So my self-imposed “maternity leave” from my blog lasted longer than I anticipated but I’m back and ready to dispel my words of wisdom on the art world, local and otherwise.

This was my first year not attending the art fair in Hong Kong and I really regretted it for the first day or two; reading up on all the exhibitions openings, events, and various parties made me feel like I was really missing out. But after hearing from friends about the crowds and the constant rain, I had to pat myself on the back for my wise decision. You can read up on what was what in Hong Kong here. Besides, I had already experienced the insanity of attending a fair with a baby back in March during the Armory Show. I was crazy to think I could navigate preview night with a stroller. Not too smart. I still managed to write a coherent report on it though; you can read my thoughts on the Armory Show at Randian.

The big news in Shanghai is the glut of museums springing up everywhere. I’ve written about the museum problem in China before so I guess it’s not really “news”. But the rest of the world seems to think that this is a new day for Shanghai. So many new museums! Collectors making their make on the city! Shanghai finally has world class spaces for world class art! I think we all need to just simmer down. All these new spaces doesn’t equal a first rate art scene… yet. It is impressive just how many museums have opened in the past five years: the Minsheng Art Museum (2009), the Rockbund Art Museum (2010), the Long Museum Pudong (2012), the Aurora Museum (2012). And now we have another Long Museum and the Yuz Museum. In addition to these private museums, there’s also the Power Station of Art and the China Art Museum (both 2012), though they aren’t technically “new” since they are off shoots of the old Shanghai Art Museum. Can there really be that much art to fill all these spaces? We’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, here’s my take on the newest additions.

First, we have the Long Museum West Bund. It is indeed an awesome space. It was designed by Liu Yichun and has been integrated into the original landscape. It sits on what was a railroad that brought industrial goods from the factories down the road. They’ve left some tracks intact and hopefully someone will integrate this into some cool installation in the future. The building is poured concrete with some white mesh to break up the space. Inside, the walls are also raw concrete, with enormously high ceilings. The space is just cavernous, though most of the exhibition space is relegated to the lower levels. Wang Wei and her husband have a ridiculously large collection but is it really that large to warrant two massive museums?

Their first exhibition, Review, is really just works moved from their other museum in Pudong. There are a few notable newcomers to their collection of Chinese contemporary art, like a large Xu Bing piece (Art for the People) and a few Gu Wenda scrolls. But otherwise, it’s the same old, same old. As with their other museum, there was little thought put into categorizing the works that made sense. What explanations and signage there was mostly disappeared into the wall since they thought it was a brilliant idea to use grey lettering… that just blended with the grey walls. Truly, this first show was a lost opportunity. There was nothing here that hasn’t been seen to death already, and shown in such a pedestrian way at that. The lower levels, dedicated to modern and calligraphy art, is just a dizzying array of works. After a while, they just lose their significance.

Then we have the Yuz Museum, which houses the Yuz Collection from Indonesian-Chinese collector Budi Tek. I feel like they’ve been announcing the opening of this museum since the Stone Age. Its location has changed a few times as well and they ultimately chose the West Bund area, probably because the government gave them a sweet deal on the land. Wang Wei has said in the past that’s why she decided to open a second museum; the government gave her an offer she couldn’t refuse. Smart move on the government’s part. The West bund area is poised to be a hotspot, with its ideal location on the river, a nicely developed waterfront and several high end apartment complexes already built. My husband and I have been coming to this area for a few years now because it was a great place to train for races; we could run for miles without hitting traffic and also be by the water (although the river was a lot smellier then). These museums are an ideal way to entice businesses and restaurants to set up shop. As of now, it is still very much empty and devoid of life, save for the families that hang out on the waterfront on nice days.

If you can believe it, there are more new museums in the horizon. The Minsheng Art Museum, echoing the Long Museum, will open a second branch in the former French Pavilion at the old Expo site in Pudong. This branch will focus primarily on international exhibitions. And Qiao Zhibing, known lately for his “art karaoke” houses, will add to the West Bund’s cultural dominance with his own art space to show his growing collection. Whew!

Tune in next week as I explore shopping malls of art and my run down on summer shows.

What a miserable week it was last week; between the never ending rain and the sludge we call air, it was hard to leave the house. But I couldn't go to Hong Kong without doing some final catch up, this time on the Bund. The Rockbund Art Museum has really been stepping it up ever since Larys Frogier took over as director a couple of years ago. Their show, "From Gesture to Language", seemed tailor made for me. Works on paper as far as the eye can see! The show explores the connections between the visual and textual constructions in contemporary art. There is a mixture of prints from the Chalcography Department at the Louvre and original works commissioned for the show and sourced from other collections. Of the artists selected, Jenny Holzer and Xu Bing are the most logical choices, as both artists are known for text based installations and their play on language. This was my first time seeing Holzer's 2008 piece Purple, an installation of curved LED light tubes that display text from classified military data. The text, political in nature with parts redacted with XXX, is provided in its entirety on laminated sheets but the content didn't so much interest me as the experience of trying to read the display. The flashing neon lights and moving text sucked me into a swirling vortex, with the pulsating tubes creating a dizzying effect which quickly manifested into a pounding headache for me. I recommend everyone to watch the piece for as long as they can stand it. It's mesmerizing and disconcerting at the same time.

Most people know Xu Bing for his invented written language that plays on Chinese calligraphic traditions. His large scale scroll installation Book from the Sky consists of endless reams of scrolls that appear to tell a story but upon closer inspection, these scrolls are populated by entirely fictional "Chinese" characters. He was introduced to an American audience with Art for the People, a series of posters he made for the MoMA in New York City that appeared to be written with Chinese characters but were actually the English alphabet written to look like Chinese characters. In 2006, he elaborated on these posters with a carpet that is designed with this motif, and is included in this show. If I had the patience, I would try and decipher the story that makes up this carpet design but the carpet is far too big to examine every "word" closely. 
    One of my other favorites from the show include Bruce Nuaman's Good Boy Bad Boy (1985), which easily could have been inspirations for some of Zhang Peili's early works. As with most Nauman works, this piece makes you laugh out loud while creating an intense sense of unease. You'll have to see the video for yourself to experience the sheer insanity.    

What of the works on paper? Well, there are so many that I couldn't possibly bore you with descriptions of all of them. There are lovely prints by Kiki Smith, Terry Winters and Zhao Xuebing. But I was most intrigued by the print, Le Combat de Yesil-kol-nor, a detail of which is pictured above. It is part of a series of engravings that were exchanged between China and France in the 17th and 18th centuries. The lines of the etching are incredibly precise and fine. When I made prints in my student days, I always tried to create as much detail as possible but never really succeeded. This print almost makes me want to go back to school and try my hand at etching again. 
    After RAM, I headed to Bund 18, where Xu Zhen/ MadeIn Company had an exhibition in the lobby. The show consists of what he calls "action" paintings (some of which I had seen in his studio a couple years back); canvases were punctured with spray paint nozzles, out of which swaths of black paint were presumably "sprayed" on. My description is a little muddled but it's difficult to explain without showing an image. Unfortunately, the way the pieces were hung made it impossible to take clear photos. I was not a big fan of the show either way. The paintings looked like temporary walls surrounding the lobby café. I'm not sure what he was going for here.

My friend Alex's residency ended at the Swatch hotel and he's now in tropical Kuala Lumpur visiting his sister (who I went to high school with). He left a painting of his for me as a parting gift and my next stop was to pick it up from another artist's studio at Swatch. Willy Chyr is from Chicago and seems to have a lot on his plate. In addition to taking portraits of artists (he took a great one of Wu Ding lighting Jam's cigarette in her studio. This piece is part of Museum of Unknown's new show at the Power Station), he's also working on an "art" video game. To help design different levels of his game, he decided to make models of his virtual world. Pictured above is a funny little vignette in his ever expanding world. He bought hundreds of tiny figurines on Taopu to populate this world. I told him he should look up Liliana Porter, who makes incredible little worlds with just a piece of paper and a tiny toy.  

Willy took me down the hall to visit his friend Evgeny Bondarenko, a Russian artist. I hit the aesthetic jackpot with this one! Drawings and sketches everywhere. They were loose and improvisational but carefully composed at the same time. There are so few artists nowadays who work so traditionally, which is a shame because pleasures can be found in the familiar. 
    I'm off to Hong Kong Wednesday morning for Art Basel. I'll try to report regularly on all the happenings, the hot parties (which I dread), the gossip. Oh yeah, and the art.