2009-12-30 17:13
ShanghART Gallery
Jan. 11 - Feb. 28, 2010
ShanghART Gallery 796
No.796 Middle Huaihai Lu, Shanghai
ShanghART at 796 Huai Hai Lu is pleased to present a special project curated and conceptualized by MadeIn, a newly founded art collaborative initiated by Xu Zhen. On view will be an exquisite selection of works in a wide variety of media – installation, drawing, painting, and collage – representing a compellingly diversified perspective of contemporary Chinese art. The works take on history, politics, and the everyday; approaches informed as much by reality as by fiction.
Following MadeIn’s successful debut earlier this year, the art agency now extends its curatorial practice by staging a never-seen-before series of mixed-media installations titled Spread (2009). Consisting of various materials and fabrics, these tactile works indicate a playful turn from painting in favor of the three-dimensional object. Here, the structures are fluid; Sometimes the contour of the depictions deliberately breaks up, morphing into sculpture in thick gaudy textures. The intentionally clichéd and controversial imagery of these works mimics satirical cartoons, referencing today’s politics, with special affinity to foreign affairs. MadeIn combines a dazzling array of quotations and images to create visual cacophony while challenging and undermining any pretensions toward current politics. The use of stylized images borrowed from pop culture lends these works a surprising modesty.
Cartoon style takes on an even more biting edge in the series of works Metal Language (2009) that consist of ‘silver’ and ‘gold’ chains formed into speech bubbles which contain slogan-like one-liners. By appropriating and borrowing messages and rhetorical devices of mass media, public service announcements, and news reports these works prompt a critical approach to information.
A selection of the works on display premiered this December at Art Basel Miami Beach 09, the most important art show in the United States, a cultural highlight for the Americas and a sister event of Switzerland's Art Basel, the most prestigious art show worldwide for the past 40 years. ShanghART became the initial gallery from China participating in this major international art fair.
MadeIn Ltd. Is an art agency (initiated by conceptual artist Xu Zhen) based in Shanghai that specializes in staging art related projects. MadeIn’s curatorial practice debuted September 2009 with two extensive exhibitions featuring contemporary art from the Middle East at venues in New York City and Shanghai, respectively James Cohan Gallery and ShanghART.
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