Huang Yong Ping opening at Ullens

I recently attended the opening for Huang Yong Ping, a Chinese born French artist based in Paris. His solo retrospective is also his first major exhibition in China. The exhibition, "House of Oracles" is a traveling show organized by the Walker Art Center in Minneaopolis, where the show opened in Oct 2005 (I published an interview with him in Yishu). From there it traveled to MASS MoCA and, eventually here to the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) in Beijing. Huang is one of the founding members of Xiamen dada group that was active in the early 80s in Fujian province, and is widely recognized as one of the most innovative artists of his generation. As expected, the opening was a somewhat glamorous affair, though the sit-down dinner for 80 was termed "intimate" by a UCCA staffer (this is in comparison to their UCCA grand opening which featured 600 person dinner).

 
swank dinner catered by The Peninsula of all places

 
Releasing the animals in "Theatre of the World" at public opening. "Theatre of the World" houses several different kinds of cold-blooded animals (snakes, lizards, spiders, scorpions, beetles) in an turtle shaped container with a separate compartments and a central arena-like space. The idea is that over the length of the show the animals will fight and eat one another (leaving one victorious), thus mirroring the national struggles for power we witness daily on political and cultural levels.

 

Installation view

Zhu Jinshi at Arario gallery

 
 

Qiu Xiaofei install at Universal Studios, oops I mean Boers-Li

 

Qiu Xiaofei at Boers-Li Gallery

 

Michelangelo Pistoletto at Galleria Continua

 

Wang Qiang at Marella Beijing

 

the new art season is ON

brace yourself--tomorrow marks the beginning of a new cycle and a whole new year of art mayhem with, like a gazillion openings around town. Did everyone hold a meeting and decide that March 8 would be the unofficial start of the art 'season' whereby which the Beijing artworld is bombarded with exhibition openings? If so, one hopes there would have been better planning since everything opens not only on the same day but more or less at the same time. I have been away for a month so I am sure I don't know the half of it but off the top of my head there is Zhu Jinshi at Arario, Qiu Xiaofei at Boers-Li Gallery (formerly Universal Studios Beijing), group show of young artists at Platform China, Wang Qiang at Marella, group show at Tang Ren, ?? show at new museum headed up by curator Li Zhenhua, group show titled Critical Mass at Imagine Gallery...the list goes on. ahhh, let the art circus begin!

back in the saddle

Finally back in Beijing. It was over a month in the States, which was great, but now time to settle down and get some work done. still fighting jetlag. lots of openings this weekend, hope there is something interesting!

Broad Contemporary Art Museum, LA

 
installation by Chris Burden