In honor of the Chinese New Year (2010 is the year of the Tiger), Paper Tiger Wrap is offering one Hip Hostess Blog giveaway winner 2 sheets of their beautiful wrapping paper.  The winner will receive 1 sheet of the Red Dragon/ Tiger pattern and 1 sheet of the Orange Plum Blossom pattern ($10 value).  All Paper Tiger papers are created with a reversible pattern or color so there are two sides to choose from.  Printed on heavy 100% recycled paper with soy-based ink and each sheet is a generous 23.6″ x 34.2″.  Paper Tiger’s designs reflect the richness of Chinese art – they have a wonderful collection of contemporary, colorful and fun gift paper.

To view Paper Tiger Wrap’s entire collection of fine paper visit their Etsy store at http://www.etsy.com/shop/PaperTigerWrap.

Enter this giveaway by completing the form at the link below.  The winner will be randomly selected at 10pm EST on February 10, 2010, and will be notified via e-mail.  One entry per person.  Good luck!

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dHQ5eXRFMmduSzVVLTlmdjFMUXVjRnc6MA

The Freer & Sackler Galleries, the Asian art arm of the Smithsonian Institution, revealed this week a new and quite shiny website featuring 85 Song & Yuan dynasty works from the collection (82 paintings, three works of calligraphy). It’s a quite attractive, sleek and clean website, and I applaud them for making images and documentation of these works more easily and widely available online.

While the images are not the kind of super-high quality or fully zoomable images one finds on some other museum’s online databases, nor do they begin to compare to the quality of images on ArtStor, the documentation is quite extensive, including full transcriptions and translations of the inscriptions on at least some of the works.

Could prove a pretty useful resource. Inscriptions can be particularly illuminating and insightful when studying a painting, and yet are often overlooked due to the lack of easily accessible transcriptions and/or translations.

If you’re interested, take a look.

again some more artwork of two chinese artists. and again I can’t figure out their names. it is a very unusual style I have never seen anywhere else.

vital from spain informed me that the second artist is HU YONGKAI. you can find more about him here

© unknown chinese artist / hu yongkai

“Painting cannot equal nature for the marvels of mountains and water, but nature cannot equal painting for the marvels of brush and ink.” – Dong Qichang (1555-1636).

I just obtained a copy of “A Short Guide to Writing About Art,” by Sylvan Barnet. I love Bookmooch.

Sylvan Barnet was a professor of English at Tufts, so it certainly makes sense that he’d produce a book on how to write, and a pretty nice one at that, judging from a cursory flip through the book. But he is also a rather prominent collector of ukiyo-e and other Japanese art. It is exciting to read such a book by someone whose name I’m already familiar with, whose name appears on numerous catalogs and journal articles and the like. It’s also exciting to know that such a book on writing about art is not written from a Eurocentric background or approach, but by someone intimately familiar with the same type of art about which I am myself writing.

TOP BLOGS, BOOKS, NEWSPAPER SOURCES FOR CHINESE ART

What do you read? What information are you looking for? Where do you find it? These are the questions on our lips every day when we talk with art world movers. We have learnt that, despite exploding levels of activity in the art scenes across Asia, reporting remains sparse and uneven and that people have a surprisingly diverse range of sources depending on their base country and background.

In this post we ask Ashley Lee, one of our new intake of interns who  studies Asian art in the US and London, to give us her perspective. 

As a young full-time scholar based in the west, what Ashley are your favourite sources of information about Chinese contemporary art?

As an art history major specializing in contemporary Asian art, here are the list of sources that I utilize regularly in my studies to keep up with the fast-paced scene. These are my absolute favorite sources—everything that I read and recommend frequently.

e-flux - http://www.e-flux.com – A basic yet comprehensive list of new exhibitions and announcements in the art world. Its journal, which has been published online since November 2008, raises questions about contemporary art issues.

Art AsiaPacific - http://www.aapmag.com - One of my favorite periodicals: it covers the Middle East and Central Asia as well as East Asia.  AAP also has articles that describe the major successes and progressions of major Asian artists and movements, which makes it especially helpful for research—for example, in the last issue, Zhang Huan and Roberto Chabet were mentioned.

ArtRadarAsia - http://artradarasia.wordpress.com – As a student, I appreciate ArtRadarAsia for its broad range of topics covering all of the Asian art world. It’s an excellent resource for finding a paper topic or finding an overview of a movement or a specific area of Asia.

New York Times exhibition reviews – http://www.nytimes.com – The New York Times art critics often review Asian art shows in the New York area. I would especially recommend reading reviews by Holland Cotter because they contain valuable specialist information on Asian art.

Asia Art Archive – http://www.aaa.org.hk – A library of contemporary Asian art resources in Hong Kong which contains reference materials, exhibition catalogues, periodicals, pamphlets, exhibition invitations, newspaper articles, among other things. It’s comprehensive (it has over 25,000 catalogued materials), especially for East and Southeast Asia, and its catalogue is viewable online. It also has a listing of special events related to contemporary Asian art.

Wu Hung, Exhibiting Experimental Art in China: This is my favorite book about the development of contemporary Chinese art. Wu Hung, one of the foremost scholars of Chinese contemporary art, wrote this book as a catalog for Cancelled: Exhibiting Experimental Art in China, a 2000 show at Chicago’s Smart Museum. It explains the reconstruction of Song Dong’s installation Father and Son in the Ancestral Temple, which had originally been shown in the 1998 exhibition It’s Me, which was shut down by the Chinese government. It also lists all the exhibitions that were shut down or censored in the 1990s.

AL/KCE

Related posts:
Top 5 Sites for Japanese Contemporary Art News by Matthew Larking – June 2009
Top 14 Books on Southeast Asian Art by Adeline Ooi – April 2009
Top 5 Books on Chinese art by Chinese art specialist, Pippa Dennis – October 2008

Subscribe to ArtRadarAsia

again some more illustrations by two chinese master-artists. I apologize that I am not able to give you the names, unfortunately I can’t read the chinese language. maybe someone out there who recognizes the artwork can help.

according to pinoc and Zhiqi the first artist’s name is DI Shaoying and the second one is Shi Dawei. thank you very much for the information…

© DI Shaoying / Shi Dawei

Shared by our facebook friend Alex Ene

If you want to know her better you can access the MangaShop site. There you can find Japanese books, comics and art albums.

Roberta Smith has, once again, written a truly marvelous article for The New York Times (online).  The article, entitled “Time, the Infiinite Storyteller“, is a thoughtful and wondrous look at time in art:  Time’s Progress, Real Time, Mortal Time, Material Time, Cosmic Time, in a voyage through the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s vast collection encompassing African, Egyptian, Impressionist, Chinese, Japanese, Abstract Expressionist, Indian, Oceanic, 15th century Italian, and first century (C.E.) Roman art, just to mention a few(!!).

As Smith writes, time often gets special consideration today, the first day of the new year.  And further, “(t)here may be no better place — no place more stimulating or ultimately more comforting — to contemplate life’s forward motion” than in a thoughtful look at eons of timeless art, and in its ideas of time.

nothingisinvisible@live.fr

Apparently, a team of Chinese representatives have been touring major US museums, speaking with curators & dept directors, and seeking out objects stolen from the Summer Palace. That these representatives are not themselves curators or museum professionals is a sign of what the real motives of this mission are – the Times reports that the group is composed of members of the media, and of the Summer Palace’s propaganda department.

Uneasy Engagement: China Hunts for Art Treasures in U.S. Museums, New York Times, 16 December 2009.

Wu Zuolai, a professor at the China Academy of Art, is quoted in the article, pointing out that “the obsession with Yuanmingyuan ignores the plunder of older sites that are more artistically significant.”

“Chinese history did not start with the Qing Dynasty,” he said. “This treasure hunting trip is just a political show. The media portray it as patriotic, but it’s just spreading hate.””

Ignoring the fact that, as James Watt, head of the Met’s Asian division says, most objects looted from the Summer Palace are now in the hands of private collectors in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, the group focuses its attention on US museums.

How is this anything but a nationalistic project, aimed at promoting anti-imperialist & anti-American attitudes in order to bolster nationalistic fervor at home? The Times says it flat out: “…the quest, fueled by national pride, has been quixotic, provoking fear at institutions overseas but in the end amounting to little more than a public relations show aimed at audiences back home.”

The issues surrounding looting are complex, and I wouldn’t want to get into a whole discussion of all the issues right here; all told, I don’t think I can fully take one side or the other – the rights of museums in foreign countries vs the rights of home countries. Does the argument about having better facilities to better protect the artifacts (in a foreign country) count for anything? Liu Yang, a

researcher who was part of the delegation, seemed to admit as much, complaining that politics had upstaged scholarship. Even if he stumbled upon a palace relic, he said, he would be reluctant to take it back to an institution whose unheated exhibition space resembled little more than a military barracks. “To be honest, if you leave a thermos in our office, it gets broken,” he said. “Maybe it’s better these things stay where they are.”

Thankfully, the group hasn’t found any illicit artifacts at major Northeast US museums. Our museums and their collecting policies have been defended. The Chinese populace & government will never admit to their mission being deflated or defeated, and the American people, it would seem, will never see the museums as being vindicated, continuing to see them in a negative light as looters and storehouses of stolen objects. But, I think this ended about as well as it could have.

SINGAPORE AND HONG KONG’S COMPETING ART MARKET

Singapore’s art scene has grown rapidly since its 1989 government mandate to recognize the “importance of culture and the art.” Thriving to a point that, according to The Wall Street Journal, Hong Kong–Asia’s epicenter of art–is beginning to take its competitor seriously.

Hong Kong’s challenging art scene

Today’s numbers would suggest that Hong Kong has nothing to worry about for competition.  Hong Kong is currently the third-largest auction market in the world with both Christie’s and Sotheby’s in its territory, and has set aside close to US$3 billion in order to create a much needed world class arts and culture development known as West Kowloon Cultural District. The project, however, has been slow to start and left many frustrated.

“The Hong Kong government first hit upon the idea in 1998 of building an integrated arts and culture neighborhood on 40 hectares of reclaimed land in the West Kowloon district. After many fits and starts, planning for the project recently picked up some momentum…Nevertheless, even if it all goes as planned, the first phase won’t be open until 2016.”

One of the proposed models for the West Kowoon Cultural Centre

The West Kowloon project has been “frustrating and painful,” says Asia Art Archive’s Ms. Hsu, who is also on the advisory panel for the museum at the new West Kowloon development. “For the public it has looked like the government is stalling, but it gives me a lot of hope. The government is very concerned about getting it right.’”

Singapore makes its move

The time spent behind making Hong Kong’s “necessary cultural move” may eventually result in Singapore gaining ground in the market by the country’s pushing ahead with so many art-hub projects of their own.

“It [Singapore] invested more than US$1 billion in infrastructure, including several museums and a 4,000-seat complex of theaters, studios and concert halls called the Esplanade, which opened in 2002, and spiced up its arts programming with diversity and a regional flavor.”

The Esplanade, Singapore

The benefits of Singapore’s art initiatives are already apparent. According to Singapore’s National Arts Council “between 1997 and 2007, the ‘vibrancy’ of the local art scene, measured by the number of performances and exhibition days, quadruped to more than 26,000.”

However, Singapore is still missing a key ingredient to perhaps prosper further: a big art-auction market like Hong Kong’s.

“Some smaller art-auction houses hold sales in Singapore, but the big ones — Christie’s and Sotheby’s — have pulled out and moved their Southeast Asian art auctions to Hong Kong, the former British colony that is home to seven million people and became a Chinese territory in 1997.”

For a city, having the ingredients for a thriving art market creates a virtuous circle. The powerful marketing machines of the big auction houses, including public previews of coming sales, raises awareness and appreciation of art in the community. All this encourages local artists to create more art. And that momentum, in turn, contributes to the development of a city’s broader cultural scene, including music, theater and design.”

Singapore looks ahead

The relationship between big art-auction markets and a thriving art scene can be so entangled that it would appear difficult to navigate a new course in order to adequately compete. Singapore, it seems, is trying anyways.

“Undaunted, Singapore is diligently pushing ahead and has opened several museums and other arts venues while Hong Kong has dithered on the construction of West Kowloon. Christie’s also recently picked Singapore to be the site of a global fine-arts storage facility to open in a duty-free zone in January.”

Related Posts

• ARTSingapore 2009 Fair-new photography fair, high value sales and gallerists pick top fairs in Asia today- October 2009
• New auction houses with new strategies open in Singapore art market – October 2009
• Liquidity propels prices, Chinese Political Pop is back- Sothebys Contemporary Asian Art Auction 2009 Hong Kong- October 2009

Subscribe to Art Radar Asia

RM/KCE

SKIN: BINGYI
at Contrasts Gallery, Shanghai

22nd November-22nd December, 2009

Vernissage: Sunday, 22nd November, 3-6pm
Contrasts Gallery, No. 181 Middle Jiangxi Road, G/F, Shanghai, China 200002

SHANGHAI – Contrasts Gallery is pleased to present SKIN: BINGYI, the artist’s first solo exhibition in Shanghai.

A provocative painter, Bingyi is best known for her strange, exotic imagery exposing the most sensitive aspects of human relationships.  SKIN best exemplifies the virtuoso nature of the artist’s oeuvre.  The exhibition design includes seven site-specific installations of paintings and sculptures, which Bingyi terms “seven environments.”  The spaces that she invokes range from classical salon to mortuary shrine; from cave to private bathroom.

To Bingyi, there are only two characters in the visual world that she has created: You and I. All of her experiments that play with the idea of “You and I” complicate our understanding of various relationships, between ourselves and the images, between man and woman, and between objects and images.  Bingyi paints sadness, pain, sentiment and joy, as well as every emotion possibly reflected by human interaction.  Yet, she is not satisfied with just portraying emotions: she also raises several questions about the time and space that contain them.

The centerpiece of the exhibition is a Salon that displays over forty paintings of various styles. The theme of the salon is “How Do You Remember Your Body?”  Bingyi carefully crafts images (content) and frames (presentation) from different eras and continents to present a critique of the temporal and spatial parameters that stabilize our mentality.  For example, the painting entitled “Lady in White, My Whistler” appears to evoke a Whistler painting with the same title. However, close examination of the painting will reveal that the frame and painting are antiques, which Bingyi later painted over.  And the audience will come to realize that the Whistler painting in reference does not actually exist.  Like the formalism of the Salon itself, Bingyi commentates on a fantastic historic style and a visual world.  Neither world exists in reality, but they somehow manage to develop a lingering impact on the psyche of our contemporary cultures.

Bingyi’s art is often confessional in terms of inspiration.  The strength of her expression lies precisely in this directness of her approach.  Bingyi’s titles, such as “I Sucked All the Blood Out of You, I Hurt Too” or “Looking at Me Through You,” just like her images, are equally literal, graphic and comical. The conceptualism in Bingyi’s painting happens when she confronts the tensions and turmoil in her own life. For example, “The Men that I Loved,” is a crystal resin sculpture that contains personal belongings of a number of men that she loved.  “The Square Footage of Your Skin” is a seemingly minimalist white painting, yet it is also the most straight-forward measurement of her touch.

The liveliest piece is “The Volume of My Heart.”  The sculptural installation is essentially an old bathtub containing the metal gallium in the volume of the artist’s heart.  When the water inside the bathtub is heated to a certain temperature, the gallium melts; otherwise, it returns to solidity.

SKIN, to Bingyi, is not only a description, a noun, or a title.  It is an organic experience that becomes marked by accidents, events, or interventions of other human beings.  Painting, as a medium, allows her to make images that turn one’s physical being into mental reminiscence.  The content of these paintings inevitably explores problems related to conflict, violence, intimacy and tension that permeate all human dynamics and personal experiences.  Bingyi argues that the notion of sensuality can be both physical and ideological, as she perceives such notions as a direct expression of the various problems introduced by the debates of modernity.

Since Bingyi’s first solo show in 2007, she has exhibited worldwide at various museums, galleries and biennials.  She has shown at the Caixa Forum in Madrid, Today Art Museum in Beijing, Max Protetch Gallery in New York, Erna Hecey Gallery in Belgium, The White Rabbit Collection in Sydney, the Chinese Architecture Biennial in Chongqing, and the Gwangju Biennial in Korea.

Bingyi holds a Ph. D. degree from Yale University.  She currently lives in Beijing and Buffalo, New York.

by: Randi M.

I enjoy looking at art. And there are some times when I don’t get the concept of the piece and this is definitely one of them. Liu Bolin is a Chinese artist that did the sculpture in the picture below. The piece is called, “Burning Obama Man.” It is supposed to represent the impact that President Obama has had on the world. I am not sure if that means Obama is burning because as in he is bringing the world down, or if he is “on fire” because he is doing a lot of great things.  I am thinking it is the latter, but I am not sure. Comment and let us know what you think.

Click image for source.

Source

ASIAN ART MARKET

Visitors enter a Sotheby's auction room in Hong Kong for a sale of modern and contemporary art on October 6, 2008.

For the first time ever, the total auction revenue from “contemporary art in Asia” is greater than the total of the United States artprice reports. The statistics are collected from a 12-month period spanning from July 2008 to June 2009. Asia generated €130 million versus the United States’ €123 million. China is the highest gainer out of this trend, having generated €95 million from contemporary art during the same period.  According to the report, this means China is continuing to “hold on to its third place global geographical art auction revenue ranking.”

The establishment of foreign auction houses such as Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Bonhams in Hong Kong, in combination with the financial strength of Hong Kong and Shanghai are to be accredited for China’s position. For those who are looking to begin collecting Asian art, this does not mean that the price of contemporary Chinese art is back up to its sky-high prices of a couple of years ago. Artprice’s report tell us that in the first half of 2008 the average price of contemporary works sold in China was $65,500, however, in the first half of 2009, this average dropped to $26,800.

Related posts:

• Liquidity propels prices, Chinese Political Pop is back- Sotheby’s Contemporary Asian Art Auction 2009 Hong Kong- October 2009
• Trends and opportunities in the contemporary photography market- October 2009
• Newslink round up Art Basel 2009- Indian, Japanese artists dominate coverage of Asians- June 2009

Subscribe to Art Radar Asia for more market and auction house news

RM/KCE

ChinaLuxCultureBiz is now Jing Daily! Be sure and check us out at our new location.

Jing Daily compiles the best in Chinese luxury, culture, business, arts, and investment news from around the world

NEW YORK – November 5, 2009 – Jing Daily, the source for the most important and timely news about the business of luxury and culture in China, today announced the launch of its new website (http://www.jingdaily.com). With insight and commentary gathered from the Chinese- and English-language blogosphere and top news sources around the world, Jing Daily offers up-to-date information about crucial developments and current trends in China’s luxury, business, arts, and cultural markets.

With a middle class now roughly equivalent to the entire U.S. population (and growing), China’s consumer market is among the world’s largest. But for Westerners looking to do business there – or simply understand the contemporary culture – China can be a confusing, extremely fast-paced, and at times contentious place. Published in English and Chinese, Jing Daily cuts through the clutter to focus on the intersection of luxury and culture in China: the ins and outs of business development with an eye toward the upscale consumer market, as well as the business of culture – from auctions, museums, and contemporary art to performance, publishing, and public events.

Published through a strategic partnership with AW Asia, a New York-based arts organization working in the field of contemporary Chinese art, Jing Daily is compiled in New York City and Beijing and incorporates original content from reporters based in New York, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

“China’s high-end and cultural markets are among the most dynamic and fast-changing in the world,” said Larry Warsh, publisher of AW Asia. “Jing Daily is a concise resource for individuals and companies whose interest in China extends beyond simple economics and encompasses contemporary Chinese culture in all its complexity.”

With original interviews, commentary, book reviews and videos, along with a proprietary “Media Roundup” gathering the latest China news worldwide, Jing Daily is designed for anyone looking to stay on top of luxury and culture in today’s China.

In Mandarin Chinese, jing means energy, essence, excellence and proficiency. That’s the principle by which Jing Daily compiles the most significant news and insights about China today.

I always have a difficult time remembering which prominent American scholar it was that advised the US government to spare Kyoto and Nara from bombing during World War II. And now and then, I am reminded, as I come across the name Langdon Warner again. What a debt is owed to him, the temples, machiya, sacred and artistic treasures, and so much else of these hearts of Japanese traditional culture, protected and preserved due to his efforts (though so much has been lost to modernization in the decades since…).

However, it would seem that he “rescued” a number of wall paintings from Dunhuang in the 1920s, which were later sold to the MFA. I had no idea this had occurred, and certainly don’t believe I had any idea that the MFA owned Dunhuang wall paintings. What incredible objects to own (I wonder what form and condition they’re in – solid blocks of painted stone?), and what a controversy I can imagine this has become. Was it controversial at the time? I wonder.

Strangely, I cannot seem to find the paintings in the MFA online database; perhaps they have since deaccessioned and repatriated them?

Auction Sales From July 1, 2008 To June 30, 2009 Send Zeng To The Top Of The List, As Chinese Artists Make Up 16 Of The Top 50 In The World

Zeng Fanzhi is one of the most interesting and top-grossing contemporary Chinese artists of the last 30 years

Artxun (Chinese) reports this week that Zeng Fanzhi — one of China’s top contemporary artists — has gained the title of “Number One” Chinese artist in terms of auction prices over the last year, leapfrogging longtime title-holder Zhang Xiaogang. While some of this may be down to the slower pace with which Zhang is producing new works, Zeng’s growing popularity within China and, ostensibly, among New Chinese Collectors, could have something to do with it. Zeng, who sprang to prominence in the 1990s mostly through his “Mask” series but has since begun experimenting with more abstract pieces, recently sold 5 of 6 pieces up for grabs at Sotheby’s autumn auction of contemporary Asian art in Hong Kong well above high estimates, indicating that his popularity among the primarily Mainland Chinese bidders remains strong.

The Artxun piece, rather than focusing only on Zeng’s auction prices, does an excellent job of looking into the artist himself and some of the personal projects he has undertaken, including the “Zeng Fanzhi Art Scholarship,” which awarded 10,000 yuan to a disabled university applicant in July of this year. From the article (translation by CLCB staff):

Compared to last year’s [Artprice] list, Chinese artists comprised 16 of the top 50 artists in the world, down from 18 the year before. Among Chinese artists, Zeng Fanzhi was the highest selling, surpassing Zhang Xiaogang by 1,010,000 yuan, becoming China’s most “expensive” artist of 2009. Zhang Xiaogang slipped from the top five this year down to #7. Chinese artists who made the top 50 list last year, namely Yin Chaoyang, Liu Wei, Fan Dehai, and Guo Hai weren’t strong enough to make the list this year, although Yan Peiming is expected to enter the top 50. Another interesting thing to look at is Chengdu’s growing power — aside from Zhang Xiaogang, Chengdu-based contemporary artist Zhou Chunya was ranked 17th in the world and #11 in China in 2008, and in 2009 rose 3 places in the world ranking to #14 while rising 6 places in China to #5 there. Another Chengdu artist, Luo Zhongli, ranked #38.

Art helping the disabled: Highest donation by Zeng Fanzhi, to the tune of 350,000 yuan

This year, 45-year-old Zeng Fanzhi is the illustrious representative of contemporary Chinese art. His “Mask” series sold at Christie’s auction for a surprising price of over 70,000,000 yuan, setting a new record for a Chinese contemporary artist. Zeng Fanzhi and [Artxun] actually have some common threads. Artxun and [contemporary Chinese artist Zhou Chunya]’s jointly created “Multicolor Fund” (“五彩基金”) donated some 350,000 RMB to establish the “Zeng Fanzhi Art Scholarship,” the largest single donation. At that time, Zeng Fanzhi expressed in an interview with Artxun journalists that he’s an artist, so he pays particularly close attention to charitable activities directed toward youths with dreams of becoming artists who were seriously injured in the Sichuan earthquake (of 2008). Said Zeng, “When I went through hard times myself, I received help from others, so since I now have the ability to help other people, I’m going to do everything I can to do so.” This July, Deng Yu, who was severely injured in the Sichuan earthquake, became the first recipient of the “Zeng Fanzhi Art Scholarship,” receiving a 10,000 yuan annual scholarship after completing his university exam.

 

“Bullish” News Gives Chinese Contemporary Art A Shot In The Arm

Some art organizations and galleries have closed [in the wake of the global economic crisis], causing many critics to think the contemporary art bubble’s time has come, but world famous art monitoring organization Artprice found after a survey that there is reason to be “bullish” about the developmental tendencies of the Chinese contemporary art market, and that the Chinese contemporary art market has unexpectedly risen to the third largest in the global ranking. Last night, a Chinese contemporary artist ranked in the top 20 — who declined to give his name — told a reporter that the economic downturn had a major influence on the whole world, not only China, saying, “The data from this survey is a real shot in the arm for the Chinese contemporary art market.”

 

Chengdu-based contemporary art critic Chen Moze said, “In terms of all of Asia, Chinese contemporary art is worthy of the title ‘Big Brother,’ because there are lots of Chinese artists, and the overall strength is great. Since domestic contemporary art became integrated internationally, and the market got on track, it’s easy to see how an exceptional artist like Zhang Xiaogang can build up global fame after 30 years. [To me] there’s nothing unusual about that.”

"Untitled" by Zeng Fanzhi

“Looking East” Exhibition Showcases China’s Up-And-Coming Artists, Reflecting The Generational Difference Between Young Artists And ’90s Superstars

Guo Wei's art reflects the rebelliousness and angst of China's so-called "post-80s Generation" (Image: Kansas City Star)

With regular news about China’s most famous artists selling works for hundreds of thousands of dollars, and in some cases well over a million dollars, over the past five years, it can be easy to forget that China’s art world is in a constant state of flux, with thousands of young artists coming out of art schools and vying for attention. Although artists like Yue Minjun and Zhang Xiaogang have quickly become major global art stars, China’s younger artists are little known outside of their home country (and, more often than not, are unknown there as well), so the news that Kansas City is mounting a relatively large-scale and far-ranging exhibition of works by young Chinese artists must give some of these art greenhorns some hope for their future prospects.

The “Looking East” group exhibition, held at the Byron C. Cohen Gallery for Contemporary Art, follows previous solo shows of Chinese artists Hong Chun Zhang, Chong Siew Ying and Deng Wushu at the gallery, and offers viewers a glimpse at many of China’s burgeoning young talents. From the Kansas City Star:

Three prints by Yang Qian seem shallow and self-indulgent compared with [Sheng Qi's politically-motivatd] oils. Yang wields tremendous skill to produce voyeuristic fantasies of spying on beautiful women through moist windowpanes or in foggy mirrors.

In the lower gallery, Feng Zhengjie offers three striking silkscreens of women. Unlike Yang’s bathers caught unaware, these women are explosive products of the collision between consumer culture and traditional Chinese culture.

“Chinese Portrait Series No. 53” presents a fiery redhead. Her windblown hair recalls product ads of the ’80s, and her porcelain, angular features resemble the commercial works of Patrick Nagel. Intriguingly, her eyes look in opposite directions, perhaps to express being divided by a “duplicity of ideology,” to borrow a phrase from the artist’s biography.

Three prints by Guo Wei cast defiant adolescents as protagonists of individualism in a country that favors the collective. Silkscreen editions of his acrylics on canvas, these brazenly graphic images display teenagers vying for attention with the energy of young, brassy MySpace users.

Two figures make their presence known in “Chambre Ave Nuage.” Against a gray background decorated with generic, fair-weather clouds, a boy in loose-fitting clothes opens his mouth wide as if to shout. A girl in a white wig and spaghetti-strap slip strikes a pose as if for a camera.

The images in this exhibit are visually arresting. They also offer a fascinating window onto how young Chinese artists view political and cultural developments in their country.

TNT Theater’s Tour Will Visit Tianjin, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Beijing, Ningbo, Hangzhou And Xi’an

TNT's past staging of "Oliver Twist" was a big hit in Beijing

It seems that cultural exchanges between China and the rest of the world are becoming increasingly commonplace, with large-scale events like Carnegie Hall’s “Ancient Paths, Modern Voices” festivals in New York and Orange County, the ”Experience China in Israel” event in Tel Aviv giving foreign audiences a chance to see a cultural cross-section. Over the past few years in China, foreign cultural organizations and groups have made regular trips to the country to give Chinese audiences a chance to do the same. The most recent of these cultural exchanges, a staging of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” performed by Britain’s TNT Theater, began its seven-city tour of China this week, and is set to perform the play throughout the country until November 29. From Xinhua:

Cui Yang, general manager of the Beijing-based Milky Way Arts and Communications Co., Ltd, the play’s importer, said the new version featured a cappella (singing without instrumental accompaniment) and live score which was specially commissioned for the play. 

 According to Cui, all the sound effects in the drama were created by human voices instead of being pre-recorded.

The TNT Theater, founded in 1980, has been distinguished for its simple stage decoration, strong British style and cross-gender performances. It has previously won the acclaim of Chinese audience with dramas such as Charles Dickens’ “Oliver Twist” and Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”.

In the run-up to next year’s Shanghai’s World Expo, and certainly in its aftermath, we should see a great deal more cultural exchange going on both inside and outside China, as more foreign audiences look to learn about China’s ancient and modern cultures, and Chinese audiences look to learn more about important global and historical trends.