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.

While I was taking a little hiatus in Taipei (personal stuff), everyone else in the art world was preparing for Frieze New York (which just ended) and any number of art events occurring this spring. Of course, here in Asia, we're all anticipating the first edition of Art Basel Hong Kong. The fair itself is not new, it's just been re-branded after being bought by Art Basel. Thankfully, they've kept the model started by Magnus Renfrew with ArtHK and a majority of the participating galleries will still be Asia-based. All the hype surrounding Art Basel has certainly worked its magic because even I'm excited for it this year, even though I know it will look no different from previous years. I guess I'm contributing to the hype as well with my piece for Randian previewing some of the works shown in the Encounters section, which includes that incredible MadeIn piece that I talked about earlier in the spring. I can't wait for the fair to start so I can finally post pictures of it. I also wrote a piece for the International Herald Tribune about Hong Kong and the effect the fair has had; it will run May 23rd, the first official day of the event.

But before I head down to Hong Kong, I needed to catch up on what's been happening here in Shanghai after being away for a month. Luckily, M50 had a big block party this past Saturday and several galleries had simultaneous openings. I dragged my husband along this time, who was a good sport. Our first stop was OV Gallery; their exhibition Suspended Gravity featured Canadian artist Ed Pien and Dutch artist Karin van Dam. Karin's crazy knitted mobiles and alien creatures were delightful, if not a bit dangerous to navigate around. During the opening, someone knocked over one of her objects while trying to take pictures. Ed, who is an old friend from when he and his partner Johannes Zits had an exhibition at BizArt, created new paper cuttings using this cool reflective fabric; he had a jar of fabric cuttings for people to take.

After a brief stop at my friend Basmat Levin's crowded studio (she has a lot of paintings!), we headed to ShanghArt Gallery. I ran into Zhou Tiehai smoking a cigarette outside. I asked why he left Minsheng, hoping for some juicy answer, but alas, he simply said, "My time was up." He sounded relieved to be free and happy to be back in his studio producing works. But I guess this means the Minsheng Art Museum will no longer be the Museum for ShanghArt Artists. We then ran into Zhang Enli (one of my husband's favorite artists) and we had a brief conversation about his future projects. He has two solo shows this year, one in Genoa and the other in London. That man is so soft spoken, I had to strain to hear him, even though I was standing right next to him. 
    The new show at ShanghArt is a Tang Guo solo exhibition. This is his first show in five years (!) and I'm glad he took time to produce these new sets of works. I am a big time sucker for ink drawings and the gallery was full of them. His drawings were accompanied by one video, which I didn't have a chance to view, but seemed superfluous in the company of such beautiful ink pieces. Here's another one:

    We then stopped by the Suzhou River Art Center (formerly 1918 Artspace, my old friend Zhao Yonggang's gallery) which had an interesting group show. On the first floor was a wall with knives coming out of it; when you walked around to the other side, this was what you saw:

Here's a close up:

Talk about aggressive! We almost didn't make it upstairs but we ran into Lorenz, who insisted we go back and see the naked Lei Feng sculpture. Naked Lei Feng? In China, that's blasphemous! For those who don't know, Lei Feng was a model soldier and martyr of the Chinese Communist revolution. It's doubtful he was a real person but anyone who grew up in China in the 50s and 60s were taught to follow Lei Feng. For this piece, the artists took a typical Lei Feng sculpture (one that you would find in the lobby of some anonymous government building) and proceeded to sand away his uniform until he was "naked". On show was the result:

There was an accompanying video but it wasn't working when we were there. I'll have to go back and see the process in which the artists "strip" Lei Feng. 
    Next to the Suzhou River Art Center was a gathering of Shanghai hipsters drinking beer out of cans, all congregating outside Studio Rouge. I'm not sure what George is going for these days but he was showing LED stuff from Island 6. It almost seems as if these two spaces have merged into one. Whatever George is up to, it's working for him; he recently opened a space in Hong Kong. And speaking of Island 6, they had some random hot girl (foreign, not Chinese) walk around M50 handing out flyers for their new show. I guess that's one way of attracting people to your gallery.

At this point, it was time to eat. Walking around and looking at art makes you hungry! I thought OV would have a private gallery dinner but there was a big M50 shindig planned. We walked in with Karin and Daniel (from Randian) and of course, people were already halfway done with dinner. But it didn't matter because the food was god awful. The party was at a wedding hall so you can imagine what kind of slop was served: cold potatoes, beef that had been tenderized to death (if you live in China, you'll know what I'm talking about), and soggy fried dumplings. Of course, no one goes for the food. The artists and galleries were having a gay old time drinking and schmoozing and catching up with friends. Ed especially had an emotional dinner. He's been to Shanghai a few times for exhibitions and has gotten to know quite a few local artists. When he arrived to the dinner, it was as if Elvis had entered the building. One artist after another came up to greet and toast him. You couldn't blame him if he got a little weepy. 
    We have one more week before Art Basel Hong Kong, in which time I'll catch up with the rest of Shanghai. Later this week, I'll visit James Cohan Gallery, Rockbund Art Museum, and Bund 18 for a "Xu Zhen produced by MadeIn Company" show. So this is how he's branding himself now? What happened to just MadeIn Company? Perhaps the MadeIn experiment is coming to an end? Stay tuned to find out!

In my last post, I mentioned briefly the MadeIn Company piece that's up at ShanghArt's H-Space. The exhibition, "Foundational Work", is a great show and it ends this week. Some of my favorite artists are on view, including a new work by Wu Yiming (pictured above). I brought my visiting family along to see the show; seeing exhibitions with non-art world people is always an enlightening and rewarding experience. My father-in-law Eli especially has the best responses to art that he purports to not understand. We were gallery hopping in Chelsea a couple of years ago and I brought my family to a Doh Ho Suh show at Lehmann Maupin where his piece Fallen Star was being shown. Eli opted to sit in the corner while my guests and I oohed and aahed at his intricate doll house; after staring at the work for some time, he got up to take a closer look and realized just how amazing it was, asking, "How did he do that??". He came in a skeptic and left with a profound impression. With the Wu Yiming above, Eli marveled at how the artist could create such brightness with just ink. He thought it was created by the light shining on it. 
    Also showing at "Foundational Work" is Huang Kui, Zhang Enli, and Sun Xun, who contributed several works on paper. One of my favorites is this lovely gem: 

After ShanghArt, I took them to see Vanguard Gallery's new show, "Exercises of Living", featuring companion paintings to Gao Mingyan's works currently on view in MoCA. It's a continuation of the idea of reimagining everyday objects that the artist encounters on a daily basis, in this case, objects in his studio. The artist created a bizarro world where camels are bikes, rhinos are washing machines and a crane is a fan (one of my favorites):  

Another favorite was a tea kettle turtle, which would make an adorable companion piece to a Huang Kui painting I have of a tea kettle.

    I finally visited the new K11 mall to see the show curated by Leo Xu. It's a retrospective of sorts, documenting works by artists in Shanghai. He included many of the artists that he's worked with at his gallery, like Gabriel Lester and Michael Lin, but there were also pieces by Shanghai mainstays like MadeIn, Liu Jianhua, Zhou Tiehai (who recently left his post as Director of Minsheng Art Museum. Sad news!), Liang Yue, and Yang Zhenzhong. I was happy to see a piece by Yang, especially a funny one like Fatality, which was first shown in 2009 at a massive group show in Songjiang. You don't get the full effect of the piece here, since it was originally an installation that shot out ping pong balls at random intervals. Written on the balls were various medical conditions and diseases and I never fully investigated the weird and wonderful conditions that the artist included. Here I was able to:

I'm not sure what future shows at K11 will be like. The space is enormous and there didn't seem to be enough artworks in this current show to fill it up. It's great that the mall has a dedicated exhibition space but I'm hoping to be wowed by future shows. They do seem to be making an effort with their educational programming. They have this ongoing "In the Studio" event, where different artists from the current show talk about their work. The lectures are in Chinese and are a great way for the local community to meet artists. I haven't had the chance to attend one yet but so far, they've had Liu Jianhua and our friend Qiu Anxiong.
    Tomorrow I head back to M50 to meet with Rebecca and see her new show at OV Gallery. She had some problems with the Cultural Bureau (again!!) with her last show and she had take down pieces by Qian Rong. I don't think she's had any issues so far with this new show; fingers crossed that she catches a break this time around!

Last Wednesday I headed up to the Taopu area to visit some artists' studios and hopefully get some inspiration for this new project I'm hoping to initiate with Randian. Tagging along was Randian's Daniel Ho and new intern Nicolletta and my artist friend Alexander Oleksyn. 
    Our first stop was the Hero Pen Factory, where there is a sizable cluster of artists with studios. We were greeted by Qiu Anxiong and his wife outside his studio. I've known Qiu Laoshi for many years but this was my first time visiting his studio (he's been here for a year and a half). There weren't many new works in his studio as his time in the past couple of years has been taken up with Museum of Unknown activities and exhibitions. Museum is a loose group of artists and related practitioners (musicians, designers, etc.) that organize unorthodox exhibitions in and outside museums. Qiu Laoshi was hoping to bring a show last shown at the Arrow Factory in Beijing to Shanghai. The idea was to set up a lending library of artworks. None of the artworks exhibited would be on sale but anyone can borrow pieces if you leave a personal item behind. We still spent some time in Qiu Laoshi's studio, despite the lack of new works, as none of the others had seen his 2006 video, "New Book of the Mountains & Seas", which he played for us. I've seen it numerous times and it still hasn't lost it impact. 
    We went next door to Zhang Fei's studio, who was working on new sculptures that were intriguing but I would need to see the final result before I can form a solid opinion on them. I do like his technique for creating the solid structure of the pieces. He took colored paper, soaked them, and then crushed them together so they become a substantial mass. We then went to Liao Fei's studio, where we were greeted enthusiastically by his adorable little dog. He was working on several new pieces, including a series where he was investigating light. He paints the same scene at different times of the day, each canvas getting progressively darker. He also had others works that remined me of Mo Yan's work. He currently has work up at MoCA at the +Follow show. 
    The artists then invited us to join them for lunch at the factory canteen. Their studios are located in a working factory and there are still workers in the complex and the canteen is still up and running. The last time I ate at a canteen was in Beijing in 1986. You go up to a window with your own bowl and utensils, order from the selection of food they have and pay with tickets, not cash (Liao Fei was kind enough to supply us with tickets). The food was good, just simple home-style cooking, but as usual, I ordered too much! There is a large trench sink outside where you can wash your bowls and discard leftover food (we guessed this is then fed to pigs).
    We then joined Hangfeng in another building where his studio was. Hangfeng has been away for three months so there wasn't much to see in his studio but we did stop by Maya Kramer and Wu Ding's studio. It was my first time seeing Maya's studio (which she shares with her boyfriend artist Jin Shan) and I was pleasantly surprised. Previous works that she has shown at OV Gallery and Aike Gallery didn't do much for me so it was a treat to see these new works that she's preparing for a solo show in New York this fall. She had molded a feather out of charcoal (beautiful!) and tie dyed traditional xuan paper. Very cool. Wu Ding likewise did not have a lot up but we sat with him for a while because he kept pouring us tea. We had a nice discussion about tea and how he prefers pu'er (which we were drinking) over tie guan yin (which is Daniel's favorite) because tie guan yin has become so popular that the quality has gone down considerably. The more you know...
    We then rushed over to Taopu proper to visit MadeIn Studio, where Alexia had two young artists waiting for us. Before we met them, we got a sneak peak of MadeIn's new work for ArtBasel Hong Kong in May. I was sworn to secrecy so I can't say much and won't post any images. I will say that I gasped when I saw the work and it made me VERY excited, giddy almost, to see the final product. Elsewhere in the studio were canvases with thick white oil paint applied with baker's icing bag. They looked delicious. Here is a close up view of a pink and purple version that is currently up at ShanghArt's H-Space:

On to the artists. First up was Lu Pingyuan, who most recently had a show at the Goethe Open Space. For this show, he hung his entire wardrobe in the space and had two assistants on hand that would constantly wash his clothes in a machine installed in the wall. He's very much a conceptual artist in the vein of a young Xu Zhen (you can see why he works so closely with MadeIn). He's also created works that came with its own container, sort of like a coffin, which acts as both a display and storage unit. 
    Next up was Xia Yunfei, a VERY young artist (born 1989!) who's still learning and exploring. He showed us some performance pieces which were amateurish and naïve but he himself admitted that he is experimenting and figuring out what works for him. His paintings and drawings on the other hand were wonderful. They were dark, primal works that reminded me a bit of Anselm Kiefer. Xia Yunfei himself is quite genial and chipper, very unlike his paintings. Unfortunately I don't have any images on hand, as he was presenting them on Powerpoint, but I think he has a bright future. Our last stop was Ding Li's studio. He's part of the TOF collective and he organizes many exhibitions with them. He's much more established than the young artists we met throughout the day so he might not be ideal for the project (we want to stick with young, unknown artists) but it was still interesting to see the man behind many projects that I'm familiar with. 
    Daniel and I have plans to see more studios but not before we firm our plans and have a clearer objective for our project. I met with Lorenz from ShanghArt Gallery to bounce some ideas off him and he gave some very good advise that I will be following. Sorry I can't be more explicit in what those ideas are but once I have a concrete proposal, Ill be sure to share with everyone.

Those who know me know that I generally do not like openings. You never see the art and you get stuck in the same conversations with the same people at every event. Going to the opening reception for "Some Like it Hot" at the Shanghai Gallery of Art this past weekend was no different. I barely had time to view the artworks because I was too busy "catching up" and making nice with art world folks. The same questions are always directed at me: "So you're still writing?" (Answer: Yes. I'm always writing!) and "Have you been away? I haven't seen you in a long time." (Answer: No, but when have I ever been a big presence at openings?) I know people are just being polite but the amount of small talk at these things is mind numbing. Besides, no one really wants to engage with you (unless they're a good friend) and everyone is always looking for the next person to talk to (I'm guilty of this also!).
    Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I will say that the opening was not all bad, namely because of the work of Indonesian artist Syagini Ratna Wuhan. Her last work shown in Shanghai was for the Bandung Pavilion at the Shanghai Biennale, though I cannot for the life of me remember what the work was. Just goes to show you can never see an exhibition enough times. For "Some Like it Hot", she contributed lovely pencil drawings and an interactive, performance piece that was a "smashing" success with attendees. For Catharsis, she created a wall with a diagram of different issues written on it. Viewers were provided with plates with which they could throw and smash against the wall, aiming for whatever ails them at the moment.

The gallery was filled with the noise of smashing plates, and it was a welcome distraction to all the schmoozing and networking that usually occurs at these events. Some people were shy at first about being on display but that changed with the throwing of their first plate. True to its title, the work seemed genuinely cathartic for some people; one guy ended up smashing over 20 plates. That guy needs this installation in his home. It will be interesting to go back to the exhibition in a week or so and see how much debris has piled up. 
    Elsewhere in the show, I saw pickles in resin (Feng Lin), gold-tipped plaster wings (Wu Di, who also contributed the lovely little collage at the top of this post), a taxidermied peacock and a hilariously accurate installation of a mah-jong game devoid of players (both Li Wei). As I mentioned before, I did not have a chance to experience any of the works as fully as I wanted (aside from Catharsis); perhaps some works will stand out more on second viewing. One artist whose work I am getting increasingly annoyed with is Lu Yang. Her scientifically inclined installations are getting to be a bore and more than that, they don't stir any kind of emotion in me. Her installation consists of videos using infrared technology displayed on oscilloscopes, revealing things about animals and the human body that is otherwise hidden. Her works read well on paper and in fact, she is quite articulate in her assessment of her own work but the physical experience of viewing these works does not match the depth of meaning attached to them. For me at least, cold logic and art are not ideal tango partners. Of course, it matters not what I think. She is a hot artist with a hot career and will see success despite my reservations about her. And she seemed to have found the perfect partner in fellow artist Chen Tianzhuo, who I found out she just starting dating. Chen's crazy, neon installation of religious iconography at MoCA's current show, "Existence", looks like it was born from the same mother as Lu Yang's work.
    This show was the first for the gallery's new director, Josef Ng, formerly of Tang Contemporary, who replaces Mathieu Borysevicz. This is the gallery's fourth director since they opened in 2004; I'll be curious to see how long Josef lasts and what he has in store for the space. I met him briefly but did not have a chance to speak to him in depth. I will say this though; this is the first show in, well, ever where a majority of the artists were of the fairer sex. For this, he deserves big kudos. 
    Later in the week, Daniel, Alexander Oleksyn and I will be going on a big field trip, visiting young artists' studios in the Taopu area in anticipation for a project that I'm hoping to initiate with Randian. I'm reluctant to give further details as this project could quite possibly implode in my face but for now, I am excited to embark on new ventures with good friends and colleagues! Be sure to check back to see what treasures I've unearthed in Taopu.

    Last Thursday I met up with my friends Christina Shmigel and Alexander Oleksyn (both American artists) for a full day of art in far flung places. Christina and I started this pseudo- tradition several years back when we realized there are just some places we would never visit alone and/or without a driver. This was back when art complexes started popping up all over the city: the eastern reaches of Yangpu district, the northern edge of Putuo, Pudong... you get the idea. 
    Our first stop was the Long Museum. I've written about the collection before (look out for my profile on Wang Wei in the upcoming issue of Art Asia Pacific) but it was a lot more fun viewing the works with friends, rather than with someone from the academic department (as I did the first time I went). Such gems like "We are all sharp shooters!", depicting cheerful women diligently cleaning their guns, went unnoticed on my first visit. 
    After a quick lunch in the food court of the World Financial Center (ramen!), we headed to Yangpu to visit Magda Danysz Gallery. Magda moved to this complex a few years back but I was never motivated to venture up here. And for good reason I guess. It was the tail end of their exhibition with Zhang Dali and Gael Davrinche. Why these two artists were paired up was totally lost on me. Zhang Dali has made a name for himself with his political works and public interventions. But here he seemed to have gone off the deep end. This is the first time I've seen his sculptural works and I really wish I had not seen them. I don't even think it's worth describing; I'll just post an image here:    

We also were given a sneak peak at their next show, an exhibition of Italian street art duo Stan Lex. Magda is really milking this street art thing for all its worth. If I see another stencil or graffiti-inspired text, I might have to put a hit on Banksy. I blame him for this current wave of mediocre street artists. 
    We made it back downtown for MoCA's current installment of +Follow, their yearly exhibition of young artists. Not as big as in previous years, this year's show, titled "Existence", features six artists (and one designer). The highlights for me were Gao Mingyan (consistently good), Liao Fei, and Su Chang. Gao had some lovely sketches on hand, something which I've never seen from him. Liao also had beautiful paintings which reminded me of Zhang Enli (never a bad thing). But Su Chang got me again with his architectural miniatures. I am such a sucker for shrunken objects! Most of the pieces were already shown at Don Gallery last year but it's always a pleasure to have them included in a show. I particularly love his façade of a typical Shanghai apartment building. 
    At this point, Alex had to leave us (art exhaustion) so Christina and I soldiered on to one final stop, a brief visit to James Cohan. The show was still being installed but we got the idea. Jessica Lin Cox from their New York gallery curated this one featuring artists from the Lower East Side. There wasn't much of a theme and the works did not relate to the neighborhood at all. Rather, it was a loose gathering of a group of artists that have made a community downtown. It wasn't a particularly dynamic selection of works but I did like Erica Baum's archival prints. This one was particularly lovely:

Christina and I were also blown away by Hilary Harnischfeger's geode-like objects. They look like a crystal had grown a rainbow of tumors. Even more impressive is that some of the growths are actually layers (and I mean LAYERS) of heavy stock colored paper that have been cut away to look like striations of rock. Beautiful!
    I really wanted to be in New York this week so this was a nice alternative. Spring is just around the corner so I expect to see many more new shows in the coming weeks. Check back soon for my take on it all!

Last week was the third edition of Art Stage Singapore, which is quickly nipping at the heels of Art Basel in Hong Kong and trying to grab a share of the Asian art market. I unfortunately could not attend but preliminary reports were positive. According to the Wall Street Journal, sales were up and galleries in general were happy with the turn out. Shanghai's own ShanghArt Gallery sold a piece from Ding Yi for $450,000! 
    Shanghai was relatively quiet as a result, save for a few new openings on the Bund at the Rockbund Art Museum (more on that later this week), Studio Rouge, and Pearl Lam Galleries. I did have an opportunity to speak to Wang Wei, founder and director of the new Long Museum in Pudong, in preparation for a piece I'm writing for Art Asia Pacific. An earlier visit to the museum with Rebecca Catching of OV Gallery left a positive impression on me so I was eager to find out more about the woman behind the ambitious space. 
    I'll quickly give a run down of what to expect if you visit the museum. There was much talk of her Chinese contemporary art collection so I was waiting to be impressed. But aside from a few early pieces from Geng Jianyi, Zhang Peili, and Zhou Chunya, there was no rhyme or reason to the collection. It was basically a who's who of the Chinese art market. All the major artists from the past twenty years were there but there were no major pieces. One can definitely tell that she "shops" for art rather than "collects".
    Once we got to the second floor, I was ready to change my mind about her. "Revolutionary Art Since the Yan'An Era: 1942 - 2009" is mind blowing in its breadth. There are staggering number of original propaganda oil and ink paintings, watercolors, and wood block prints. It's a remarkable collection especially in comparison the measly showing of historical propaganda art at the China Art Museum, which covers two small galleries. 
    The third floor comprised of traditional art, mostly ink paintings, that go back to the Song Dynasty (if I remember correctly). This collection is nothing compared to what you can find at the Shanghai Museum but they definitely spent proper money on installing the show. It's rare to see such professionalism in a museum in China. The highlights from this collection came towards the end, with a small gallery dedicated to several pieces by Qi Baishi (which I actually liked, although I'm not generally a fan). I can't imagine what those pieces are worth now!
    I'm going over my notes now for my AAP piece and still haven't figured out how to present the museum and the woman behind it. The task is made even more difficult when you factor in her second museum, which she plans to open later this year on this side of the river. Two museums in less than two years. This is going to be a tricky profile to write.   

For my inaugural post (which I should have done weeks ago!), I'm taking the easy route with a top ten list of my favorite shows in Shanghai in 2012.
10. Li Xiaofei, "Assembly Line" (OV Gallery, 07/28 - 09/03): Industrial landscapes are nothing new in art but this emerging artist's documentary style video works have a candidness and lyrical quality that humanizes the factory machine.
9. Paolo Pivi, "Share, but it's not Fair" (Rockbund Art Museum, 07/07 - 09/09): This solo show from the enigmatic Italian artist demonstrates that artists aren't always self-serious and humor-less cranks. Her It's a cocktail party
installation was an especially gleeful spectacle to witness.
8. Xu Bing, "Book from the Ground" (Shanghai Gallery of Art, 04/21 - 05/29): The iconic Chinese artist made quite the splash earlier this year with a book that attempted to revolutionize the way we "read". A beautiful extension of his "Book from the Sky" project. 
7. Zhang Ding, "Buddha Jumps Over the Wall" (TOP Contemporary Art Center, 06/02 - 07/15): Zhang Ding puts a whole new spin on this traditional and extraordinarily complex banquet dish with an equally complex installation and performance. 
6. Chen Wei, "More" (Leo Xu Projects, 06/03 - 08/05): This Beijing-based artist proves once again why he's the Chinese photographer to watch with new works on eerie interiors composed with a painterly eye.
5. Shen Fan, "Landscape 9210" (ShanghArt Gallery H-Space, 04/15 - 05/15): Shen Fan continues to explore innovative approaches to traditional landscape painting with a multi-media installation that's more creative and thought
provoking than that of works from artists half his age. 
4. Bill Viola, "Unspoken" (James Cohan Gallery, 03/09 - 05/06): Some may take issue with me putting this show so high on the list but it's exhilarating when Shanghai is treated to a heavy hitter like Viola. Viewers were able to see his monumental works on a more intimate scale. 
3. Geng Jianyi, "Wu Zhi - 1985 - 2008" (Minsheng Art Museum, 09/07 - 10/12): Last year, there was the Zhang Peili retrospective at the museum. It's only natural that this year, Zhang's partner in 1980s avant-garde hijinks would also be given a special look. Undoubtedly influential, Geng Jianyi's work is still fresh.  
2. 9th Shanghai Biennale: Reactivitation (Power Station of Art, 10/02/2012 - 03/31/2013): Say what you will about the Shanghai Biennale, this year was arguably the best since 2000. The new space impresses (despite the fluorescent lights and ugly escalators) and there was something for everyone. It's still on so don't miss your chance to see the best international exhibition in Shanghai. And if you missed it the first time around, read what I had to say about the Biennale here and here. 
1. Yang Fudong, "Quote out of Context" (OCT Art Terminal, 09/29 - 01/03/2013): This wasn't a complete retrospective of everyone's favorite Chinese video artist but there was just enough to demonstrate why Yang Fudong is a critical darling and a potent voice of a generation. A definite highlight of this astounding show was One Half of August, which gives a whole new perspective to his film series Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest.