Leo Xu Projects presented Liu Chuang at Frieze. 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.
Suspended Gravity at OV Gallery. 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.
Tang Guo at ShanghArt. 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:
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.
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.
Artist Ed Pien. 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!
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!
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