ShanghART Gallery Syndication

Antenna

Liu Weijian: Antenna 21 Mar.~20 Apr. 2010 ShanghART H-space Bldg. 18, 50 Moganshan Rd., Shanghai 1 p.m.~6 p.m. ShanghART is pleased to announce the first solo show from Liu Weijian in the spring of the New Year: Antenna. Liu Wijian’s paintings are impressive in scale as well as in consistency. Mostly held in douche and dark colors, however, there is something unsettling and uncanny in his painted environments. He uses acrylic for its post-industrial features, which fits the way he announced anti-expressionism. The paintings that will be exhibited concern various series like environment, memory and mood. Liu Weijian was born in Shanghai in 1981. He graduated from Shanghai Normal University in 2005, respectively. Now he lives and works in Shanghai. Liu Weijian has participated in numerous exhibitions including “The Call of the Crows-Liu Weijian's Solo Exhibition”(2007), BizArt Art Center, Shanghai; “Shouting Truth: A Contemporary Art Exhibition” (2007), Platform China, Beijing and “Shanghai History in Making from 1979 till 2009” (2009), Shanghai etc. 2010-02-08 13:57

Spread by MadeIn at ShanghART Beijing

Opening: 6 March 2010 Saturday at 4pm
Venue: ShanghART Beijing, No. 261 Caochangdi
Date: March 7 – April 11, 2010

On the occasion of the second anniversary of ShanghART Beijing, a special project curated and conceptualized by MadeIn is spreading from Shanghai to Beijing now!!!

MadeIn, a newly founded art collaboration initiated by artist Xu Zhen, will exhibit an exquisite selection of works in a wide variety of media (including installation, sculpture, painting, and collage) to represent 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 up to MadeIn’s successful debut in 2009, 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, or morphs into sculpture in thick gaudy textures. The intentionally clichéd and controversial imagery of these works mimics satirical cartoons, and refers to 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 in December at Art Basel Miami Beach 09, and later exhibited at ShanghART Huaihai space in January 2010.

Installation ‘Love in fact results from an excess of dopamine in the brain’ is made up of various materials. All kinds of wasted foam blocks build up a giant room which has no entrance, and stage lightings inside reveals from gaps with effects of magnificent fancy colours.

ShanghART has established itself as a leading gallery representing established figures whilst continuing to support the work of innovative younger artists, and contributes as a vital resource to the development of Chinese contemporary art.

Since its establishment in 2008, ShanghART Beijing space continues ShanghART Gallery’s tradition and style, focuses on promotion of Chinese contemporary art, provides artists with platform for more opportunities to hold their solo exhibitions, and has successfully held 12 exhibitions. In 2010, ShanghART Beijing space will seek more opportunities for cooperation with various institution and experimental exhibitions, and present Beijing visitors more high-quality exhibitions.

MadeIn Ltd. is a Shanghai-based art agency (initiated by conceptual artist Xu Zhen) specializing in staging art related projects. MadeIn’s curatorial practice debuted in September 2009 with two extensive exhibitions featuring contemporary art from the Middle East held at James Cohan Gallery in New York and ShanghART in Shanghai respectively.

2010-02-02 18:25

Desserts: Zhou Tiehai Solo Show

text 2010-01-30 16:31

Spread - New Exhibition Produced by MadeIn

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. 2009-12-30 17:13

Things from the gallery warehouse 2

Things from the gallery warehouse 2 Artists: Hu Jieming, Shao Yi, Yang Zhenzhong Dec. 19 ~ Feb. 27 (13:00~18:00) H-Space, ShanghART Gallery Bldg.18, 50 Moganshan Rd. Opening: Dec.19, 2009 ( Sat. ) 16:00-18:30 Following the finish of the first show in “Warehouse” series, ShanghART Gallery is pleased to present the next one: “Things from the gallery warehouse 2”. Like the previous one, the show will exhibit several large-scaled installation works stored in the warehouse of ShanghART gallery in series. For years, ShanghART Gallery provides platforms of exhibitions for outstanding artists. It is worth mentioning that considerable unfamiliar works are stored in the gallery warehouse—the rear base of exhibition spaces. As the second show of the “warehouse” exhibition series, we bring you the works form Hu Jieming, Shao Yi and Yang Zhenzhong. The work “1999-2000 Lengend” by Hu Jieming was exhibited in San Francisco MoMA in 2000. The work collected information from all available media in China within a short but special night: Dec. 31, 1999 to Jan. 1, 2000. The artist put all the collected information on transparent films and built several new spaces with them. The work teased on the prevalent saying like “the distance of the world is reduced by information” in a careful way, or we are now involved in a question like: how to keep your independent thinking in the separated spaces by visible information? “Broadcast” (2008), another remarkable work from Shao Yi, was grouped by 59 old cable speakers that he collected in the rural places in China, and he let the speakers talk simultaneously, about private conversations but political propaganda.. And the famous work by Yang Zhenzhong –“Massage Chairs - Then Edison's Direct Current was surrendered To the Alternating Current” (2003) will keep the sounds they emit, the whirrings and rhythmical clickings echo ominously in the gallery interiors they now occupy, evoking a response that is a far cry from any of the desired effects of massage. It is noteworthy that the artist from Austria, Elisabeth Grübl, will display her latest work: packing of the entire studio of Zhou Tiehai. The work will only be open for the public on 16:00-18:00, 19 Dec.. 2009-12-08 16:42

They still look beautiful:Huang Kui's Solo Exhibition

Location: ShanghART at Huaihai Rd 796, Shanghai Date: Nov 13, 2009 - Dec 02, 2009 "They are the works on memories. The things now lied before you have separated from the functional value they used to have, and left only vacant aesthetics. The works now question the aesthetics, and they are also a part of my undone project titled "Memory, reality and wishes". Human being, the main body of aesthetics, but firstly the main body of material needs. After the basic material need were satisfied, how can we make aesthetic judgments on things? I'm just curious on that." Huang Kui Creative stamina as the artist Huang Kui showed in his works throughout the years, his ideas are always leaping and changing with no hurry of formation of them. Huang Kui put his own experience and sentiment which drew from social life into his works, and finally to display them with a humorous but critical way. Huang Kui was born in Renshou, Sichuan Province in 1977. He graduated from Sichuan Fine Art College, Oil Painting Department. He currently lives and works in Shanghai. Recent exhibition include China!China!China!!!-Chinese contemporary art beyond the global market-First section of “40+4, Art is not enough! Not enough!” project, Fienze, Italy(2008), Biennale Cuvée-Weltauswahl der Gegenwartskunst (World Selection of Contemporary Art), Ok Center for Contemporary Art Upper, Austria (2008), 52nd International Art Exhibition la Biennale di Venezia Migration Addicts, Campo San Maurizio, Venice (2007), Starting from the Southwest-Contemporary Art Exhibition, Guangdong Museum, Guangzhou (2007), etc. 2009-11-16 11:11

Stolen Treasures from Modern China

Artists: Thomas Fuesser, Chris Gill, Andy Hall, Tiehai Zhou

Date: November 15 – December 31, 2009

Stolen Treasures from Modern China presents an opportunity to see photographs of many of China’s famous artists from the early 1990s taken by Thomas Fuesser. Alongside these photographs we have a visual; discussion of what has taken place in China over the last two decades conducted by the artists Zhou Tiehai, Chris Gill and Andy Hall.

There are many logical traps which catch out the observers of the Chinese reform process. There is especially a lack of understanding of what are the cultural and artistic processes that have fed the rapid and ongoing changes in the cultural field.

The media has played, and continues to play, an important role in modern and contemporary Chinese art. So one of the basic premises of the exhibition Stolen treasures from modern China is to show how media played an important role in the early careers of many artists in China, and also how some artists reacted to the role of the media. The media has documented as well as explained to local and international audiences the various Chinese artists and movements over the years.

The nature of intransigent cultural theft is a complex issue, as physical cultural objects created post 1949 are considered free from governmental control. But, as yet, it has not yet been really addressed what is the value of artworks created in the early 90s within the context of international dialogue alongside the Chinese phenomenon of reform and progressive change?

A unique set of circumstances in China in the early 1990s, a period when the country was still in the initial stages of its opening and reform process, led to a select group of artists becoming well known figures, and others less so.

For the starting point of this exhibition we have chosen 1993, when a series of visits introducing artists Joerg Immendorf (Hamburg), Guenther Uecker (Duesseldorf), art critics Andrew Solomon (New York Times), Thomas Fuesser (Stern, Germany), and others to the art scenes of Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou was arranged. This historical arrangement, a list of artist names constructed under the guidance of Hans van Dijk, proved instrumental for many artists’ careers. Later Hans founded China Art Archives and Warehouse, with Ai Weiwei.

So this exhibition provides the first opportunity to see the photos taken by Fuesser, which remained as negatives in a box in Hamburg. Also, this visit inspired Zhou Tiehai’s seminal works, such as his video and fake magazine covers.

Gill and Hall, though long term residents in China were never on the list. They weren’t particularly bothered about not being on the list. Their work presents a historical flux- a counterpoint to the work of Zhou and Fuesser, talking about the changes that have taken place over the period 1993 until now, the process of historical flux- not only in the art world, but in attitudes and behaviour in society at large- including foreign views of China as well as China’s self image.

The many circles of historical development that have taken place are represented in this exhibition in a simple edited format- a reflection of how history edits down the process’ of development.

The key elements of foreign and local involvement in Chinese art will also be explored by the exhibition.

As Gao Shiming, curator of the Guangzhou Triennial, told Gill: “There have been three generations of foreigners involved in Chinese art, the first generation made a hole in the wall, the second generation built a bridge, and the third generation built a beautiful pagoda.”

A limited edition book containing important documents and a wider selection of works will also be available.

Thomas Fuesser is a freelance photographer and designer whose acclaimed career in photography, design and advertising spans from his native Germany across all the continents to China, where he has made his home since 2005. Thomas is the recipient of The German Prize for Communication Design 2000 for excellence in design by Design Zentrum Essen, NRW, http://www.red-dot.de, and holds a degree from University of Essen in Communication and Design Sciences. ( http://www.thomasfuesser.com/ )

Chris Gill is a Shanghai based artist and writer, originally from the UK. He graduated from University of Newcastle in U.K./People’s University of China with a degree in Politics and East Asian Studies. As an artist he has worked continuously in China since 1992. The main theme of his art work is to create a visual diary of the changing society in China, using predominately painting and multimedia. ( www.shanghai-eye.net )

Andy Hall is a founding partner and leading architect at MQ studio. He received his architecture education from Westminster University in London, England, and now settled in Shanghai since 1997. Each of Andy’s projects, from the extra small to the abnormally large, is a cohesion of narrative and functional form, the coalescing of the whimsical and the utilitarian. The works all have strong points of view and unconsciously give the viewer something memorable. (http://www.mq-studio.com/ )

Zhou Tiehai is a Shanghai based artist. His conceptual projects represent the artist’s vengeance and attitude towards the self-absorbed art market. His work’s power to amaze and provoke is the result of a host of strategies that mix antagonism with sincerity. The key ingredients that drive Zhou Tiehai’s unsettling yet amusing practice includes appropriating classical imagery, generating ironic projections, proclaiming laconic yet heartfelt discourse and actively subverting painterly craft. (http://www.shanghartgallery.com/galleryarchive/artists/name/zhoutiehai )

2009-11-15 15:51

Art Basel Miami Beach 09

PRESS RELEASE Art Basel Miami Beach 3-6 December 09 ShanghART, Stand H5 ShanghART Gallery 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 by, among others, Zhang Enli, Ding Yi, Zhou Tiehai, Sun Xun, and Shen Fan. The show comprises individual takes on history, politics, and the everyday; approaches informed as much by reality as by fiction. Following MadeIn’s successful debut in NYC and Shanghai this autumn, the art agency now extends its curatorial practice by staging a never-seen-before series of mixed-media installations titled Spread 021 – Spread 025 (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 Mr. Obama and US 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. An air of childlike innocence is suggested – soft toy-like textures in bright colors – while referencing scenarios of economic and military crisis, thus declaring that creation and destruction are at work in the world in equal force. 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, exemplified in the phenomenal quote “WE ARE THE MEDIA”, Metal Language I, No. 31 (2009). MadeIn uses the vocabulary of cartoon and caricature to deflate the omnipotent and present the atrocities of contemporary society in new light. Part of the power and attraction of their work comes from the transposition of popular imagery into a high-art context. Like MadeIn, Zhou Tiehai’s unsettling yet amusing practice includes appropriating iconic imagery. Here, the artist actively subverts painterly craft through his refined air-brush techniques. His laconic trade mark – the camel – is represented in three new paintings The Great Dictator (2009), The Kid (2009), and Charles Chaplin – Modern Times (2007) illustrating Zhou Tiehai’s investigation into culture’s historical baggage at large. Zhang Enli’s subtle depictions Tube II (2009) and Bulb (2009) in douche colors portray details from ordinary objects that are often neglected or downplayed in conventional painting. In his meticulous claim of ’the real’ it is the common, the unnoticed, the overlooked that is central to each painting. The ordinary objects, so often the subject of his paintings, make no claim to grandeur or immortality. His work does not aim to formulate the invisible. It does not deal with idealistic concepts, so often called upon to compensate physical engagement. Instead, Zhang Enli’s work depicts a present, failing to present itself, to all but the focused eye. Ding Yi’s signature takes the form of a cross that is repeatedly and carefully constructed across surfaces. His new beautiful rhombi-shaped piece titled 2009-7 has been created by the layered intersection of vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines across the surface. With this minimalist visual rhetoric, painting is not about illusion and the representation of objects. Instead, Ding Yi explores an abstract aesthetic through the systematic repetition and direct visual representation of the cross. Viewed from a distance, everything gradually converges. But viewed up-close, the subtlety of lines and color are vibrantly present. The paintings simultaneously refer to themselves, as paintings per se, and the reality around them that has only been distilled into grids and check pattern. Shen Fan's paintings come across as visually pure and harmonious compositions devoid of any extravagant or superfluous elements, the surface of the canvas becomes a field where color plays a key role. His images consist of monochromatic (and often primary) colors. His works are tactile compositions created using a palette knife, which makes for a restrictive work structure. The result is an ambiguous space in which shapes resembling geometric diagrams are then filled out with beautifully simple and repetitious ornamental figures. With rare radicalism, Shen Fan always accomplishes compositions full of discipline, rigor and perfection. Sun Xun’s main oeuvre consists of a series of highly interrogative and impressive animated films, almost always held in black and white. In these, he explores how history is constructed and narrated. His compelling series of drawings 21G (2007) as well as his animated films such as Magician’s Lie, Mythos, and Requiem all feature the same character, namely a magician, easily recognizable and always dressed with a tall hat. In these drawings and films, the viewer follows the protagonist’s journey in search of another world, a better place to be. We witness the magician and his expedition through an apocalyptic fantasy world where the earth is set on fire in dramatic dream-like scenarios. Brief Biographies 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. Zhou Ziehai (1966) lives and works in Shanghai. Zhou Tiehai has exhibited extensively at acclaimed institutions such as The Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), Deichtorhallen (Hamburg), Kunsthal (Rotterdam), Shanghai Art Museum and Hamburger Bahnhof (Berlin) and the Mori Art Museum (Tokyo). Additionally, he participated in the 48th Venice Biennale, 5th Shanghai Biennale and 4th Gwangju Biennale. Zhang Enli (1965) lives and works in Shanghai. Recent solo-exhibitions include shows at Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland (2009), IKON Gallery, Birmingham, UK (2009), ShanghARt Gallery, H-Space (2008), and Hauser & Wirth, Zürich, Switzerland (2007). Ding Yi (1962) lives and works in Shanghai. Recent solo-exhibitions include shows Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, Germany (2008), and Paris, France (2007), Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna, Bologna, Italy (2007). Ding Yi has exhibited widely, such as at the Venice Biennale (1993), Yokohama Triennial (2001) and Guangzhou Biennale (2002). Shen Fan (1952) lives and works in Shanghai. Selected exhibitions include Out of Shanghai, Museum gegenstandsfreier Kunst, Otterndorf, Germany; Art Taipei 2009, Annual Theme Show, Taiwan, Taipei; Shanghai History in Making from 1979 till 2009, China, Shanghai (2009); Shanghai Kaleidoscope, Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), Toronto, Canada; Art 39 Basel 2008. Sun Xun (1989) lives and works in Hangzhou. Recent solo exhibitions include Max Protetch Gallery, New York, USA (2009), CalArts, Los Angeles, USA (2009), Colchester, University of Essex Gallery,UK (2009), The Drawing Center, NY, USA (2008), Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA (2008), Platform China project space, Beijing (2008). For further information and image material, please contact: Helen@shanghartgallery.com ShanghART Gallery www.shanghartgallery.com 50 Moganshan Rd., Bldg 16 Shanghai, China 200060 T: +86 21-6359 3923, 6276 2818 F: +86 21-6359 4570 Daily 10AM-6PM 2009-11-12 18:56

Things from the gallery warehouse

Things from the gallery warehouse Artists: Shao Yi, Shen Fan 11月13日～12月13日 H-Space, ShanghART Gallery Bldg.18, 50 Moganshan Rd. 13:00~18:00 ShanghART Gallery is pleased to present “Things from the gallery warehouse”. The show will exhibit several large-scaled installation works stored in the warehouse of ShanghART gallery in series. For years, ShanghART Gallery provide platforms of exhibitions for outstanding artists. It is worth mentioning that considerable unfamiliar works are stored in the gallery warehouse—the rear base of exhibition spaces. As the first show of “Things from the gallery warehouse” exhibition (rest shows will be exhibited successively), three large installation works are selected. Strangeness, generated by space and volume, uncovers a quite and unknown ego of a gallery. Brief intro for a part of selected works: Shao Yi, Exposure: buckets, installation Shao Yi’s work ‘Exposure’ uses different sized iron drums as carriers of pin-hole imagine cameras and the photo paper becomes directly the exposed object. In this series of works, the only principal how artist choice the subject is ’anything around me that can be exposed for ages ’.This is revolt against artist himself and naturally occurring phenomenon. 2009-10-20 16:34

Now Shanghai

Date: 18 Oct.-8 Nov. 2009 Venue: Shanghart Gallery H-Space, Bldg.18, 50 Moganshan Rd. Time: 1 PM ~ 6 PM ShanghART Gallery is pleased to present Now Shanghai: a solo exhibition of Pu Jie. In Pu Jie’s art practice, visual language replaces discursive formulation. His works are present with strong colours, striking graphic and elementary symbols, thus people may easily categorize his art into American Pop. Distinguishingly, they are conceptual art works with two superposed focuses and overlapped images. The technique of ‘dual visual angle’ adopted by the artist is a partial overlapping of the past and the present which expresses the changes in China in past 40 years — the Cultural Revolution in the first 20 years and Reform-and-opening up in the next 20 years. Such overlapping is filled with cultural mutation and confrontation and clears up visual effect, and ponders the flow of changes of the Chinese society in the past decades. The exhibited ‘Lemon Yellow’ series of works are like dynamic images, which are made up of movements that are felt through intuition: motive dimensions, cinematic leaps, diversion and alteration between interior and exterior. Those overlapped or static figures are like movies telling us the flow of changes occurred in the Chinese society during recent decades. Hence, the ‘dual visual angel’ is not simply an art symbol, but also a reflection of life experience. Moreover, the collision of two periods suggests that our surrounding is changing, and a real journey is thus recorded on Pu Jie’s paintings. Pu Jie (1959, Shanghai) graduated from Shanghai Normal University, Fine Art Department in 1986, and now resides and works in Shanghai. His recent exhibitions include ‘Memory and Witness-Pu Jie’s Solo Art Exhibition’ in Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (2009, Japan), ‘Mahjong: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection’ in Peabody Essex Museum in Salem (2009, U.S.A), Art China in Hamburg (2008, Germany), ‘Red Hot – Asian Art Today from the Chaney Family Collection’ in the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston (2007, U.S.A), ‘We are the new comers, We are the future’ in ShanghART H-Space (2006, Shanghai), ‘A Retrospective with Art Works from Pu Jie’ in ShanghART Gallery (2004, Shanghai), etc. 2009-10-19 17:32