they painted their own painting for entertainment. “Clouds born between the girders and roof beams, while the wind flows through the window” ③. “The arrangement of the caves in the distance from the window, overlooking forest of arbors in the yard”④. “The white clouds gathering on the roof beams, with the red sunset outside the window” ⑤. “Mountains and Moon are close to the window, the stars go down into the house” “Mountains and rivers decorate the households, while the sun and moon are around the carved beams”. ⑥ “Drawing a mountain in the mind when sitting down, feeling the coming of the wind and rain when standing by the window”. ⑦ From these verses we can understand the spatial awareness in the minds of the ancient artists, that is the snare of heaven and earth in the house, breathing the air from the mountains and rivers in the mind. Whether it is based on satisfaction and reality or the vast earth, this spatial sense certainly maybe of a subtle influence with the houses. Laozi said: “Stay in the house, to know the world.” ⑨ Zhuangzi said: “The way emerges from the blank canvas” ⑩. This spatial concept fits the practice of the painters who love to paint windows, households, courtyards, steps, curtains, screens, parapets, and gardens.

There is “The Proportion Table of Painters According to Different Regions and Dynasties” in the appendix of “The Entire History of the Study of Chinese Painting” ⑪ in the codification of Zheng Wuchang. Although perhaps his statistics are not comprehensive, it is obvious that far more painters came from the Provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang than any other place in Chinese history. In fact, Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces are not regions with miraculous mountains and rivers. In the past, when people analyzed this phenomenon, they often found reasons within the aspects of the developed economy and culture. But it was not the only region of economic prosperity in history, and from the early Ming Dynasty through to the Qing Dynasty, there was not any capital in the region. Therefore, it seems that we can also look at this phenomenon from the impact to the painters with the unique artistic charm of the Jiangnan buildings.

For the Jiangnan riverside town residential in the Taihu Lake drainage area, there are various plastic and graphic processes, tall and narrow large wooden structure, exquisitely decorated, delicate woodcuts and carved bricks, and lightweight roofing. The elegant waterside architecture implies a slightly floating, a slowly flowing image and gesture. The intellectuals living here, influenced by the residential arts, found it easy to appreciate the beauty of the architectural form. Traditional Chinese painting prefers the use of a line to emphasize the relationships between light and shadow, and colors, because the color of the Chinese residential is simple, basically white walls and black tiles, and the walls rarely change. It is no better than lines to perform the grids, casements, windows and doors, as well as layers of tiles. It is quite appropriate to use traditional Chinese painting to complete the residential images, whether it is a line drawing or in freehand.

Here is a painting of the scene of a river in Jiangnan District by the writer totally drawn using a line. It does not use sketch tones of black, white and gray, also it does not perform light and shadow with the aid of any line. But the clear foreground, middle ground and distant ground are clearly displayed on the paper. Therefore, from ancient artists’ works, we can see the beauty of the Jiangnan water town architecture. At the same time, we are also able to recognize the picturesque scene of the Jiangnan residential was the important element to move painters.

Indeed, there are some difficulties in performing the Jiangnan residential, Maksimov (Максимов.KM), an artist from former Soviet Union held a well-known training course at CAFA in 1950s, during which he performed the Jiangnan riverside town by oil painting, together with the students. But Maksimov strictly obeyed the Soviet Union-style teaching principle in his sketches, trying his best to use the delicate relationships between the warm and cold colors. Unfortunately, the plastic means of the rich colors of the Russian oil painting failed in the performance of the white walls and black tiles of the Jiangnan residential. In last century, some Chinese artists such as Chen Yifei, etc., had captured the essence of the Jiangnan residential, reducing the chroma, emphasizing sketches and spatial sense, gaining a good effect in the paintings. Here is a painting entitled “Year After Year”, by the writer, which typically used the approaches of reducing the chroma and emphasizing the spatial sense of the sketch. In this picture, in addition some tiny areas of the painting are lit, the tones of black and gray fill the rest of it. He cleverly mixed and matched the two color gradation systems of the color and no color, so the viewers know the historical vicissitudes of the traditional water town, in the main tone without color; at the same time, the viewers could suck the fresh morning dew brought by the morning sun, and enjoy the quiet life, from the warm area illuminated by a beam of light.

When we wander in the old village and riverside town, we are often unconsciously infected by the beauty of the residential, as if drinking strong wine, and feel drunk. Describing from the perspective of the painting, we can feel an invisible colorless void with the architecture. “Tranquil and nothingness, reconciling with nature” ⑫. Therefore, Painting language has its own literary ideological content and visual tension. The painting entitled “Moisten the Sky” was intent to express a tranquil and nothingness quiet and deep artistic conception.

Wang Qijun, Moisten the Sky

But from an architectural perspective, analyzing the forces constituting the Jiangnan residential, we can find a considerable number of aesthetic elements in the Jiangnan water town residential. It is easy to understand why there is a picturesque scene moving people in the Jiangnan residential.

To be continued…

Notes:

1 “It is said that a painting couldn’t perfectly portray a poem, on the contrary I believe that a poem is a picturesque scene. It is said that the calligraphical beauty were known according to the painting, and I think the painting and calligraphy are the one.” Cited in Huang Jingren’s “Liangdangxuan Corpus”

2 [Qing Dynasty]Zhang Huiyan, “Shuidiaogetou”

3 [Jin Dynasty] Guo Pu, “Youxianshi/ Poetry about the Immortals”

4 [Six Dynasties] Xiao Taio, “Leisurely Overlooking from a High Apartment”

5 [Six Dynasties]Yin Keng, “New Cheng An Yue Palace”

6 [Tang Dynasty] Shen Quanqi, “Overnight in Qipan Ridge”

7 [Tang Dynasty] Du Fu, “Visit the Temple of Xuanyuan Emperor in the North of Luocheng City in the Winter”

8 [Song Dynasty] Huang Tingjian, “Inscription of Hu Yilao’s Zhixu Hut”

9 Laozi, “Tao Te Ching”

10 “Zhuangzi • Human World”

11 in 1929, Shanghai Zhonghua Bookstore Company

12 “Zhuangzi • Keyi/ Deliberate”

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

Co-presented by M+, Hong Kong’s new museum for visual culture at the West Kowloon Cultural District and The Hong Kong Arts Development Council, the solo exhibition ‘You (you.)’ by Hong Kong artist Lee Kit at the 55th Venice Biennale features a series of new commissions including sound, video and performance and ready-made objects.

Lee Kit’s exhibition ‘You (you).’ is a continuation of his exploration into the quotidian realm of the everyday. Comprised entirely of new commissions, the exhibition is formulated as a series of spatial reconfigurations that blend together and alternate between concealment and revelation.

Conceived through recollections of personal and collective moments and their associated emotions from a not-so-distant past, ‘You (you).’ takes the universal yet non-existing entity alluded to in its title as a point of departure, gazing at the notion of absence to reflect on the construction of places, memories and time. Lee distils and translates these fleeting moments into forms of visual articulation, shedding light on their inherent ‘endlessness’ which transcends our perception of time.

Shifting across a diverse range of media, Lee’s practice is deeply rooted in his personal surroundings and experience. Trained as a painter at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, he soon began to move away from representational tendencies and the limitations of the traditional stretched canvas, which has long been central to Western art. Lee reduced the act of painting to a network of repetitive lines and squares on fabrics, repositioning the process itself as a personal and emotive form of documenting the passage of time. These hand-painted fabrics were then turned into and used as ordinary functional items, such as tablecloths, curtains and picnic blankets, thus introducing the essentially private outcomes into the public sphere.

‘You (you).’ operates within the same framework as Lee’s sparse yet intimate installations, incorporating moving image, performance, ready-made objects, found images and lighting to form and suggest traces of immaterialised dialogues and relationships. The various elements within the installations, which appear to have been randomly placed, have in fact been meticulously arranged to recall the qualities of painterly composition. The exhibition also further propels Lee’s approach of employing repetitive gestures, mundane objects and other ephemeral materials, such as sound, to function as emotive and sensory triggers, affording viewers the possibility of evoking the textures of both real and imagined memories.

About the artist

Born in Hong Kong in 1978, Lee Kit currently lives and works in Hong Kong and Taipei. Shifting across a diverse range of media, Lee’s practice is deeply rooted in his personal surroundings and experience. Trained as a painter at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, he soon began to move away from representational tendencies and the limitations of stretched canvas, reducing the act of painting to a network of repetitive lines and squares. His recent installations combine different objects, images and mediums to form sparse yet intimate settings that suggest traces of immaterialised relationships.

His recent solo exhibitions include ‘Every breath you take.’, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China (2012), ‘House M’, The Pavilion, Beijing, China (2012), ‘Henry (Have you ever been this low?)’, Western Front, Vancouver, Canada (2011), ‘1, 2, 3, 4…’, Lombard Freid Projects, New York, U.S.A. (2011), ‘Well, that’s just a chill.’, ShugoArts, Tokyo, Japan (2010), ‘Someone singing and calling your name’, Osage Gallery, Hong Kong (2009), ‘Remains from several days’, Mori Gallery, Sydney, Australia (2008) and ‘¾ suggestions for a better living’, Para/Site Art Space, Hong Kong (2007). He has also participated in numerous international group exhibitions such as ‘What should I do to live in your life?’, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE (2012), ‘Trading Futures’, Taipei Contemporary Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan (2012), ‘Print/Out’, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA (2012), ‘The Ungovernables’, The New Museum, New York, USA (2012), ‘No Soul For Sale’, Tate Modern, London, UK (2010), ‘Platform in Kimusa’, Seoul, South Korea (2009), ‘Sprout from White Nights’, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden (2008), ‘Farewell to Post-Colonialism’, The 3rd Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China (2008) and ‘Pearl River City’, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania (2007). Lee is the recipient of the Art Futures Award at ArtHK in 2012. His works are collected by a number of public and private collections worldwide, including Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst and the Hong Kong Museum of Art.

About M+

M+ is the new museum for visual culture in Hong Kong, as part of West Kowloon Cultural District, focusing on 20th and 21st century art, design, architecture and moving image. M+ is set to develop content from a Hong Kong perspective with a global vision. It is a project with a strong public service ethos, not primarily envisioned as a prestigious venture or a tourist project, but fundamentally as a museum for the more than seven million people living and working in Hong Kong, firmly rooted in the location and its unique culture.

While this goal is by no means unique compared to that of many museums around the world, the cultural ecology which M+ is part of has other traditions, histories and experiences than those that engendered today’s leading museums. By presenting its collection in innovative ways through rich and diverse exhibition and education programmes, the future M+ building (scheduled for completion at the end of 2017) will be the optimal meeting point for various parties with exceedingly disparate requirements, encouraging enhanced audience participation and dialogue between different forms of visual culture, and cultures of “looking”. The building, therefore, for now and the foreseeable future, remains to be the museum’s main tool. Its symbolic significance is greater than ever especially with the cultural genres growing ever more fluid and mutant.

About the exhibition

Exhibition period: 1.6 – 24.11.2013

Opening hours: Tuesdays – Sundays, 10:00am – 6:00pm

Closed on Mondays (except the first and last week of the exhibition)

Venue: Castello 2126, Campo della Tana (Opposite the main entrance of Arsenale)

Curators: Lars Nittve with Yung Ma, M+

Venice Site Visit, August 2012

Dr Lars NITTVE

Executive Director, M+

West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, Hong Kong

Born 1953 in Stockholm, Nittve is currently the Executive Director of M+ in Hong Kong. After studies at the Stockholm School of Economics, a M.A. at Stockholm University and Post Graduate Studies at New York University, he served as lecturer in art history at the University of Stockholm (1978-85). During the same period he held a post as senior art critic at the Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet, and contributed regularly to Artforum.

Nittve was appointed chief curator at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 1986. He served as the founding Director of Rooseum – Center for Contemporary Art in Malmö, Sweden (1990-1995). In July 1995, Dr Nittve became the Director of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebaek, Denmark, where he also curated the groundbreaking exhibition ‘Sunshine & Noir – Art in L.A. 1960-1997’ and the first solo exhibition of Cai Guo Qiang outside Asia. In 1998, he was named the first Director of Tate Modern, London, which opened in May 2000 to great acclaim. In November 2001, he returned to Moderna Museet in Stockholm as Director. Since January 2011, Nittve has been with the West Kowloon Cultural District as the Executive Director of M+, the museum for visual culture in Hong Kong.

Yung MA

Assistant Curator, M+

West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, Hong Kong

Born 1979 in Shanghai, Ma is currently assistant curator at M+ in Hong Kong. He was the gallery manager at Art Statements Gallery and the assistant curator at Para/Site Art Space, both in Hong Kong. He was also the assistant curator and project manager of Pak Sheung Chuen’s solo exhibition ‘Making (Perfect) Word: Harbour, Hong Kong, Alienated Cities and Dreams’ at the 53rd International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia. In 2011, he was the guest curator of A Wedding, an exhibition and event featuring works from over 100 international artists co-organised by Para/Site Art Space and Vitamin Creative Space, and co-curator of The Visionary Trading Project at Guest Projects in London. Ma also contributes regularly to a number of publications and exhibition catalogues. He holds a M.A. in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art and a B.A. in Fine Art and Japanese from the University of Reading.

Co-presented by

M+, Museum for Visual Culture,

West Kowloon Cultural District &

Hong Kong Arts Development Council

Courtesy of the artist and M+, for further information please visit www.venicebiennale.hk.

Cui Fei, Manuscript VIII, 2010; Thorns on panels, 57x33in

Chambers Fine Art is pleased to announce the opening on April 25, 2013 of Cui Fei: Tracing the Origin, her first solo exhibition at the gallery. A graduate of the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Art in Hangzhou, China, she moved to the United States in 1996 and has been resident here ever since. Although she lives and works in New York City her work is inspired by nature, her favored materials being natural materials such as vines, twigs and tendrils that she gathers herself. She is also deeply responsive to aspects of traditional Chinese culture and philosophy which permeate her work, recognizing the essential role that calligraphy played in the development of Chinese civilization and using it as a constant reference whatever form her work takes.

For more than a decade she has been working on three ongoing series, Calendar, Manuscript of Nature, and Tracing the Origin. Based on events in her personal life, Calendar is the most circumscribed in form and uses natural materials such as seeds, beans, thorns and weeds that lend themselves to orderly arrangements. Although they are closely related Manuscript of Nature and Tracing the Origin refer to the natural world in different ways, the former emphasizing the relationship between natural materials such as twigs, tendrils and thorns and calligraphy and the latter using manmade materials to reveal the way in which natural sources of inspiration are gradually transformed by human intervention.

The current exhibition offers a selection of recent works from Manuscript of Nature and Tracing the Origin, the dialog between the different approaches adopted in the fabrication of the works being an essential part of Cui Fei’s ongoing practice. In five new works from Manuscript of Nature VIII, 2013, the tendrils she uses resemble Chinese running script, a dynamic form of writing totally different in character from the regimented rows of thorns in the majestic, three-panel Manuscript of Nature VIII, 2010.

Manuscript of Nature VIII (detail), photo credit David Broda

Cui Fei, Tracing IX I_i, 2012; Gelatin silver photogram, 24x16in

In the new works from Tracing the Origin series she adopts a diametrically opposite approach, creating abstract forms from copper wire and speaker wire that resemble natural forms. Also belonging to this series is a group of photograms executed in 2012, a technique used in some of the earliest photographic images. Placed directly on photo-sensitive paper, the natural forms she selects bear an even closer resemblance to calligraphy, disembodied versions of actual materials she uses elsewhere in the exhibition.

Although not site-specific, the current selection of recent additions to the series creates an environment which is enriched by the formal and material relationships between the individual works. Most striking is the balance she achieves between the natural materials she uses and the orderly way in which they are presented. Her patient methodical approach may be seen as a form of meditative practice that results in installations and independent works that are memorable for their quiet authority.

About the exhibition

Duration: April 25 – June 7, 2013

Venue: Chambers Fine Art, New York

Address: 522 West 19th Street, New York, NY 10011

T: +1 212 414 1169

F: +1 212 414 1192

cfa@chambersfineart.com

Courtesy of the artist and Chambers Fine Art, for further information please visit chambersfineart.com.

Group Photo of Yang Tianna, Adel, Wang Huangsheng, Sui Jianguo, and Yang Jiechang

Organized by CAFA Art Museum, a lecture entitled “The Attack + Give Me a Brush” was held in the Lecture Hall of CAFA Art Museum, at 18:30, on April 19, 2013. Presided over by Wang Huangsheng and Yang Tianna, the lecture was about the experiences and creations of Adel Abdessemed and Yang Jiechang.

At the beginning, Wang Huangsheng gave a brief introduction to the artists. Born in Algeria, Adel Abdessemed graduated from Lyon Academy of Fine Arts in France, working as an artist in France. Yang Jiecang graduated from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, and went to France. Yang Tianna said, Adel always focused on the participation, while the works of Yang Jiecang had a Chinese literati composition of ink, and she was the translator for Adel in the lecture.

Screening the pictures, Adel gave a brief overview of his works and art career. The first screening was a video projection “Flute Player”, where a naked man from the Islamic culture kept standing and playing his flute, and the role was selected from a large mass over a long period, realizing that he could continue his art creation with successful works. Since then, he has found himself to be more and more heading towards a realization of Freud’s “Daydream” with action, as well as his artistic “Daydream”. This “action” is not “performance”, which involves not only participation, but also some other methods.

Adel showed his own participating works, and spoke of several methods. Firstly, the dangerous performance works “Helicopter” and “The Sea”, secondly, the creations of animal remains, such as “Don’t Trust Me” and “Factory”, and “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf”, a collage made with the heads of the animals, Adel stressed the traces of the animal, he believed, it brought a strong deterrent effect with the artistic expression. Thirdly, it is painting or sculpture, in “The Parade”, he directly used original fresco patterns, and “Coup de Tête”, a giant bronze sculpture depicting the infamous moment during the 2006 World Cup when French captain Zinédine Zidane head butted Italian defender Marco Materazzi in the chest, a symbol of freedom and the dark side of human nature, the symbolic photo involving a symbolic meaning.

Adel gave a detailed introduction of his works “Like Mother Like Son”, he believed that his art style was not separated from their memories. In his memory, as a housekeeper of the family, his mother cooked according to the economic situation, slowly like his mother, he used all the materials, he could find instead of deliberately seeking new items, on the other hand, he had been convinced that “regardless of winning or losing, one should start again”, which makes his works always fresh. Adel thought himself a “graphic artist” instead of a “conceptual artist”, he has been focused on the pursuit of the beauty of the visual art, various artistic forms he has made, he has been round the factors of “self act” and “visual”, which make him different from other contemporary artists.

After Adel’s speech, Yang Jiechang initially screened a video works “Oh My God”, as a native of Guangdong Province, he translates between Cantonese and English, writing words in the English alphabet of the two languages, Yang hoped that the conversion of languages and the power of language tone were emphasized through this works. He talked about the first creation that badly impressed him, the graduate works entitled “Massacre”, which shocked many people at that time as it opposed the domestic mainstream principle of “truth, kindness and beauty”, but for Yang Jiechang, it is the power to inspire that is his constant creation.

When he moved to France, he always insisted on using a brush for creation, he believed that the tradition of Chinese ink and wash is a glittering section of contemporary art. He was inspired by many years of training in Chinese calligraphy which enabled him to be explored by the curator of the exhibition “Les magiciens de la terre”, held at the Centre Georges Pompidou. He was noted for the “100 Layers of Ink”, directly interpreted as the use of “Sanfanjiuran”, a traditional technique for meticulous painting, deepening the color of the ink over time, to an ultimate effect as shiny as a mirror. He has also painted his nails and fingerprints using 100 layers of ink, a symbol of the awareness of life and the individual.

Yang Jiechang deals with all things he encounters in an artistic way. When he did not know how to deal with death, he created the “Testament”; when he lived in France, missing friends and family in China, he wrote their names, imagery of people standing in front of him. In addition, he had thoughts on the position of Guangdong culture as located in Chinese civilization. In the “We are Good at Everything Except for Speaking Mandarin”, a work full of banter, Yang was thinking about a legitimate rejected regional cultural, as well as his individual identity at home and abroad.

Finally it was the Q and A section, Adel and Yang answered some questions from the audience.

Journalist: Sun Tianyi/CAFA  ART INFO

Photography: Hu Zhiheng/CAFA ART INFO

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

GUO HONGWE, “Untitled (Perfect Lovers), 1991″, 2013, Collage on paper, 44 x 63.4 cm

Born in 1982 in Sichuan Province, Guo Hongwei is one of the most active young painters from Beijing. He will present a selection of his newest works at Leo Xu Projects this summer. Renown for his inventive execution of watercolor, oil and collage, Guo takes painting as a form of collecting, with artworks evoking the kind of attention to detail more usually afforded to specimens in a museum, with subject matter ranging from everyday objects to flora, fauna and minerals.

Guo has exhibited at various international galleries and museums, among many others, ‘Catch the Moon in the Water: Emerging Chinese Artists’, James Cohan Gallery, New York (2011), ‘Today Documents’, Today Art Museum, Beijing (2007), ‘Refresh: Emerging Chinese Artists’, Shanghai Zendai MOMA, Shanghai (2007), ‘Archaeology of the Future–the 2nd Triennial of Chinese Art’, Nanjing Museum, Nanjing (2005).

The opening reception of his new solo exhibition takes place on 25 April from 6pm through 8pm.

About the exhibition

Duration: April 25 – June 2, 2013

Venue: Leo Xu Projects, Shanghai

Address: Lane 49, Building 3, Fuxing Xi Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai 200031, China

T: +86-21-34611245 F: +86-21-34612450

info@leoxuprojects.com

www.leoxuprojects.com

Drawing inspiration from the contemporary realities of his fast-changing country, Chinese artist Xu Bing spent two years creating his newest work, Phoenix. The installation features two monumental birds fabricated entirely from materials harvested from construction sites in urban China, including demolition debris, steel beams, tools, and remnants of the daily lives of migrant laborers. At once fierce and strangely beautiful, the mythic Phoenixes bear witness to the complex interconnection between labor, history, commercial development, and the rapid accumulation of wealth in today’s China.

This is the premier appearance of the sculpture outside China (the works were exhibited briefly outdoors at the Today Art Museum in Beijing, and then at Expo10 in Shanghai). At MASS MoCA, the internally illuminated 12-ton birds are suspended mid-air inside the museum’s football field-sized Building 5; dwarfing visitors, the male Phoenix Feng measures 90 feet long, while the female Huang reaches 100 feet in length, beak to (steel) tail feathers.

Phoenix is the centerpiece of an exhibition of related art by Xu Bing, widely considered to be among the most important Chinese artists working today. An opening reception will take place on April 27, in conjunction with the installation of a “second chapter” of the exhibition.

Phoenix Project was commissioned by Ravenel Art Group and is on loan courtesy of the collection of Mr. Barry Lam. MASS MoCA is grateful for exhibition support provided by the artist’s studio; Sheffield Plastics; Eslite Gallery; Beautiful Asset (Beijing) Industry Co., Ltd.; E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation; Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation; Massachusetts Cultural Council; Robert Lehman Foundation; Helen & Will Little; Rene Balcer & Carolyn Hsu-Balcer; Hugh Freund; Cynthia Hazen Polsky & Leon Polsky; Alex G. Cao & Tina Wong; Jim Schwarz; and an anonymous donor. Additional funding for the exhibition catalogue is provided by the W.L.S. Spencer Foundation.

ARTIST TALK: XU BING

Friday, April 26, 2013, 5pm Club B-10

Free to Williams Students, Faculty and Staff and MASS MoCA Members$8 general admission to lecture and reception

Member tickets are not available via the internet.

In conjunction with his new exhibition at MASS MoCA Xu Bing: Phoenix, the artist will discuss his work of the past twenty years, and in particular will address the events surrounding the making of his controversial Phoenix Project. Drawing inspiration from the contemporary realities of his fast-changing country, Chinese artist Xu Bing spent two years creating his Phoenix. The installation at MASS MoCA features two monumental birds fabricated entirely from materials harvested from construction sites in urban China, including demolition debris, steel beams, tools, and remnants of the daily lives of migrant laborers. On April 27th, the museum will open an additional gallery devoted to Xu Bing’s work, including calligraphic works from his Square Word series, Book from the Ground, a research-based project based on internationally-recognizable symbols, computer icons and other elements of graphic-based language, and a new video animation in which Xu Bing comments on the Chinese character through a seventeen minute hand-animated video, to be projected onto a screen over 25’ wide.

Xu Bing will lecture in Mandarin, with English translation. There will be a short question and answer session following his illustrated talk in the B-10 Theatre, and reception in the gallery.

Besides, Xu Bing will return to the Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery with a special exhibition that looks deeper into his most recent monumental project. “Nine Deaths, Two Births: Xu Bing’s Phoenix Project,” on view April 27–Sept. 1, traces the difficult—but ultimately successful—evolution of his largest public artwork to date. Due to their technical complexity and challenging subject matter, “Phoenixes” took over two years to create, during which time Xu paid multiple visits to a construction site in Beijing’s Central Business District and spent time with the workers, while conducting research on representations of the mythical phoenix in Chinese art. In the resulting sculptures, steel girders, beams, hard hats and other construction materials are recycled to transform a familiar image into a commentary on the dense urban and social contexts prevalent in contemporary China. The Sackler exhibition, “Nine Deaths, Two Births,” documents the project’s development through preparatory drawings, technical diagrams, scale models and a new film made especially for this presentation. An accompanying selection of masterpieces from the Freer and Sackler collections further illuminates Xu’s approach to reinterpreting a traditional Chinese artistic form.

“Through these rough materials, we gain a sense of Xu’s process and the unpredictability inherent in a project of this scale,” said Carol Huh, assistant curator of contemporary Asian art. “Also as the seminal Word Play exhibition did in 2001, his work offers a unique opportunity to draw on the Galleries’ historical collections to enhance our understanding of the work of a major contemporary artist.”

“Nine Deaths, Two Births” takes its title from Xu’s description of the project: “nine deaths” refers to the many setbacks he faced during the lengthy creation process, while “two births” celebrate both the “Phoenixes” themselves and the two children born to his studio staff during the same period.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a full range of public programs later in the summer.

About the Artist

Xu’s history with the Sackler is long and prolific; the gallery organized the first major solo exhibition in the U.S. featuring a Chinese contemporary artist, “Word Play: Contemporary Art by Xu Bing” (2001–02), and the resulting commission, “Monkeys Grasping the Moon,” was the Freer and Sackler’s first commissioned contemporary art installation. Unveiled in 2004, this unique work is permanently on view, dropping nearly 86 feet through the Sackler’s central atrium. Most recently, Xu was a part of the Sackler’s 25th anniversary celebration in November, giving a lecture on his work.

Xu was born in Chongqing, China, in 1955. In 1990, he moved to the U.S. on the invitation of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He returned to China in 2007 and is currently the vice president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, where he received his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in fine arts and later taught. Besides the Sackler, solo exhibitions of his work have been held at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, the Joan Miro Foundation in Spain, the National Gallery of Prague and the Spencer Museum of Art in Kansas. Xu has also shown at the 45th and 51st Venice Biennales, the Biennale of Sydney and the Johannesburg Biennale.

The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, located at 1050 Independence Avenue S.W., and the adjacent Freer Gallery of Art, located at 12th Street and Independence Avenue S.W., the Smithsonian’s museums of Asian art, are on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. every day (closed Dec. 25), and admission is free. The galleries are located near the Smithsonian Metrorail station on the Blue and Orange lines. For more information, visit www.asia.si.edu. For general Smithsonian information, call (202) 633-1000.

Courtesy of Xu Bing Studio, for further information please visit www.xubing.com.

Address: 540 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211

Tel/Fax: 718-388-4228 Cell: 917-415-1020

Observing one billiard-ball moving towards another, David Hume, the 18th century skeptic, asked: “May I not conceive that a hundred different events might as well follow that cause?” A simple isomorphic collision results in a myriad of consequences. The Humean causal contingency proliferates in and seems further complicated by contemporary modalities in which the priming of motion can be concomitantly occasioned by mechanical, electronic, and digital intrigues, in reality and via the virtual, through solid material and by way of data bits. Motion begets action; action incites motion whereby transposition reciprocates as permutation that undergoes metamorphosis. Many a motion comes to pass, invoking a subversion of dramaturgy; instigating a dislocation of time- space, inflicting a mishap of perception, or implicating a polemic and explicating a contention.

About the exhibition

Duration: April 20 – May 12, 2013

Venue: Hall13-17 National Art Museum of China

Organizer: National Art Museum of China

Joint exhibition of Xu Jiang and Shi Hui entitled “Flourishing Spirits” was open on April 13 at Ludwig museum in Deutschherrenhaus Koblenz. The exhibition features over a hundred pieces of recent works by Xu Jiang and Shi Hui, which is also the first joint exhibition by this couple in Europe.

With its location at the “Deutshes Eck”(German corner), at the confluence of the rivers Rhine and Mosel, and facing the “Kaiserdenkmal”, which is in 1992 returned to its original form, the “Deutschherrenhaus” -the previous house of the German cavaliers – forms a vital counterpart to the historical orientation of the town. “Deutshes Eck” is the memorial site of the unification of Germany, the historical landmark of German spirits, the field full of memories of German ethic spirit. It is the first time for a contemporary artist who presents his work at this corner. The highlight of this exhibition is a large scale sculpture by Xu Jiang, “Living Together”(2012). This 6-meter-high iron installation is composed of 800 pieces of sunflower sculptures, standing far apart facing the statute of German Emperor William I, the first king of Germany, which was described by Rhein-Mosel Newspaper as a dialogue of wills and spirits between two civilizations of Germany and China.” Review published on Bonn Times referred it as “new neighbour of the King.” In the following two months, visitors passed on the Rhine River would experience exactly a nostalgic feeling as well as a kind of bright prospect coexisted in the Sino-European cultures.

I

Xu Jiang’s large-scale sculpture “Living Together”, placed at the Deutsches Eck during the exhibition, is the most outstanding piece in the overall presentation. As Beate, the Director of the Ludwig Museum said: “This is an historic event, which realizes as an exhibition in front of the Prussian Imperial Monument at the Deutsches Eck, which is an important place for memories for German people. Previously, the government prohibited any artist to display their works.” In this regard, the Rhine-Moselle Newspaper commented: “It is a dialogue of the will and spirit between German and Chinese civilization.

“Living Together” of Xu Jiang, is composed of steel arrays of 800 sunflower sculptures, of the height of 6 to 8 meters, creating a heavy pressure for the viewers, 800 javelin-like iron poles densely standing and pointing to the sky, 800 surging sunflowers booming in various forms, vibrant and rising towards the sky.

The exhibition on view in the interior of the museum is divided into two parts. The first part is “Rise from the Ashes”, featuring nearly one hundred paintings themed on sunflowers by Xu Jiang, as well as his new works, an installation composed of twenty colorful glass sunflower lights. The second part is entitled “Still Water Running into the Deep” which presents more than 10 recent works by Shi Hui, including the large-scale fiber art installation “Compendium of Materia Medica” series, as well as an outdoor installation “Knot”. The exhibition is the first joint exhibition by the couple Xu Jiang and Shi Hui, held in Europe.

In the 1980s, Xu Jiang and Shi Hui experienced a baptism of the vanguard art movement: Under the tutelage of Maryn Varbabov, a Bulgarian artist who was teaching in Hangzhou at that time, Shi Hui engaged in a cross-media creation of contemporary fiber art; Xu Jiang was studying at the Hamburg Academy of Fine Arts, going back and forth between the East and West, between the local and international, between the ideological and experimental form. At the beginning of the new century, as the president of the China Academy of Art, Xu Jiang bursts out with great passion and vitality in creation and ideology, while Shi Hui is one of most important female artists in China, and an important artist that promotes fiber art in China. From their personal creations and educational practices, a new vision of “contemporary” is on view.

II

This exhibition presents two different worlds. Xu Jiang’s works themed on “Rise from the Ashes”, the blazing old sunflowers experiencing the cycle of birth and death in the sunlight, and is a symbol for an entire generation: the generation grown up in the fanaticism and disillusionment during the Cultural Revolution. During this time not only the thinking, but also society was subjected to profound changes. There have been stormy vicissitudes of life, and were burdened with responsibility and hope.

Compared with the profound agitation of Xu Jiang, Shi Hui’s works present a lightweight and quiet aspect. On the contrary to “Rise from the Ashes”, water is the theme of Shi Hui’s works, “Still Water Running into the Deep” in a quiet and naive world, with the use of weaving, pumping silk to weave brocade, an epic tale of a woman’s daily life.

“Compendium of Materia Medica” is the most striking among Shi Hui’s works in the exhibition, in these series of works created in 2009, Shi Hui connected the natural materials such as rice paper and dried vegetation together. These works not only trace the source of the naturalistic worldview of Chinese medicine, but also pay tribute to the Confucian traditions of “Bowu”, “Gewu”(study the principles of the materials), with a traditional form of book and album, opening the vision of Chinese traditional knowledge to European audiences. Excavating a micro-world construction from the natural structure of the fiber, this micro natural structure becomes an important reference for Shi Hui’s artistic creation.

III

Xu Jiang’s “Living Together” is located at the projection of the Deutsches Eck, the vast water area where the Rhine and Moselle Rivers converge together.

The vast waters of the two rivers converge at the mouth. Looking back, this jungle-like Kwai Park, and distant majestic Kaiser Wilhelm statue, a distant relative from Deutsche is at the angle of the tip of the triangular plaza. William the Conqueror, the spiritual symbol of the reunification of Germany, underlies the German nation demonstrating suffering and hope. At the moment, he is a Prancing Horse Swagger, majestic and dignified, towering like a mountain. The 800 old steel sunflowers head towards the sky in front of him, where a proudly, raging tide rushes, like a flame rising. This distant relative of both inspires a chase far from historical sentiments, containing the spirit and will of thinking from Kam.

Beginning in May last year, the “Living Together” tour has been in Germany for nearly a year. They used to be in the National Museum of Dresden where the ruins of the dome stand, later they blossomed in the snow at the main exhibition halls of Kassel Documenta. At the ancient courtyard of the Ludwig Museum, sunsets slide on the surface of Shi Hui’s gorgeous works. 12 pieces of polished stainless steel frames are scattered with each other, building a five-meter-high large-scale installation, thousands of shiny steel pipes densely arranged like a beehive, as if an opened organ, where the interspersed steel wires create beautiful abstract images.

On the day before the opening of the exhibition, a team of innocent German children was led by their teacher to the Deutsches Eck. They raised their juvenile faces, looking up at the towering sunflowers, whispering, echoing the theme of “Living Together”.

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

George Clause(1852-1944), Spring Morning Haverstock Hill, 1881; oil on canvas, 100×130.5cm, Burry Art Museum

Jointly organized by six domestic art museums including the Guangdong Museum of Art, Beijing World Art Museum, as well as three international institutes including Manchester Museums Union, International Touring Exhibitions Union, and Bury Art Museum, “Towards Modernity: Three Centuries of British Art” features 80 pieces of selected works of oil paintings, prints, watercolors, drawings and sculptures, from 18 museums and collections from the North West of England, where Manchester is at the center, participating artists including Turner, Constable, Henry Mole, Freud, Hogarth, Rossetti, etc.

Vividly depicting the history of art in the United Kingdom over 300 years, the exhibition is divided into six parts: “The British”, “Scene Observed”, “Natural Landscape”, “Tell a Story”, “Poetic Imagination” and “Modernism”, organized basically based on the history of British art, which can be summarized as having three main components. Firstly, from the break up between Henry VIII the King of England and the Pope, the establishment of the Church at the end of the medieval culture of the United Kingdom until the portrait with a secular means had become popular at the first half of the 18th century. Portraiture had been a unique style of British paintings for at least four centuries. It features the representatives of the British portraits, reflecting real British lives, as well as painting ideas and techniques of the artists. Secondly, it is undoubtedly the part featuring British landscape paintings. The development of the landscape painting was significant in the history of British art, and promoted the development process of the Western Modernist with the use of colors. Thirdly, it features from the Pre-Raphaelite initially advocating the true expression of their feelings and attitudes, until the artistic concepts of the modern schools such as Impressionism, Futuristic, and Abstract.

It includes mainstream as well avant-garde art, twenty-first century works as well as two-century old works, paintings as well as drawings, historical and religious subjects as well as portraiture and landscapes (two staples of British art), along with works depicting everyday life in a kind of artistic vernacular. It celebrates the individuality and eccentricity of British art as well as its sophistication and extraordinary levels of intrinsic skill.

British art

In Britain, because no specific academic system of artistic education has been established, painters have been at liberty to express their own particular creative bents without concern about the wider expectation of artistic taste.

Individuals who have sought to reform the practice of art in this country have usually done so from a position of artistic non-conformism or personal idiosyncrasy – for example of the drawings of William Blake, or the early experimental works of the Pre-Raphaelites, or the uniquely visionary canvases of Stanley Spencer. While the consequence may be an overall artistic development that is confusing and complicated to explain, it is nevertheless fabulously characterful and distinctive.

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

About the exhibition

Duration: April 28 – June 14, 2013

Venue: Hall 1, 2, 3, 4, Guangdong Museum of Art

“See you when I see you | Yi yi yi yi”, Zhang Xiaoyue’s first solo exhibition was held from April Fool’s Day to Tomb-Sweeping Day in 2013 in the Channel Gallery owned by the Department of Sculpture, CAFA. The theme “See you when I see you | Yi yi yi yi” like the antithesis in poems, this is her retrospective exhibition covering the last five years’ college study. It’s See you and See you again.

Zhang Xiaoyue tends to treat the starting point and the terminal point as one, keeping the ontological nature of creation with controlled intervention– the process of creating by borrowing God’s force to make force and playing God. Zhang Xiaoyue’s works made the departure point meet the destination, take advantage of a force gram striking a force. The exhibition period from April Fool’s Day to Tomb-Sweeping Day denotes—foolishness, joy, solstice and death in Chinese characteristics. It justly means: serious attitude, clumsy manner, brisk tone and assured faith.

Zhang Xiaoyue was born in 1990 in Shaanxi. She was an exchange student in the Paris Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts and will graduate from the China Central Academy of Fine Arts this year.

dust1

The moon waxes only to wane, water brims only to overflow.

A full cup must be carried steadily.

By God’s grace, artistic creations are born between borrowing force to make force and playing God, which originates from destination–a circle that repeats round and round all the time.

dust2

In Chinese philosophy, Yin and yang are opposing forces which are interconnected giving rise to each other in turn.

By God’s grace, artistic creations are born between borrowing force to make force and playing God, which originates from destination- a circle that repeats all the time.

Portrait

Time, sentiments, condition, phenomena, even one’s own creation–hair, naturally form a sculpture with personal uniqueness.

Restoring the creation back to its creator, the portrait is endowed with fresh significance.

Courtesy of the artist, for further information please contact her via 1yiy1@live.cn or visit www.zhangyiy.com.

Chen Ran, detail of “The Last Generaton“, 2013
pure New Zealand wool, manually embroidered carpet, 272x192cm

Galerie Urs Meile Beijing is pleased to present Cheng Ran’s “The Last Generation”. The exhibition features a new body of works ranging from different media, such as literature, photography, video and installation. The title of the show draws its inspiration from the novel of the same name by the American writer Steffan Postaer. Cheng Ran moves between various visual languages, presenting interior worlds in an exceptionally poetic way – his artistic approach creates a subtle ambiguity that lies on the fragile relationship between visual language and text, time and space.

This exhibition centers on an original novel written by the artist, called Circadian Rhythm. During the time of the exhibition, a wooden structure in the shape of a spiral is installed in one of the gallery spaces, where the audience can read the novel in an environment that at first sight may seem unfamiliar, delivering at the same time the sense of a “reading room”. The leitmotifs of the novel are converted into objects realized in different media that develop into “non-existent” chapters and paragraphs, while the real space and the spiritual world interchange and support each other. In addition to this 150,000-character novel, excerpts from the book are handwritten on a collection of waste paper Cheng Ran collected in Amsterdam, Iceland, and at l’Ile de la Réunion in Africa, such as train tickets, concert tickets, receipts, etc. Different stories attached to this unusable paper and its origin consequently interweave, opening up a sequence relating to time and space.

Chen Ran, “The Last Sentence“, 2013; single-channel video(color-sound), 15′

One of the main video installations featured in the show is the single-channel video The Last Sentence (2013, single-channel video, color/sound, 15’), which was produced by Cheng Ran in Iceland. It displays unusual natural sceneries and elements on the road, in combination with conversations and music on the radio. In post-editing, the artist selected and rearranged dialogues from the classic movie Gone with the Wind (1939) as off-screen narration. Reality and virtual sound intertwine with the images, thus becoming ambiguous.

Throughout the exhibition, ready-made objects and artworks that have been altered by the artist take the audience into a parallel world. The structure of an imaginary hotel that includes lighting, wooden ornaments, and vintage key chains creates an alternative space, displaying those objects collected by Cheng Ran. Another arch-like construction hosts a series of drawings by anonymous artists in the Seventies found in flea markets in Amsterdam – once removed from the original context and displayed in the installation recreated for the show, the function of these objets trouvés is enhanced, thus giving a new dimension to these items. The artwork The Last Generation (2013, New Zealand pure wool manual embroidered carpet, 272 x 192 cm) weaves the opening section of Circadian Rhythm into a carpet. The artist takes as a reference the first paragraph of A Tale of Two Cities (1859) by Charles Dickens and turns each original sentence into its semantically negative meaning.

The novel Circadian Rhythm will be published in a limited edition in English and Chinese, and an exhibition brochure will be available in conjunction with the show.

Chen Ran, The Ashes of the Day, 2013; c-print, 134x200cm

Cheng Ran

Cheng Ran was born in Inner Mongolia in 1981 and is currently based in Hangzhou (China) and Amsterdam. He has participated in the Residency Artists Studio Project in the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam in Netherlands. This exhibition marks his third solo show at Galerie Urs Meile. Recent group exhibitions include ON|OFF: China’s Young Artists in Concepts and Practice at UCCA in Beijing (2013), The 1st CAFAM FUTURE at CAFA Art Museum in Beijing (2012). This year, Cheng Ran will take part in several international exhibitions, including the KINO DER KUNST film festival in Munich, Germany (April 24–28), and also the 26th European Media Art Festival in Osnabrück, Germany (April 24–28). Cheng Ran has also received a nomination for the “2013 Absolut Art Award”.

About the exhibition

Duration: May 11 – July 7, 2013

Opening: Saturday, May 11, 2013; 4 – 7 pm

Venue: Galerie Urs Meile Beijing

Address: No. 104 Caochangdi, Chaoyang district 100015 Beijing, China

Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Urs Meile Beijing, for further information please visit www.galerieursmeile.com or contact beijing@galerieursmeile.com.

Hosted by the Committee of Printmaking of the Chinese Artists Association, “Great Northern Wilderness – Retrospective Exhibition of Chao Mei’s Woodcut” opened at the Union Art Center in the 798 Art District, Beijing on April 20, 2013.

2013 is an active year that is themed around printmaking following on from the Chinese Printmaking Year of 2011, in addition to the international, national public exhibitions of printmaking, the Committee of Printmaking of the Chinese Artists Association organized a series of retrospective exhibitions of the older generation of artists that reviews the history of printmaking, from a new perspective.

Chao Mei, “ A Spring Night Among Wilderness”, 25 x 46 cm, 1958

Chao Mei, “Fighting Against Oil Sea”, 58 x 87 cm, 1974

Chao Mei, “First Footprints”, 30 x 36 cm, 1960

Chao Mei, “Pine Valley”, 60 x 83 cm, 1984

Chao Mei, “The Northern of September”, 42 x 62 cm

Born in Heze, Shandong Province in 1931, Chao Mei is a pioneer, founder, organizer and representative artist of the Great Northern Wilderness School. He has won lots of awards, including the Special Contribution Award for Outstanding Young and Middle-aged Experts of Heilongjiang Provincial Government, Gold Medal in the Contribution Awards of the Sino-Japan Art Exchange Center, World Award in Printmaking, Lifetime Achievement Award in the Chinese Cultural Development of Heilongjiang Province, Prominent Achievement Award in Artistic Exchanges in Michigan, USA, Lu Xun Award in Printmaking, Lifetime Achievement Award in the First Award of Literal and Art of Heilongjiang Province, Plastic Achievement Award of China 2006, Gold Award in the Sixth National Art Exhibition, Gold Award in the First Chinese Art Awards. In view of the artistic achievements of Chao Mei, people’s Government of Heze City, Shandong Province established “Chao Mei’s Exhibition Hall of Printmaking”, the first domestic personal printmaking art museum in 1992. “Chao Mei Art Museum” was established in the Jin Shangjing Historical Museum – Jin Dynasty Imperial ruins in Harbin in 2006.

Not only reflecting the passion to join the Great Northern Wilderness construction of the motherland at that important time, Chao Mei’s printmaking has also made a great contribution to the promotion of graphic art language. This is first solo exhibition of the artist in the 798 Art District.

About the exhibition

Title: “Great Northern Wilderness – Retrospective Exhibition of Chao Mei’s Woodcut”

Duration: April 20 – June 2, 2013

Opening: at 16: 00pm, on April 20, 2013 (Saturday)

Venue: Union Art Center in the 798 Art District, Beijing

Host: Committee of Printmaking of the Chinese Artists Association in cooperation with Shenzhen Guanlan Original Printmaking Industrial Base

Organizer: Beijing Union Art

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

Pablo Ruiz Picasso “Standing Woman”, sculpture,
42.5 x 17 x 10.5 cm, 1961

The exhibition features the evolutionary course of Spanish sculptures from the 20th century through to the current day, when it became separated from the preliminary pioneering aesthetic wave. At the same time, it offers a new perspective in thinking on the relationship between painting and sculpture, following on from these creative ideas, the viewers see the process of transformation from an idea to a three-dimensional plastic sculpture.

The selected representative sculptures are far away from the traditional principles and steps, a new sculptural art transformed by avant-garde concepts; abandoning the classic concepts, focusing on the expression of the three-dimensional concept, so becoming modern sculptural art. These works may lose their volume, their solidity, their mass, but due to the exposure to the abstract fine art element, a huge testing ground has expanded. With time the recent techniques have emerged, this experimentation also embraces some other fields such as installations and videos, enriching the finite form of sculpture.

Juan Gris, “Clown”, sculpture

Juan Muniz, “Sketch of Raincoat”, 125 x 102.5 cm, 1992(1993)

Eduardo Chillida Juantegui， “Dark Plane”, sculpture, 23 x 44.4 x 24.2 cm, 1956

Adolfo Schlosser, “Altar of the Sky”, sculpture, 6.5 x 74 x 74 cm, 1993

Salvador Dali, Hysteria, Streamlined Nude Woman”, sculpture, 26 x 40 x 13.5cm, 1934(1973)

Julio Gonzalez, “Character Called ‘Woan in the Mirror’”, sculpture,
51.5 x 12.3 x 14cm, 1934

Pablo Gargallo, “Bangs Girl”, sculpture, 17 x 10 x 4 cm,
sculpture, 1913(1914)

About the exhibition

Duration: April 21 – June 30, 2013

Venue: Hall 19 – 21, National Art Museum of China

Organizers: ICO, AC/E, Embassy of Spain in China, National Art Museum of China

Courtesy of the National Art Museum of China, for further information please visit www.namoc.org.

Translation: Chen Peihua/CAFA ART INFO

Artist’s Statement:

Whether there is avian influenza or not, we have been surrounded with a variety of viruses, we have no choice, no sense of security. We live in a blue funk and all that we can do is fight poison with poison.

Any work, can be the perception of life and an expression of the creators. Given that we live in such an environment and we endure such a kind of torture, experiencing this kind of helplessness, I can but portray it in the hope that this will strike a responsive chord in the hearts of its readers.

Xu Bing: From these delicately painted medical objects, I see the fatality and helplessness of every individual, from concept to technology, this sounds very interesting, worthy of thinking over.

Lu Hong: The success of Yanzi lies in that she has transformed her personal feelings into the specific language of art which arouses the interaction of the audience, a very valuable practice.

Xu Lei: Getting right down to the heart of matter through ink constitutes the unprecedented division in ink and wash painting history. Grounding the life illnesses from the ink-slab with iodine, he believes that everyone can identify with it, Zhang’s paintings penetrate into life in a more acute way rather than being pleasing. Pain is caused by the phenomena of nature and it’s a metaphor in itself. In the traditional context of ink and wash, all the testimony of medical equipment indicates not only the physiological treatment but also refers to the help available when in peril in the spiritual world.

Gu Zhenqing: Zhang Yanzi takes many daily objects as her subjects of experience through ink and wash, reproducing the taste provided in a form in a delicate sensitive way, which can be taken as a modern exploration of ink and wash. Actually the objects in her paintings include needle tubing, pills and viruses as the props of a fable. They represent no physical pain but are more like a spiritual allegory, conveying the concerns of humans with pain, approaching the ultimate concern of a religious nature.

About Zhang Yanzi

Born in Zhenjiang, Member of Chinese Artists Association

MFA in the Chinese Painting Department, Chinese Central Academy of Fine Arts, China

MFA in Modern Ink-colour Figure Painting, Department of Fine Arts, Capital Normal University, China

Now staff member in Chinese Central Academy of Fine Arts, China

Her work has been included in exhibitions such as: the 10th National Art Exhibition, 2005; the 2nd Beijing International Art Biennale, 2005; the 5th Traditional Chinese Painting Exhibition, 2007; Jinling Painting Exhibition of One Hundred Chinese Artists, 2007; Edinburgh Art Festival, 2011; the Cheju International Art Exhibition, 2011; Self-Image: Woman Art in China(1920-2010) Thematic Exhibition at CAFA Art Museum, 2011; Tour Exhibition of Contemporary Female Artists organized by Tree Museum, 2012; and Recurrence of Ink and Wash: 2000-2012 Chinese Contemporary Ink and Wash Invitation Exhibition, 2012.

Courtesy of the artist and CAFA ART INFO, for further information please visit www.zhangyanzi.com.

Detail: Celestial Music, mural from Mogao Cave 288 Western Wei dynasty (535-557), 52 x 522 cm Image courtesy of Dunhuang Academy

Dunhuang: Buddhist Art at the Gateway of the Silk Road

April 19 – July 21, 2013

Dunhuang, the western gateway to China, is one of the world’s most esteemed art shrines and cultural heritage sites. Dunhuang: Buddhist Art at the Gateway of the Silk Road will address art and ritual practices of the Northern dynasties (420-589) and the Tang dynasty (618-907). The exhibition will feature excavated art works, high relief clay figures, wooden sculptures, silk banners, and molded bricks. A group of treasured Buddhist sutras from the famous Cangjingdong (The Library Cave) will illustrate the story behind Dunhuang’s historic discovery. A magnificent replica of the 8th century cave that houses the beautiful Bodhisattva of the Mogao Grottoes and an illustrious central pillar from the 6th century will also be prominently displayed to recall the actual cave setting.

This exhibition is organized by China Institute Gallery and Dunhuang Academy under the direction of Willow Weilan Hai Chang and is curated by Fan Jinshi, Director of Dunhuang Academy.

This exhibition is made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and by the generous support of Blakemore Foundation, the E. Rhodes & Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation and China Institute Friends of the Gallery.

Yu Hong (b. 1966), Questions for Heaven, 2010; Acrylic on canvas, 500 x 600 cm

Inspired by Dunhuang: Re-creation in Contemporary Chinese Art

September 19 — December 8, 2013

Dunhuang’s tradition, with its timeless charm and depth, continues to invigorate artists, teachers and students in their quest for education, self-cultivation and artistic creation. Highlighting paintings and sculptures by a dozen modern and contemporary artists, Inspired by Dunhuang: Re-creation in Contemporary Chinese Art will explore the historical site’s profound influence on generations of artists beginning with master painter Zhang Daqian. Other artists to be featured in the exhibition include contemporary art luminaries such as Zhang Hongtu, Liu Jude, Liu Dan and Yu Hong.

This exhibition is organized by China Institute Gallery and co-curated by Willow Hai Chang, Director of China Institute Gallery, and Jerome Silbergeld, the P. Y. and Kinmay W. Tang Professor of Chinese Art History and Director of the Tang Center for East Asian Art at Princeton University.

This exhibition is made possible, in part, by the generous support of China Institute Friends of the Gallery.

Courtesy of China Institute in America, for further information please visit www.chinainstitute.org.

The fifth section: keyword “Art Education”

At 8:50 am, on April 7, the representative of Zhang Peng, Deputy Editor in Chief, and researcher of “Art Studies”, read her paper on “Yan Xiu and His Son and Modern Chinese Art Education”. Yan Xiu was a famous modern educator, scholar, and a pioneer that changed feudal education, advocating modern education. Zhang Peng had a detailed combing through and research of the activities of Yan’s, for example “enlighten the people and popularize art education”, “visit, propose and implementation of various museums and galleries in Tianjin”, Pan Yaochang said the study of the Yan’s family was of benefit for combing through the modern history of the National Beiping Art School, and filled with the awareness of problems, Yan can be recognized as an elite member of society of the time, we could find the thinking and consensus of the upper classes, recognizing modern art education,during the period of the Republic of China.

Then, Cao Qinghui, Deputy Director of the School of Humanity, CAFA, gave a speech themed “Preliminary Study of the Evolution of the Beijing Education System of Chinese Painting Study in the Period of the Republic of China”, which started from Xu Beihong carrying out the reform of the Chinese painting education, talking about the concept of progress to the value of Chinese painting: “Education of Chinese Painting”, as well as the theory of the decline and the improvements in Chinese Painting: “Realism”, etc. Pan Yaochang thought, “The System of Chinese Painting Study” was an important concept, Chinese painting had been reformed with the impact of Western realism and a selection of Chinese tradition, and the so-called Chinese paintings today are of Chinese character.

Wan Xinhua, an associate researcher from the Art Institute of the Nanjing Museum, gave a speech themed “About the Teaching of Chinese Painting of the Department of Arts of the Normal College, National Central University, he thought Xu Beihong’s status and role were deified by the people, and the interpretations of some historical events were distorted, which should be rectified, the intention of combing through the teaching activities of the Chinese painting was to restore the truth. Pan Yaochang agreed with his view and believed that there were many people contributing to the Nanjing Art Education of the period of the Republic of China, besides Xu Beihong. At the same time, Xu’s ideology and theory and the related practice had changed at different times.

Finally, Liu Libin, lecturer of the Institute of Fine Arts Study, CAFA, gave a speech themed “National Beiping Art School: the Development of Sculpture in the Period of the Republic of China – Appearing Events and the In-depth Meanings”, topics including the position of sculpture in Cai Yuanpei’s mind, Cai and Xu paying attention to sculptures, such as Hua Tianyou and Wang Linyi. Pan Yaochang appreciated Liu’s detailed collections.

The sixth section: keyword “Pattern of Teaching”

Yin Shuangxi, the executive editor and researcher of “Art Research”, CAFA, initially gave a speech “The Practical and Aesthetic – the Discipline of Pattern of the National Beiping Art School”, talking about the Westernized transformation of art Education and the application of mainstream art of the late Qing Dynasty. Yin Shuangxi emphasized the educational acts performed by Yan Zhikai (1894-1942), President of the National Beiping Art School, Tokyo Art School, and the early Chinese art education.

Subsequently, Zhou Bo, lecturer of the School of Design, CAFA, gave a lecture themed “Beijing Art School and the Beginning of Modern Chinese Design Education – Studying the Knowledge Around ‘Handouts of the Principles of Pattern’ of the Beijing Art School”.

Chou personally collected seven Handouts of the Principles of Pattern in the period of the Beijing College of Arts”, combing through and studying the relationships between Beijing Art School and the original modern Chinese design education in the perspectives of the transmission of knowledge and ideology.

Prof. Li Zhonghua, Vice President of the College of Art and Design, Hubei Engineering University, gave a speech: “Beijing mode” of the early Republic of China: Study of the Education of Pattern, combing through the development evolution of the design education “pattern – craft art – art design”, from the 20th century.

The seventh section: keyword “Oil Painting and Chinese Painting”

Prof. Li Gongming, from the Department of Art History, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, initially gave a lecture entitled “Xu Beihong’s Realism and the Transformation of Chinese Painting”, with the research topics: the relationships and differences between Xu Beihong’s realism art thinking and practice and the transformation movement of the Chinese painting since 1949; the evaluation of this phenomenon from the perspective of “the tradition of socialist art”.

Prof. Liu Xin, from Guangxi Arts Institute gave a lecture of “From the National to the Central – Rediscovery of the Northern Route and the Central Pattern for the Evolution of the Early Western Painting in China”, revealing the dominant status of the National Beiping Art School, for its location, and superior cultural environments.

Wu Xueshan, associate professor of the Minzu University of China, gave a speech: “New Chinese Painting” – Xu Beihong and the Appearance of the Emerging Writers”. Wu pointed out that Xu Beihong’s concept of “New Chinese Painting” “focused on forms and techniques, rarely the reform of the content”, which finally inevitably failed. However, the “emerging writers” left at the Beiping Art School, and the CAFA serve as the foundation of the Chinese Figure Painting.

Finally, Zhu Jingshen, an associate researcher at the National Academy of Arts, gave a speech themed: the Battle of the Ways – the Event of the Strike between Three Professor including Qin Zhongwen, Li Zhichao, and Chen Yuandu, with President Xu Beihong, and the Related Debate of Chinese Painting, which began on October 2, 1947.

Li Shusheng summarized the four speeches, and said that the mission of the students was very clear, it is to save the nation.

The eighth section: keyword “Collections and Design”

Cai Tao, associate researcher at the Institute of Art Study, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts initially gave a lecture entitled “The Battle of Art Propaganda between China and Japan in the early period of the Sino-Japan War – Talking from the ‘Sketch of Wuhan Mural Painting’ of Wang Shiguo in the collection of the CAFA Art Museum”,

Professor Xu Ping, Director of the Department of Graduate, CAFA, gave a speech on “A Group of Historical Images Which Couldn’t be Forgotten – People and Events of Graphic Design to the Early Revolution Activities of CPC.”

Finally, Ms. An Yongxin, deputy director of the Library of CAFA, gave a lecture entitled “It Will Not Go Well in the War, While the Great Artist Has Wonderful Works – Yazaki Chiyoda’s Artistic Career”, Yazaki Chiyoda was one of two Japanese teachers in CAFA’s history, and more than one thousand of his paintings are collected by CAFA Art Museum, An Yongxin believes that he was worthy of research.

Closing Ceremony

Yin Jinan and Wang Huangsheng gave a speech at the ceremony, presided over by Cao Qinghui, at 17:30, on April 7.

The end.

Photography: Hu Zhiheng/CAFA ART INFO

Journalists: Sun Tianyi, Yu Ya/CAFA ART INFO

Translated by Chen Peihua, edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

Initiated and organized by the School of Architecture, CAFA, “Chinese Media Architecture Discussion” was held at the Conference Room of Building 7, CAFA, on the afternoon of April 11, 2013. At the same time, it announced the epilogue of the media architectural studio course, initially placed in a teaching course of the schools of architecture across the nation, collaborated by CAFA and MAI (Media Architecture Institute) in the School of Architecture, CAFA.

The teachers of the media architecture course including three core members of MAI( Media Architecture Institute), as well as more than twenty expert professors, and noted entrepreneurs in the domestic industry of architecture and lighting were invited to present at the discussion, presided over by Prof. Chang Zhigang, Vice President of the School of Architecture, CAFA, who offered a brief introduction to the discussion and cooperation at the beginning of the discussion.

What is media architecture?

Dr. Hank, president of MAI, together with the founder Dr. Gernot who introduced the concept of media architecture and the related grand field to the guests, through a series of classic international cases, as well as the vitality and interaction which media architecture offers current social development, urban planning, and people’s lives.

Hank said media architecture was a cutting-edge discipline, a combination of lighting art, interactive media art, image art, architecture, machinery art, computer art, etc., in addition, architects, designers and artists can participate in the creation of their own professional background.

Subsequently, Alex Doss, a creative curator from Las Vegas, USA, introduced the ongoing program of development of the Valley of King by Dreamlighting.

What is the meaning of media architecture?

In the exchange part, Lv Pinjing, Vice President of the School of Architecture, CAFA, Prof. Song Xiewei, Vice President of the School of Design, Prof. Fang Zhenning, the famous architectural reviewer and international curator, Prof. Rong An, from the School of Architecture, respectively put forward their own views and questions on the definition of media architecture. How to make the academic and commercial symbiotic?

Subsequently, Feng Qing, Chairman of Dreamlighting Cultural Company and Ye Yufeng, Dean of Wanda Commercial Institute of Planning and Design, Mr Ye, Dean of Wanda Commercial Institute, Li Dong, Editor in Chief of “Architect” magazine, Yang Lanfang, Deputy General Secretary of the National Alliance of Semiconductor R & D and Industry, Zhang Fengyi, Chairman of Jinbaishuiqing Group, etc., gave a wonderful dialogue on the perspective of confrontation between commerce and art, the construction of enterprise and culture, and how to build an international vision.

Finally, Dr. Hank and Dr. Gernot gave a supplement to the discussion. Gernot believed that there should be a platform for enterprises and colleges to learn with each other and mutual support, with an international vision.

Journalist: Zhang Nuoran, translated by Chen Peihua/CAFA ART INFO

A Magnetic Space © Pierre Coulibeuf

Entitled “Enigma”, acclaimed French video artist Pierre Coulibeuf’s first solo exhibition was unveiled on April 12 at YUAN Space in Beijing. As a highlight of the 2013 Sino-French Culture Spring, the exhibition presents the artist’s exceptional videographies to explore a humanistic search into the conflicting worlds of the internal and the external that captures a profound sense of “French melancholy”.

Pierre Coulibeuf has been engaged with video art over the last two decades. Having directed more than 30 short and feature-length films, Coulibeuf’s works are adaptations of other genres of artistic expression, including, drawing, dance, performance, photography and literature. The artist has presented his work on many international film festivals, as well as presenting them as video installations (video-graphs) on exhibitions through the contemporary art network. His artworks are widely collected by various art museums today, and have become a critical vehicle in exploring contemporary European culture.

In his creative process, Coulibeuf is keen on adopting the virtual and distorted image to represent the relationship between fiction and reality. Among his works, the mirror, the white wall or the tangled bodily games allows the audience to be quickly immersed in an introspective atmosphere. Moreover, other artists’ works are also his constant source of inspiration. For example, the artworks in this exhibition are inspired by Pierre Klossowski, Jan Fabre and etc.

This exhibition is YUAN Space’s continuous experiment to focus on contemporary artists and the emerging artistic genres since its solo exhibition by Peruvian artist, Grimanesa Amorós in China in 2012. After its premiere in Beijing, the exhibition will travel to the Museum of Sichuan Academy of Art, Chongqing, on June 10th.

【Artworks】

Dédale © Pierre Coulibeuf

Dédale 2 © Pierre Coulibeuf

Dédale

This experimental fiction inspired by the universe of the Brazilian painter Iberê Camargo as well as Álvaro Siza’s building in Porto Alegre. The particular, labyrinthine shape of the building conceived by Álvaro Siza for the Iberê Camargo Foundation determined the actual form of Dédale. In the film, this building represents a mise en abyme.

A Magnetic Space © Pierre Coulibeuf

A Magnetic Space 2 © Pierre Coulibeuf

A Magnetic Space

Inspired by Canadian choreographer Benoît Lachambre’s universe, the work touches on the sphere of the supernatural. An interplay of multiple energies links the characters to the natural elements—air, water, plant and mineral—leading to strange, instinctual body movements. These characters move about in a magnetic space where corporal language takes the place of the verbal.

LE DEMON DU PASSAGE © Pierre Coulibeuf

Le Demon Du Passage

The film reconstructs fictitiously the chain of mental images that surge up from the visions of photographer Jean-Luc Moulène.

Delectatio morosa © Pierre Coulibeuf

Delectatio Morosa

The picture Delectatio Morosa has been created from a shot of Pierre Coulibeuf’s short film Klossowski, peintre-exorciste. It is emblematic of the artist’s works: as a matrix or a key concept for all the pictures made; the themes of double, becoming, multiple identity, play, work as a reflection or simulacrum, are the operators of Coulibeuf’s works.

About YUAN Space

“YUAN”, in traditional Chinese is referred to the origin of all beings. YUAN Space wishes to embrace art with passion of a newborn and to receive its visitors with the humility of a novice.

YUAN Space is a non-profit organization that aims to present art exhibition of the highest standard in order to offer its viewers rare opportunities of viewing masterpieces of art. Located at the city center of Beijing, its space occupies approximately 1,000 square meters. In order to guarantee an excellent viewing experience, the space has adopted the by-appointment-only model, to allow the beauty of the artworks be fully revealed in this outstanding exhibition condition. Besides its exhibitions, YUAN Space is also devoted to unveil the irreplaceable importance of these artworks in the history of art of the world through its series of public education programs.

Exhibition duration: April 13th – May 30th, 2013, 11:00-17:00 (Closed on Sunday & Monday, by appointment only)

YUAN Space address: 20th Floor, Tower B, Jiaming Center, No. 27 Eastern 3rd Ring Road North, Chaoyang District, Beijing

Courtesy of the artist and YUAN Space, for further information please visit www.yuanspace.cn.

In this exhibition entitled “Spur”, the recent works of Xiao Yu gravitate towards a simple feel of pain, which arises from the inner of the body. In his series of “Landscape”, he splices bones and articles, the cultural vestiges of which have been reduced. While the two firmly rely on each other, they seem to be in a risky relation from the very beginning: the vase, gripped by the bone, suspended in the air, is almost out of control. The art piece resumes its principle of duality inherent to all materials from which emerges a symbolic dialogue reminding us of this constant issue. In series of “Untitled”, he spliced the facial features of different people into a new anonymous face. Portraits of spectators powerless in front of a reality shaped by superior forces, beyond the reaches of artistic will.

About the exhibition

Title: Spur

Duration: April 19 through July 15, 2013

Curator: Cui Cancan

Venue: FEIZI Gallery

Address: 8B rue de L’Abbaye 1050, Brussels, Belgium

Tel: +32 473 91 85 06 (Brussels)

Courtesy of the artist and Feizi Gallery, for further information please visit www.feizi-gallery.com.

AIKE-DELLARCO is pleased to announce the solo project ‘Lift with Care’ by Hu Yun, opening April 13th and on view until April 30th 2013. In recent years Hu Yun delves into different kinds of subjects, intertwining historical narration with individual experiences, adopting an interdisciplinary approach. In this project, the artist composes a narrative structure that combines the true recounts of the expedition led by a foreign explorer, which took place in Southern China during the ’30s, with the personal recollection of the memories and experiences of the artist’s grandfather.

Hu Yun, born in 1986 in Shanghai, lives and works in Shanghai. He graduated from China Academy of Art. Hu had a three months artist-residency in the Natural History Museum London in collaboration with GASWORKS in 2010, and final outcome of residency project was on display in the Natural History Museum through out 2011. His project A Natural History Research, begun in 2011, is a continuing project that uses different objects to fuse aspects of his personal encounter, the forming of the system and the colonial past with myths and historical truths. Hu had his first solo exhibition in Magician Space in Beijing 2010; his works have also been exhibited at the 7th Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale (2012) and 4th Guangzhou Triennial (2012). He is co-founder of the independent art e-journal PDF and Youth Sale Store, artists initiated pop up project.

About the exhibition

Venue: AIKE-DELLARCO main space | F2, Bldg 1, 50 Moganshan Rd, Shanghai

Exhibition dates: April 13 – 30, 2013

Tel: +86 21 52527164

Email: shanghai@aikedellarco.com

Courtesy of the artist and AIKE-DELLARCO, for further information please visit www.dearco.it.

Jointly hosted by School of Humanities and Art Museum of CAFA, Academic Discussions of “National Beiping Art School and Fine Art of the Republic of China”, were held at the Academic Lecture Hall of the CAFA Art Museum, from April 6 – 7, 2013. It was co-organized by Professor Yin Jinan, Dean of School of Humanities, CAFA, Associate Professor Cao Qinghui, Deputy Director of the Department of Art History, and Wang Huangsheng, Curator of CAFA Art Museum. Twenty-seven noted scholars were invited to speak, eight scholars served as commentors in the academic discussions, together with an academic report of the overview on the memories of the Period of National Beiping Art School and Fine Art of the Republic of China, revealing the latest research achievements.

The meeting officially began at 8:50 on April 6, Pan Gongkai, Yin Jinan and Wang Huangsheng, addressed at the ceremony, and said the discussion brought together various academic strengths, was a gift to commemorate the ninety-fifth anniversary of CAFA, a contribution for combing through the history of CAFA, the macro construction of the history of art.

The First section: keyword “Early Faculty”

Chen Jichun, a teacher from the Art Institute of Macau initially spoke: “Preliminary Discovery of Cheng Kam’s Career in Japan”. Cheng Kam studied and lived in Japan before serving as the president of Beijing School of Fine Arts, and he had combed through his experiences before his return to China. Commenter Xue Yongnian said this report departed from the historical data, so corrected some existent errors, filling in the blanks of the research of Cheng Kam in Japan.

Then, Lang Shaojun, from the National Academy of Arts gave a lecture entitled “Xiao Junxian, Director of the Department of Chinese Painting, National Beiping Art School”, who was unknown in the research on the history of art, and his position was generally underestimated. Lang analyzed the background of his serving as the teacher of the Discipline of Chinese Painting of the National Beiping Art School from 1918 to 1928 and his personality. He thought Xiao had his own personal style, and had a close relationship with the Chen Shizeng’s family, which should be paid attention to. Xue Yongnian agreed to his views but the lack of material prevented everything being confirmed.

This was followed by Zheng Gong, from the National Academy of Arts, who gave a lecture entitled “The Details of the Painting – ‘Chen Shizeng’s Portrait’ and ‘Wang Mengbai’s Portrait’ by Li Yishi”. Starting from the two works painted at the same period, Zheng hoped to study the development of the history of art from the social relations of the art circle in the Republic of China. He believed that various styles would be digested by the communication, and by gathering a new circle for the same hobby, to affect the style and the creation path of the artists. Xue Yongnian admired his novel approach, and clear thinking, but had a question about “The Five Contemporary Masters of Seal”, and Zheng accepted his valuable advice.

The second section: keyword “Painting Circle and Teachers”

Liu Xilin, from the National Art Museum of China, gave a lecture entitled “Two Events in the History of National Beiping Art School”. From a letter from Wang Ziyun, teacher of National Beiping Art School, he talked about two student strikes in the school, analysis of “pseudo art school”, he thought it was a fault to entitle the school this name under the rule of the puppet regime, preferring “art school left behind”. Lang Shaojun agreed to his view, and admitted the word “pseudo” really provoked controversy in the political cultural history, which we should pay attention to, at the same time, he pointed out that it was necessary to research oral history, which Liu should continue to carry out an in-depth study.

Subsequently, Hang Chunxiao, from China National Academy of Arts, gave a lecture entitled “The imagination and expression of the character ‘Guo/ County’ – Fu Xinshe’s ‘Self-assume’ and ‘Subject Reconstruction’”. He mainly applied the concept of the division in Western linguistics, to study the subject imagination of Fu Xinshe, a painter as one of the adherents of the broken royal family, and we can see the change in the concepts of “Guo/Country” in his mind, from the letters he wrote to Chen Shizeng, as well as the poetry inscription of the late paintings in his later years.

Then, Hua Tianxue, from the China National Academy of Arts, lectured “Xu Beihong in 1949”, analyzing the files of the National Beiping Art School in 1949, she found that although Xu Beihong reserved his status after the liberation, he had no real power, since then, the art education was mainly in the control of the regime of CPC, therefore, the position of Xu Beihong in the history of art education is worthy of discussion again.

Lang Shaojun approved of the latter speakers who had new ideas and innovation, Liu used a new method to study art history, using a lot of effort to collect first-hand information, which was very valuable, while Hua had the confidence to challenge the tradition, starting from files, providing us with a new idea of study.

The third section: keyword “History of the School and Painting Circle”

First of all, Pan Yaochang, from the College of Fine Arts, Shanghai University gave a lecture “Revising the history in the golden age – is the history of the academy ready?”, comparing CAFA and Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (now China Academy of Art), he proposed several major issues during revising the history, including the inherited relationships, the first presidents, as well as the process of the history of the Cultural Revolution. Liu Xilin, as the commenter, agreed to answer several questions, which he believed were very enlightening.

Then, Peng Fei, from Guangdong Zhanjiang Normal University, gave a report on “National Beiping Art School and Beijing Art Circle in the Republic of China”, fully departed from historical data, from a macro perspective, combing through it from the categories of discipline, overseas study, research institute, works, exhibitions and etc., briefly summarized the situation of the schools and painting circles at the time.

Subsequently, Chen Ruilin, from the Academy of Art & Design, Tsinghua University, gave a lecture on “Resurrection Movement of Chinese Painting, National Beiping Art School, Qi Baishi and the construction of PRC”, he believed that the resurrection movement of Chinese painting was the natural reaction impacted on by foreign culture, rather than a simple regression. Taking the communication between Qi Baishi and the foreigners for example, revealing that Chinese paintings were impacted on by the Western style. Liu believed that art circles were not the only place influenced by foreign factors, that he suggested that Chen could find a new perspective to research it.

Finally, Zhang Tao, from “Art Studies” had a lecture “Qi Baishi and National Beiping Art School”, he gradually analyzed the artistic career of Qi Baishi on the basis of Qi Baishi’s chronology, by comparing the changes in the living standards and attitudes, summing up Qi’s desire for material, which was unknown. Liu praised the angle of this article, but didn’t agree that Qi Baishi had the same status to Jiang Feng, Xu Beihong, etc.

The fourth section: keyword “Resources and Works”

Li Chao, from the College of Fine Arts, Shanghai University, initially made a speech on “Zhang Xian and National Beiping Art School – the Resource Issues of the “Boundary of the South and North of the Modern Chinese Art”, by analyzing of the records of Zhang Xian by his friend Pang Xunqin and Fu Lei, he found a large number of data on the different regions of the South and the North, he pointed out that when analyzing the data, we should pay attention to the different regions of them, revealing an artist of the Republic of China. Chen Ruilin reaffirmed his idea, but questioned his saying of “boundary of the South and the North”, which was related to cultural psychology.

Then, Mo Ai, from the College of Fine Arts, Capital Normal University, made a speech entitled “Viewing Again and Understanding of Xu Beihong’s Exploration in the Early Republic of China”, with the analysis of the development context of Xu Beihong’s Chinese paintings and oil paintings, she recognized that his oil painting had once influenced his Chinese painting, but eventually gave up his favorite Western painting experience in a social context.

Finally, Wu Hongliang from Beijing Fine Art Academy, gave a report entitled “I Search for What I have – About the Works and Life of Sun Zongwei”, his works were of a unique style and contemporary, always reflecting a simple artistic ideal, but because of his individual character, he did not do well in teaching. Chen said Mo and Wu created innovative studies.

To be continued…

Photography: Hu Zhiheng/CAFA ART INFO

Journalists: Sun Tianyi, Yu Ya/CAFA ART INFO

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

The Ullens Center for Contemporary Art is proud to present DUCHAMP and/or/in CHINA, an exhibition featuring works by Marcel Duchamp and Chinese artists influenced by his work. The exhibition centers on Duchamp’s Boîte-en-valise, a “portable museum” consisting of miniature reproductions of his key works, shown for the first time in Beijing. Literally translated “box in a suitcase” this work serves as a centerpiece for the exhibition, with additional context provided by related Duchamp works and works by Chinese artists. Taking its title from the subtitle of the boîte-en-valise itself (“by or of Marcel Duchamp or RroseSelavy”), this exhibition is both the most comprehensive exhibition of Duchamp’s work yet mounted in China, and an investigation into Duchamp’s lingering influence on the development of contemporary art in China.

While the Boîte-en-valise will take center stage in the UCCA Long Gallery, it will be flanked by 30 other works by Duchamp, as well as works by more than 15 Chinese artists including Huang Yong Ping, Wu Shanzhuan, Wang Luyan, Song Dong, Lee Kit, and Ai Weiwei. The exhibition is curated by Francis Naumann and John Tancock, two New York-based scholar-curators who together have a deep knowledge of Duchamp and a strong understanding of contemporary Chinese art. On the selection of artists for the exhibition, Tancock notes that the artists featured are those who have “clearly demonstrated their interest in Duchamp or whose work seems to be in fundamental sympathy with his aims and methods”. Duchamp’slegacy is so various and far-reaching it would be impossible to provide a complete survey of his impact on Chinese art. This exhibition seeks to shedlight on the ways in which some of the questions raised by Duchamp’s work and central to the very ideas of modernity and conceptual art have travelled and been translated through the 20th and 21st centuries.

DUCHAMP and/or/in CHINA is presented in collaboration with the InstitutFrançais de Chine (IFC) as part of the 2013 Croisements festival.

THE BOX IN A VALISE

The Boîte-en-valise was begun in 1935 and completed in 1941. It was produced in an edition of 300 examples, but released in various formats through the remaining years of Duchamp’s life, the edition finally completed after his death in 1968 by his widow, Alexina. The first 20 boxes in the edition were all placed in a leather suitcase hence the name, Box in a Valise, and considered “deluxe” because they each contain a unique item. The edition being presented at UCCA is notable for the bright red leather of the box, and contains 80 reproductions of different Duchamp works. A number of works reproduced for the valise will also be shown in other forms in this exhibition, including both an aquatint and pochoir version of Duchamp’s Bride, and a pochoir version of Nude Descending a Staircase – a painting that caused great controversy when it appeared at the first Armory Show in New York in 1913, exactly a century ago. The pochoir method was used to make the reproductions for the valise, but separate hand-colored prints were also produced for sale in order to help fund the project.

In total, 31 Duchamp works will be shown, ranging from reproductions of paintings to magazine covers featuring ingenious typographic work and striking prints. Duchamp often asked the publishers of the art and literary magazines he designed for to run off extra rounds of copies for collection in his “museum”. Etchings and posters from historic exhibitions complete the array of Duchamp pieces that will be shown at UCCA.

AND/OR/IN?

Duchamp’s legacy in China is discernible both in terms of the take-up and development of specific ideas that his art put forward, as well as in echoes of his lifestyle and attitude to work that can be traced in the practice of certain contemporary artists.

In the 1980s, as China began to engage with the art history of the Western twentieth century, artists like Wu Shanzhuan and Huang Yong Ping found direct inspiration in Duchamp. Huang Yong Ping, who founded a Duchampian collective called Xiamen Dada in the mid-1980s before emigrating to Paris, reflected in 1987 that, “Only now am I really able to understand the state of mind that made Duchamp say, ‘The traditional idea of the painter with his brush, his palette, his turpentine, is an idea which has already disappeared from my life.’ This is a revolutionary and irreversible change for me.”

Another artist who has repeatedly revisited Duchamp’s legacy throughout his career is Ai Weiwei. Exposed to Duchamp during his decade-long sojourn in New York (1983-1993), Ai Weiwei has remarked that “The entire value of any work of art is only ever conceptual. After Duchamp, the existence of any art, its value, is entirely conceptual. Duchamp brought a new concept to modern art.”

During the 1990s and early 2000s, a subsequent generation of Chinese artists including Yan Lei, Song Dong, and Zheng Guogu continued to mine Duchamp’s influence. Yan Lei, who shows a painting from his ‘Covers’ series depicting Duchamp’s Fountain as rendered on the cover of a Taschen monograph—an appropriation of an appropriation—and Zheng Guogu, who transformed a series of ordinary plastic bottles into brass at the turn of the twenty-first century, both echoing Duchamp’s famous ‘bottle rack’ readymade and his sense of punnery with the title ‘Let it Rust for another 2000 Years’.

Duchamp’s legacy has also served as the inspiration for performances, some of which have directly engaged his works. In 2000, the artists Cai Yuan and Xi Jianjun staged a performance at the Tate Modern where they urinated on Duchamp’s iconic readymade, Fountain, restoring the object to its original purpose. Wu Shanzhuan, for his part, realized a similar performance eight years earlier in Stockholm, Sweden. Meanwhile in Shanghai in 2004, a group of artists including Xu Zhen, Yang Zhenzhong, and Shi Yong staged a project titled “Dial 62761232 Courier Exhibition” for which numerous artists created works small enough to be fit into a single suitcase and transported around Shanghai by a courier, in a contemporary take on the Bôite-en-valise.

Even more recently, a younger group of artists including Zhao Zhao, Lee Kit, and Taca Sui have reflected on Duchamp, incorporating his influence into more meditative works. Some three decades after Duchamp’s work was first introduced to China in early translations of Western art historical tomes, his life and work remain of deep interest to artists and intellectuals here.

The artists to be featured in DUCHAMP and/or/in CHINA are as follows: Marcel Duchamp (born 1887, Blainville-Crevon, France, d. 1968, New York),  Huang Yong Ping (born 1954, Xiamen, Fujian Province), Wang Xingwei (born 1969, Shenyang, Liaoning Province), Wang Luyan (born 1956, Beijing), Wu Shanzhuan (born 1960, Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province), Zheng Guogu (born 1970, Yangjiang, Guangdong Province), Yan Lei (born 1965, Hebei Province), Polit-Sheer-Form:Song Dong (born 1966, Beijing), Xiao Yu (born 1965, Inner Mongolia), Leng Lin (born 1965, Beijing), Hong Hao (born 1965, Beijing), Liu Jianhua (born 1962, Ji’an, Jiangxi Province)

The artists and curators involved in the 2004 DIAL 62761232, Courier Exhibition are as follows: Lee Kit (born 1978, Hong Kong), Taca Sui (born 1984, Qingdao, Shandong), Ai Weiwei (born 1957, Beijing), Wang Jun-Jieh (born 1963, Taipei, Taiwan), Cai Yuan (born 1956) + Xi Jianjun (born 1962), Zhao Zhao (born 1982, Xinjiang Province) and Song Dong + Yin Xiuzhen (born 1963, Beijing).

About the curators

Francis M. Naumann is an independent scholar, curator and gallery owner, specializing in the art of the Dada and Surrealist periods. He is author of numerous articles, exhibition catalogues and books, including New York Dada 1915-25 (Harry N. Abrams, 1994), Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Making Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (Harry N. Abrams, 1999), Wallace Putnam (Harry N. Abrams, 2002) and, most recently, Conversion to Modernism: The Early Work of Man Ray (Rutgers University Press, 2002). In 1996, he organized “Making Mischief: Dada Invades New York” for the Whitney Museum of American Art, and in 1997, “Beatrice Wood: A Centennial Tribute” for the American Craft Museum in New York. His most recent book is The Recurrent, Haunting Ghost: Essays on the Art, Life and Legacy of Marcel Duchamp (Readymade Press, 2012). He currently owns and operates his own gallery in New York City, which specializes in art from the Dada and Surrealist periods, as well as work by contemporary artists who possess related aesthetic sensibilities.

John L. Tancock received his MA from Downing College, Cambridge in 1967 and his PhD from the Courtauld Institute, University of London in 1967 for “The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin.” From 1967 to 1972 he was Associate Curator and Curator of the Rodin Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art. From 1972 to 2008 he was employed by Sotheby’s in New York, first as Director of Contemporary Art from 1972 to 1977, then as Director of the department of Impressionist and Modern Painting from 1977 to 1993. He was President of Sotheby’s Japan from 1993 to 1995, and also from 2005 to 2006. During his career at Sotheby’s he was actively involved in many of the landmark sales of the period, from the Robert Scull auction in 1973 to the sale of Vincent van Gogh’s Irises for the then record of $53.9 million, and the 1990 sale of Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Au Moulin de la Galette for $78.1 million.Since leaving Sotheby’s,he is a Director of Chambers Fine Art New York and Beijing.

Courtesy of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, for further information please visit ucca.org.cn.

The concept of “Climate Theatre” originated from a crazy plan about weather forecasting envisaged by Lewis Fry Richardson, a British scientist during the First World War. Shielded inside a theatre-like structure, global weather could be instantly computed and analysed from the data of more than sixty thousand people. Usually,“climate” is used metaphorically as a synonym for complexity and uncertainty, the exact qualities in contemporary art system to be rediscovered and reactivated in this project. Shi Qing attempts to put “climate” as a third party or unexpected conflicts introduced into his project, which is penetrated and internalised into the entire practice. Corresponding to such climate, “terrain”, namely the microenvironment of Cao Chang Di,is treated as both subject and context of observation and interposition and interacts with the organisation and reproduction of regional spaces.The purpose of this project is not to get the models of live or fictional participation,but constantly emphasis on the mechanism for action involving with an outsider and the tripartite partnership among action, living space and art producing. “Climate” in living environments is both rhetorical and practical.

This new project will be on view at 4 p.m. on 18th May, 2013 in ShanghART Beijing and runs until 18th June. Additionally, it will be preluded by a string of practice in form of art events in Cao Chang Di and surrounding areas. What we see in galleries’ presentation are normally only some parts of the entire art producing, whereas the complexity in art lies in art’s conflicts with systems and art itself.

Shi Qing, born in 1969 in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, lived and worked in Beijing for almost two decades before moving to Shanghai. A selection of major exhibitions in which Shi Qing has participated includes: Reactivation – 9th Shanghai Biennale 2012, Power Station of Art, Shanghai (2012); Santa Fe Biennale U.S.A. (2008); Guangzhou Triennial (2005); Prague Biennale, Czech Republic (2005); Busan Biennale Korea (2004). Recent solo exhibitions include: All That Is Solid Melts into Air-SHI Qing Solo Exhibition, ShanghART H-Space, Shanghai (2012); Flower & Bird View of Proletarian, SHI Qing’s studio, Shanghai(2010); Halfway House, SHI Qing Solo Exhibition, ShanghART Beijing (2009); When Zhuge Liang Meets Panda, A New Project by SHI Qing, ShanghART F-Space, Shanghai(2007); Electricity, BizART, Shanghai(2006) etc.

Courtesy of the artist and ShanghART Gallery, for further information please visit www.shanghartgallery.com.

The Rockbund Art Museum of Shanghai is proud to celebrate the creative and privileged links that unite the visual arts and the practice of writing in China and in Asia.

Pascal Torres, curator of the Chalcography department at Louvre, and Larys Frogier, director of the Rockbund Art Musum, have joined forces to conceive of the exhibition From Gesture to Language. Assembling numerous works originating from the contemporary collection of the Chalcography department in the Louvre as well as major pieces commissioned specially for the show or else stemming from other collections, the exhibition proposes a journey that links up powerful visual and textual constructions in international contemporary art.

The exhibition accords a special interest to “anachronism”, which is to say the manner in which classical, modern, and contemporary works can match with each other — often in unexpected ways — thereby enriching their interpretation and broadening their historical perspectives.

The exhibition From Gesture to Language makes the connection between conceptual art and traditional techniques of creation in the plastic arts. If the concept in all works of plastic art is expressed in form, can we abstract the materiality of the work in order to allow for the spectator’s reading of merely the concept structuring the work of art? Choosing a simple concept for the object of representation brings up a question of principle: can the plastic artist let the form of his/her work take a back seat in allowing for the reading of the message contained in his/her work by means of mere words? Is Bruce Naumann’s neon lettering or Jenny Holzer’s monumental projections first of all books before being objects destined for the sight?

It is well and truly clear that all classical works, beyond their formal or even figurative appearance, only exist abstractly and mentally as a structured work — “Painting is a thing of the mind,” said Leonardo da Vinci or Nicolas Poussin. Thus nothing new, so far.… As for the relation between works of classical art and reading, it is so natural that the educated public does not intend to see or even look at a painting, but rather to read it. It is in this intellectualised conception of art where it is necessary to look for the foundation to the approach of conceptual artists.

From Gesture to Language intends to confront conceptual creation against the yardstick of another approach that has profoundly questioned creation in the plastic arts within the 20th century: Minimalism and Arte Povera. An approach whose final end also was to reduce the work of art to the structure that underlies it. Neither letter nor word, but the ordering of pure form like new primordial elements of a universe in gestation; in this way one must understand the presence of François Morellet’s red Lamentation.

The high point of these plastic reflections comes to flirt, in our exhibition, with the book and the engraved prints. Book objects — such as Xu Bing’s installation devoted to Saint-John Perse’s poem The Order of Birds, or Salazar’s Kafkaesque narrative dedicated to The Trial, or the collection of engravings that the Qianlong Emperor addressed to the