ShanghART Gallery Syndication

We are Perfect - Zhu Jia Solo Exhibition

PRESS RELEASE

We are Perfect – Zhu Jia Solo-Exhibition

Opening Reception: Sunday, May 25^th 2008, 6-8 pm

Exhibition: May 26^th – June 10^th, 2008

Venue: ShanghART Gallery H-space, 50 Moganshan Rd., Bldg 18, Shanghai

T: +86-21-6359 3923

F: +86-21-6359 4570

info@shanghartgallery.com

Daily 1-6 pm (Closed on Mondays)

It is a great pleasure to be able to present Zhu Jia’s first exhibition at ShanghART Gallery.

The show will feature video works showing the artist’s continuous experimentation and development within this medium, including his newest three-channel video-installation ‘We are Perfect’ (2008). In this, close-ups of expression-less, but immaculate, faces are shown continuously, starring back at the audience from three large screens. The projections directly create an immediate and unsettling impact, and one might ask ‘Who is starring at who?’ Being confronted by these enlarged facial features, questions regarding the title itself may also arise: Who is perfect? What is perfection? Is it a question of physicality, spirit, or imagination? Perhaps the artist is merely yearning over the ‘perfect’ heroism of the past. The ambiguous approach to perfectionism is a theme often found in Zhu Jia’s previous work.

The latest work continues Zhu Jia’s usual style, which contain a particular interest and focus on the inter-action between the audience and the image, i.e. between the viewer and the viewed. Zhu Jia’s previous works include ‘Forever’ (1994), ‘Did they have sex?’ (1995), ‘Repeat on purpose’ (1996), ‘Related to environment’ (1997), ‘Never take off’ (2002), and ‘New land’ (2005). As one of the most interesting of the Chinese video artists, Zhu Jia’s videos and photography focus on depicting and distorting images of humans, everyday realities and environments

Zhu Jia was born in 1963 in Beijing, and graduated from China Central Academy of Fine Arts - Oil Painting Department in 1988. He lives and works in Beijing now. He has exhibited at many major art institutions, such as National Art Museum of China (Beijing), Duolun Museum of Modern Art (Shanghai), National Museum of Contemporary Art (Seoul, Korea), Museo Colecciones ICO (Madrid, Spain), Netherlands fotomuseum (The Netherlands), La Parvis centre d’art contemporain (Pau, France), 50^th International Art Exhibition Venice Biennale (Venice, Italy), The museum of modern art (MOMA, New York, U.S.A), The Photographers’ Gallery and Asia House (London, U.K.).

For further exhibitions news and artists information, please visit www.shanghartgallery.com

For high resolution images, please contact Miss Helen Zhu at helen@shanghartgallery.com 2008-05-09 13:26

Tai Ping You Xiang - Zeng Fanzhi Solo-Exhibition 2008

Tai Ping You Xiang - Zeng Fanzhi Solo-Exhibition June-Sept 2008

Date: May 24 – September 2, 2008
Venue: ShanghART Beijing, No. 261 Cao Chang Di, Old Airport Road, Beijing 100015, China
Tel: +86 10 6432 3202
Fax: +86 10 6432 4395
E-mail: infobj@shanghartgallery.com
Opening hours: 11am – 6 pm (Closed on Mondays)

’Tai Ping You Xiang – Zeng Fanzhi at Shanghart Beijing’

’Tai Ping You Xiang’ is the title of a recent work by Zeng Fanzhi featuring a peaceful young elefant entering a Zeng Fanzhi signature landscapes. It is also the title of the exhibition at ShanghART’s Beijing gallery space during the whole summer of 2008.

’Tai Ping You Xiang’ originates from a poem by ancient Chinese poet Lu You (southern Song dynasty, 1125-1210). It means peace, stability and happiness. ‘Xiang’ is elephant in English, it shares a same sound with ‘auspicious’ in Chinese; therefore, it symbolizes auspiciousness in traditional customs. The traditional pattern is a picture of an elephant carrying a vase on its back, and the water in the vase can bring good fortune to people and is a symbol of peace.

The painting techniques adopted in the new work are the same as Zeng Fanzhi’s series of landscape paintings and tend to be more peaceful, and the colours are lively and show a kind of incompatible tension. In this series of paintings, Zeng Fanzhi gradually weakened the uncertainty of the landscape itself, and tried to redefine the paintings from a deeper point of view especially the perspective of Chinese traditional culture. Under the background of the vanity of the society, the painting itself is expected to return to the nature.

In the beginning of his artistic career in the late 80’s, Zeng Fanzhi painted apocalyptic and expressionist images, and manipulated effects of modern composition to intensify the falseness of the reality. The over-sized and spastic hands, the subjects of his representational work, look even more remarkable than their unmeaning faces and wide-open eyes. The later works of Zeng Fanzhi – ‘Mask’ series was very well-known and a turning point of his individual aesthetics expression. In this series, all of the portraits are wearing white masks which are tied so closely with their facial features that masks almost become transparent. These characters are shown with nervousness and fear, as if they are the victims of their own roles. Through the theme of ‘Mask’ series, Zeng Fanzhi presents a real world without security. Then in his following landscape paintings, he is still expressing the same concept – eternal escape as though an attempt to redefine and analyze the dream world from the inner heart. Fragility and vulnerability are also included in the notion of these paintings, which are like trying to create a kind of uncertainty that seize individual characters and landscape depiction. These art works reveal a certain degree of enlightenment and reflect the artist’s splendid painting skills.

Zeng Fanzhi was born in 1964 in Wuhan Province, and studied oil painting at the Wuhan Art Academy. Now he lives and works in Beijing. Zeng Fanzhi has exhibited at many major art institutions in China and around the world. His recent solo exhibitions include the Singapore Art Museum and the Musee Saint-Etienne in France.

For further exhibitions news and artists information, please visit www.shanghartgallery.com
For high resolution DPI images, please contact Miss Helen Zhu at helen@shanghartgallery.com or infobj@shanghartgallery.com

2008-05-05 18:30

China 1946-1949 - Zhou Zixi's solo exhibition

H-Space, bldg. 18, 50 Moganshan Rd., Shanghai, China

April 18th-May 15th, 2008 , opening time: 1pm-6pm (Monday closed)

Zhou Zixi’s new compelling series of paintings 1946-1949 (created in 2007/2008) evoke complex metaphors of history and nostalgia. In these, Zhou Zixi exploits the power of nostalgia to create images that reflect the artist’s memory of a childhood flooded by depictions of China’s civil war between the nationalists and the victorious communists (1946-1949). His work moves with startling ease between contemporary interpretations of these past classic icons in bright primary colors to dark scenes that allude to the menacing weight of history.

The common strand that runs through these two extremes is a powerful ideology that equalizes all subjects. His aim is to trigger an unframed, unexpected visual encounter. The effect is not imposed on the spectator; on the contrary, the work offers a willfully ambivalent approach, open to a variety of interpretations.

Zhou Zixi’s recent paintings oscillate between high art and kitsch, integrating a visual language that is particularly crude due to the banality of nostalgia. What we see in these pictures are spaces filled with anachronistic images of distant historical realities. Rather than a calming notion of history, these paintings depict the external manifestation of China’s chaotic development. While his paintings might be a serious take on many of society’s less attractive features, some images also pay surprising tribute to the power and fascination of history, a practice that also underscores the sentiment that contemporary art is integral to the logic of the past.

Zhou Zixi was born in Jiangxi province in 1970. He graduated in 1989 with a degree in literature. He currently lives and works in Shanghai. Recent exhibitions include China Power Station: Part II, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art (Oslo, 2007), Energy, Today Art Museum (Beijing, 2007), Individual Positions I, ShnghART H-Space (Shanghai, 2007), Future Landscapes, Duolun Museum of Modern Art (Shanghai, 2006), Interiors – Zhou Zixi, Büro Friedrich (Berlin, 2006), Under the Blue Sky, Grace Li Gallery (Zürich, 2006) and Under the Skin, Universal Studios (Beijing, 2006), Happy Life, BizArt (Shanghai, 2005),.

2008-03-16 14:22

[excessive transition] Geng Jianyi Solo-Exhibition

ShanghART Gallery Beijing is pleased to announce

Geng Jianyi [excessive transition]

April 13, 2008 – May 20, 2008

The exhibition consists of an entirely new series of photographs that Geng Jianyi created in 2008. In these black-and-white pictures, the artist portrays himself in various settings that have been slightly manipulated to create a feeling of uncertainty and distorted reality.
A main focus of the extensive oeuvre of Geng Jianyi is the issue of individual identity, that is, his own personal position within the context of the collective. His work can be described as ’after-images’ that continuously veil and unveil fragments of the individual. Geng Jianyi demonstrates an intense concern about self-awareness and the multitude of forms by which the individual is expressed and represented. In a series of portraits titled “Face” (2001), the artist utilizes light-sensitive paper to create ghost-like portraits. He depicts what Paul Virilio has termed ‘the aesthetics of disappearance’ with subtle calmness and stillness. The semi-transparency of the portraits corresponds to a notion of withdrawal or abandonment of individuality. These images oscillate between total abstraction and recognizable facial features. A similar approach is undertaken in an earlier series of portraits titled “Impossible to Name”. Here, the artist combines oil on canvas and paper-cuts to signify the diverse layers that constitute our beings and the shifting ground that threatens our existence into dissolution. Other works revolving around themes of existential identity include “Who is He?” (1994) and “Proving the Existence” (1994).

Geng Jianyi was born in Zhenzhou, Henan province in 1962. He graduated from Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts, Oil Painting Department. Today he lives and works in Hangzhou. Geng Jianyi’s works have been widely exhibited since his first show in 1989. Exhibitions include The Real Thing-Contemporary Art from China, Tate Liverpool, UK and IVAM, Spain (2007/08); Zooming into Focus, National Art Museum of China (2005); 5th Shanghai Biennale: Techniques of the Visible, Shanghai Art Museum (2004); Geng Jianyi - Useless, BizART (Shanghai, 2004); 4th Gwangju Biennale (2002); Living in Time - Contemporary Artists from China, Hamburger Bahnhof (Berlin, 2001); Inside Out: New Chinese Art Exhibition, New York (1999) and Cities on the Move, Secession Vienna (and other locations,1997); 45th Venice Biennale, Italy .

ShanghART Gallery Beijing Opening Reception
ShanghART cordially invites you to the opening of the gallery’s space in Beijing
Sunday, April 13, 3pm

Situated in Cao Chang Di, Chaoyang district in Beijing, ShanghART is pleased to launch its new gallery in addition to its venues in Shanghai. The space will host both solo shows and group exhibitions featuring ShanghART’s more than 40 represented artists. Art enthusiasts, curators and collectors are also welcomed to frequent the gallery’s collections of catalogues and publications.

ShanghART Beijing

261 Cao Chang Di, Old Airport Rd., Chaoyang District, Beijing 100015, China

T: +86 10 6432 3202, F: +86 10 6432 4395, infobj@shanghartgallery.com

www.shanghartgallery.com

daily 11am-6pm (Mondays closed)

2008-03-13 13:36

Experimental Project “Hipic” inaugurated in Beijing

02/03/08

Experimental Project “Hipic” inaugurated in Beijing

On February 29th, the experimental image project ‘Hipic in Beijing’ was successfully launched in ShanghArt Beijing, Long March Space, Boers-Li Gallery, Beijing Art Now Gallery and Beijing Commune. The opening reception was be held in the new space of ShanghART gallery in Beijing with a big crowed of artists and supporters of the flowing images project.

About ‘Hipic’
’Hipic’ is an independent artist project centered on pictures initiated by Yang Zhenzhong, Xu Zhen, Huang Kui and other artists, who established the ‘Hipic team’. ‘Hipic’ collects and displays flood of pictures from all over the world using internet as a platform. ‘Hipic’ central system, www.hipic.org., diffuses pictures on various visual poles, including public screens, TV monitors, computer an mobile screens etc. ‘Hipic in Beijing’ constitutes an important step for ‘Hipic’, aiming to reinforce this platform efficiency, and to share more spaces.

‘Hipic’ project was launched for the first time on September 4^th, 2007 in Shanghai. Since then, ‘Hipic’ unceasingly shows one picture per minute. The system enables any picture to be enjoyed anywhere in the world, simultaneoulsy, for one minute: anyone can see one same picture at the same time in any part of the globe. As an international project, ‘Hipic’ receives pictures from their original authors, anyone can send pictures to the system via internet and become an ‘artist’. “Hipic” project seeks for international partners in any country of the world to invite more participants without any region restrictions.

To support the project a specially designed "Hipic Screen" is produced in an edition of 5 pieces a year. We are happy to announce that "Screen 1" has been bought by DSL collection (www.dslcollection.org)

For further information check www.shanghartgallery.com and of course www.hipic.org

ShanghART Beijing, No. 261 Caochangdi, Airport Service Rd., Chaoyang District, Beijing, China

Tel: (+86 10) 6432 3202, info@shanghartgallery.com

2008-03-02 12:21

Old Scriptures - Wei Guangqing Solo Exhibition

ShangART H-Space

Reception:7 March,2008 6-8pm
Exhibition:8 March——8 April,2008
Daily:1-6pm (closed Mondays)

2008-02-28 15:01

A.D. 210 I

ShanghART Gallery F-Space

Rm:315-317, No.800, Guoshun Rd East.

Tel: 86-21 5506 5989 Fax: 86-21 5506 6997

Date: Feb 22, 2008 - Mar 28, 2008 Daily 1-6 pm (closed Sun/Mon)

ShanghART Gallery is pleased to announce Huang Kui’s Xun’s solo show < A.D. 210 > at ShanghART F-space.In this exhibition, Huang Kui will use various media as installation, videos, photographs, paintings and other mixed media to portray a historical character who shares the artist’s name: Huang Kui, assistant minister of Cao Cao.

The story happens on the year 210 AD in the Three Kingdoms, Huang Kui and Ma Teng secretly plan to assassinate the treacherous Lord Cao Cao. However the plot is discovered by Cao Cao, as Huang Kui, inebriated, reveals it to his concubine Li Chunxiang (see <The Three Kingdoms>, Chapter 57)

Huang kui is a creative artist. Reviewing his works of these years, his work is always changing, and is not eager to forming his own art style. However, in his process of creation, Huang kui always puts his experience and understanding into living social life and cleverly presents his deeply thinking for current realistic to the public in a relaxing way. His works have been exhibited in many important exhibitions: 52nd International Art Exhibition la Biennale di Venezia Migration Addicts, Campo San Maurizio, Venice (2007); Solo Exhibition, 2577 Creative Garden, Shanghai (2006); Hyper Design-6th Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai (2006) etc.

2008-02-26 15:31

Shanghai Biennale etc

Biennale of Sydney (30 August) , Opening Previews of Gwangju Biennale (5 September 2008), Shanghai Biennale (8 September 2008), Singapore Biennale (9 – 10 September 2008) and Yokohama Triennale (12 September 2008). 2008-02-17 13:21

Shanghart Gallery Chinese New Year Plan

Shanghart Gallery will close from Feb. 6th, 08 to Feb. 9th, 08. Please make an appointment before you visit our gallery on 10th, 2008, because we will open in the afternoon, our phone number is 021-63593923. Thanks for your cooperation.

Happy 2008 Chinese New Year!

2008-02-03 18:49

Experimental Project “Hipic” in Beijing 29.2.2008

Experimental Project “Hipic” in Beijing

In this period of pictures’ flowing, an innovative artistic experimental project provides to everyone the opportunity of showing their own pictures: “Hipic”. Since its inception, “Hipic” project kept growing, and is today in Beijing.

On February 29th, the project “Hipic in Beijing” will be launched in ShanghArt Beijing, Long March Space, Boers-Li Gallery, Beijing Art Now Gallery and Beijing Commune. The opening will be held in the new space space of ShanghArt Beijing.

“Hipic” is an independent artistic project centered on pictures initiated by Yang Zhenzhong, Xu Zhen, Huang Kui and other artists, who established the “Hipic team”. “Hipic” collects and displays flood of pictures from all over the world using internet as a platform. “Hipic” central system, www.hipic.org, diffuses pictures on various visual poles, including public screens, TV monitors, computer, mobile screens, and other mediums, which undoubtedly became part of everyone’s life.

This time “Hipic in Beijing” constitutes a large scope project for “Hipic”, therefore, “Hipic team” especially produced five “Hipic Screens”, to be placed in ShanghArt Beijing, Long March Space, Boers-Li Gallery, Beijing Art Now Gallery and Beijing Commune, which are among the most renown contemporary art spaces in China, reinforcing this platform efficiency, and sharing with more people, more pictures resources and more spaces.

“Hipic” project was launched for the first time on September 4^th, 2007. Since then, “Hipic” unceasingly shows one picture per minute. The system enables any picture to be enjoyed anywhere in the world, simultaneoulsy, for one minute: anyone can see one same picture at the same time in any part of the globe. As an international project, “Hipic” receives pictures from their original authors, anyone can send pictures to the system via internet and become an ‘artist’. “Hipic” project seeks for international partners in any country of the world to invite more participants without any region restrictions.

www.hipic.org

For more information please contact:

Hipic Team

Address: 4/F, Bldg 7, 50 Moganshan Road, 200060 Shanghai

Tel: +86 21 62775358

Fax: +86 21 62985696

Contact person: Su Chang

Website: www.hipic.org

2008-02-02 15:18