Utopia Nowhere: Views of Progress and Nostalgia
Artists living and working in China illustrate their views on the past embodied by tradition, the future embodied by progress, and the present. Utopia Nowhere aims to show how such concepts relate to one another in the context of culture and society at both global and local levels. Through a variety of visual art mediums, the exhibition is presented in three approaches; attitudes towards social and environmental progress in China, reflections on Chinese culture and tradition, and ‘contemporary nostalgia'.
Utopia Nowhere: Views of Progress and Nostalgia is not an exhibition about the problems of urban development; it’s about where civilization is heading. For a long time I have wanted to examine the variety of opinions surrounding the “progress” debate, ranging from advancements in Internet communication to gentrification of residential neighborhoods.
Visual Literacy
Visual Literacy explores how meaning is communicated through a process of reading art and how easily viewers can be deceived by first impressions. The exhibition showcases works from four artists, creating a dialogue between photographers Wang Lang and Tian Taiquan, and painters Wang Jun and Xiang Guohua.
Whether it is the scrutiny of significant news or famous artworks, underlying in Visual Literacy is a thread of inquiry linked by the works of four artists being transferred to a third party.
In Between Days
In Between Days is a showcase of a new and previously viewed works from the gallery’s collection and collaborating artists. Art mediums include photography, silk screening, ink and oil paintings and ceramic installations. Works presented include new paintings from Nadine Sidawi’s and Huang Zhiyang’s along with Fariba Alam’s ceramic installations that were shown in ART HK 11 in May.
A Room of One's Own
A Room of One’s Own originates with the concept of individual space. In terms of both its physical and psychological implications, how do we define “space” today? In Virginia Woolf’s essay of the same name, the analogy of a individual room of one’s own was used to argue that in order for a woman to write fiction she must have two things, a room of her own (with key and lock) and enough money to support herself. The sense of economic security and independence in order for women (and arguably men as well) to feel truly free to create has significantly changed since the essay was published in 1929. Or has it? Moreover, how do these traditional interpretations of security, freedom and space apply to female creators today, and how, if at all, do they differ between women of various backgrounds.A Room of One’s Own originates with the concept of individual space. In terms of both its physical and psychological implications, how do we define “space” today?
Museum of Oblivion
Museum of Oblivion is a group exhibition with new work from Finnish artists, Tatu Tuominen and Tuomas Laitinen. The show presents a discussion on the position of humans in their present environment. The artworks cover various medias and installations that escape from therealm of art to approach life.
We belong to a time where the frequency and intensity of natural disasters seems to have significantly increased during the past few decades. Massive flooding, prolonged droughts, enormous hurricanes, super tsunamis and giant earthquakes have all have become familiar headlines. But as these events intensify so does our capacity to recuperate and move on. It is not so much an apathetic insensitivity but rather a normal and necessary requirement of living in present reality, which allows us to desensitize tragedy. What is shocking is our increasing ability to benefit from it.
Expanding Horizons: Manufacturing New Landscapes
Expanding Horizons: Manufacturing New Landscapes is the second part of the group exhibition series highlighting landscapes at Art + Shanghai Gallery.
While “The City” illustrated how economic reform and rapid industrialization have effected urban environments in China, “Expanding Horizons” explores landscapes as a means of expressing our contemporary world via realism, metaphor and abstraction. It is less about the literal representation of landscape scenery and more concentrated on establishing a new vocabulary for landscape art.
The City: Manufacturing Urban Landscapes
The City: Manufacturing Urban Landscapes is a group exhibition highlighting China’s changing cityscapes and illustrating how economic reform, a new influx of personal wealth and rapid industrialization have effected urban environments.
Representing artists working in mediums of painting, photography, video and graphic design, The City uses street life, proliferation of skyscrapers and historic monuments as avenues for exploring not only the transformation of China's major cities but a myriad of artistic representations.
