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Exhibitions
“China China”, a group show of Chinese artists

“China China”, a group show of Chinese artists

Exhibitions

May 18, 2013 - October 6, 2013

PinchukArtCentre presents “China China”, a major group exhibition including eleven Chinese artists of different generations, focusing on the tension between individuality and collective thinking – a subject, which not only defined Chinese history and continuously shapes contemporary society but equally gains importance in the West.

The exhibition includes the works of Ai Weiwei, Cao Fei, Chen Zhen, Sun Xun, Sun Yuan & Peng Yu, Xu Zhen, Yan Xing, Yang Fudong, Zhang Huan, Zhao Yao, Zhao Zhao.

With eleven artist-devoted spaces, PinchukArtCentre presents a detailed overview of the way in which this theme has been developed by different generations of contemporary Chinese artists. The exhibition, displaying about 30 complex art objects, includes iconic works from of among others, Ai Weiwei and Chen Zhen together with major new produced works of Sun Yuan & Peng Yu, Xu Zhen and Cao Fei.

China China is the exhibition about two different Chinas: about the present and the past, and about choices for the future. Exploring both the ongoing search for historical truth and the contemporary reality that is shifting from a local to a global context, the show highlights the different approaches taken by two generations of artists. Those who lived through the Cultural Revolution find their subject by researching the past while dealing with the present, and young Chinese artists engaging with an uprooted society and moving forwards into a new socio-cultural future.

Eckhard Schneider, General Director of the PinchukArtCentre: “China China is a new, highly focused look at an art scene in which amazing developments have occurred over recent decades. Its earlier practice of adapting western styles of art is now history. Numerous individual positions have long been established, as much within the older as the younger generation, producing art that traces the history of their nation while being firmly located within the networks of the international art world, freely and independently employing current international art practices.”

For many artists the investigation of their own historically motivated identity appears to have been the key moment in the development of individual artistic strategies. It is a search for answers to the question of how, after the bizarre shock of the Cultural Revolution, a new balance can be achieved between the desire for more individuality and freedom and the dictate of conformism that a historically determined collective thinking still exerts. This critical conflict, particularly fruitful for artists, is also the result of the growing pressures on a society in transition, one increasingly forged by economic factors and a philosophy of consumerism.

As part of the framework of increasing globalization these pressures mean that China has also being overwhelmed by worldwide socio-cultural phenomena, such as environmental hazards, the desire for more individuality, the uprooting of rural populations and the accompanying growth of urbanization factors in the megalopolis. It is within this development, not typical only of China, that artists find their grand themes, as China China demonstrates in its impressive works.

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei was born in 1957 in Beijing.

He is a leading Chinese artist, active in sculpture, installation, architecture, curating, photography, film, and social, political and cultural criticism. Ai is known for the design of the Beijing National Stadium, more commonly known as the “Bird’s Nest”, the main stadium of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Ai’s artwork has been exhibited in Australia, Europe, North and South America.

Solo exhibitions include Museum DKM, Duisburg (2010); Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland (2010); Arcadia University Gallery, Glenside (2010); Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2009); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2009); Three Shadows Photography Art Center, Beijing (2009); Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Cambelltown Arts Center, Sydney (2008); Groninger Museum, Groningen (2008). Ai’s work was included in the 48th Venice Biennale in Italy (1999), 1st Guangzhou Triennale in China (2002), 1st Montpellier Biennial of Chinese Contemporary Art in France (2005), The 2nd Guangzhou Triennial (2005), Busan Biennial in Korea (2006), The 5th Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in Australia (2006), Documenta 12 in Germany (2007), Liverpool Biennial International 08 in the United Kingdom (2008), 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale and the 29th Sao Paulo Biennial in Brazil (2010).

Cao Fei

Cao Fei was born in 1978 in Guangzhou, China.

She is known for her multimedia installations and videos, and is acknowledged as one of the key artists of a new generation emerging from Mainland China. She mixes social commentary, popular aesthetics, references to Surrealism, and documentary conventions in her films and installations. Her works reflect on the rapid and chaotic changes that are occurring in Chinese society today.

Cao Fei was a nominee for the Future Generation Art Prize 2010.

Her recent project RMB CITY (2008-2011) has been exhibited in Deutsche Guggenheim (2010), Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (2009), Serpentine Gallery, London (2008), Yokohama Triennale (2008). I. Mirror by China Tracy, 52nd Venice Biennale (2007), Chinese Pavilion; RMB CITY- A Second Life City Planning has been exhibited in Istanbul Biennale (2007); Whose Utopia, TATE Liverpool (2007), Nu Project, Lyon Biennale (2007). Cao Fei also participated in 17th & 15th Biennale of Sydney (2006/2010), Moscow Biennale (2005), Shanghai Biennale (2004), and 50th Venice Biennale (2003). She also exhibited video works in Guggenheim Museum (New York), the International Center of Photography (New York), MoMA (New York), P.S.1 (New York), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Musee d’Art Moderne de la ville de Paris (Paris), Mori Art Museum (Tokyo).

Cao Fei was a nominee for the Future Generation Art Prize 2010 and was the finalist of Hugo Boss Prize 2010, and won The 2006 Best Young Artist Award by CCAA (Chinese Contemporary Art Award).

Lives and works in Beijing.

Sun Xun

Sun Xun was born in 1980 in Fuxin Liaoning Province, China.

After graduating from Print-making Department of the China Academy of Fine Arts in 2005, he started his own animation studio, Pi, in 2006. His work has been screened at numerous festivals, including the 2007 Torino Film Festival, and has been shown in exhibitions at the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art and at ShanghART. For his first show at an American museum, he inhabited the Vault Gallery at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles for over a week to develop the site-specific installation New China. Sun Xun became Best Young Artist at Chinese Contemporary Art Awards in 2010.

Now he works and lives in Hangzhou.

Chen Zhen

Chen Zhen (1955-2000) was born in Shanghai, China.

He is known as one of the earliest installation artists in China. He was among the first generation of Chinese avant-garde artists to travel abroad to study art in the mid-1980s. His compelling sculptures and installations explored his own “trans-experience” studying art in both the East and the West. Chen’s first solo exhibition took place in 1986 at the Gallery of the Shanghai Theatre Company in October. During his lifetime, Chen was exhibited in both solo and group shows throughout the world, and continues to be included in exhibitions today.

Chen lived and worked in Shanghai and Paris. He died in Paris in 2000.

Sun Yuan and Peng Yu

Sun Yuan was born in 1972 in Beijing and Peng Yu was born in 1974 in Heilongjian, China.

They both studied oil painting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing. As a collaborative duo, they have had solo exhibition at the Vargas Museum, Quezon City, Philippines; Arario Gallery, Seoul; Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy; Tang Contemporary Art, Beijing; Osage, Hong Kong; and F2 Gallery, Beijing. They have shown in numerous group exhibitions including the Aichi Trieannale 2010, Nagoya, Japan; the 17th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney; the 2nd and 3rd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Moscow; the Liverpool Biennial 2006, Liverpool, United Kingdom; the 51st Venice Biennale, Venice; the Yokohama Triennial (2001), Yokohama, Japan; and the 5th Lyon Biennial of Contemporary Art, Lyon, France.

They currently live in Beijing.

Xu Zhen

Xu Zhen was born in 1977 in Shanghai, China.

Graduated from Shanghai Arts & Crafts Institute. Xu Zhen’s work includes photography, installation art and video evoking moments of complexity. His projects are informed by performance as well as conceptual art. Executed with a critical intelligence, low-tech subtlety and often in forms of theatric pranks, Xu’s work focuses on human sensitivity and dramatizes the humdrum of urban living.

Xu Zhen won the top prize at the China Contemporary Art Award (2004). He was invited to the 49th Venice Biennale and has since exhibited his works widely, e.g. Venice Biennale (2005), The Museum of Modern Art (New York, 2004), ICP (2004), Mori Art Museum (2005), PS1 (2006), Tate Liverpool (2007) etc.

He currently resides and works in Shanghai.

Yan Xing

Yan Xing was born in Chongqing in 1986, he graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in 2009 with a bachelor degree. In 2012 he won the Best Young Artist Award by CCAA (Chinese Contemporary Art Award). The same year, he was a nominee for the Future Generation Art Prize 2012.

His works involve an extremely broad range of creative media, including performance, video, installation and painting, among others. His works have been shown at institutions such as: Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH), Houston, USA; Central House of Artists (CHA), Moscow, Russia; Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester, UK; National Gallery of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia; Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), Beijing, China; China Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum (CAFAM), Beijing, China; Iberia Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China; Today Art Museum, Beijing, China; OCT Contemporary Art Terminal (OCAT), Shenzhen, China. He has also been featured at Moscow International Biennale for Young Art (2012), Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale (2012).

He current lives and works in Beijing and Los Angeles.

Yang Fudong

Yang Fudong was born in 1971 in Beijing, China.

He graduated from the China Academy of Fine Art, Hangzhou. Starting in the late 1990s Yang Fudong embarked on a career in the mediums of film and video. Yang presented the first installment of a five-part work entitled “Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest” at the Venice Biennale in 2003 and completed all five parts for the Venice Biennale in 2007. He is among the most successful and influential young Chinese artists today. Yang Fudong participated in the 50th Venice Biennale (2005), 1st Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (2005), 1st International Sharjah Biennale (2005), 1st Prague Biennale (2003) and the 5th Shanghai Biennale (2004), The 5th AsiaPacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (2006), and the Biennale of Sydney (2010). He has had solo-shows at acclaimed institutions such as Kunsthalle Wien (2005), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2005) and Castello di Rivoli, Torino (2005).

Lives and works in Shanghai.

Zhang Huan

Zhang Huan was born in 1965 in Anyang, China.

Studied traditional painting at Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts. He is a performance artist, painter, photographer, and sculptor best known for performances that test his own physical and mental endurance, create symbolic self-portraits, and question the role of family and culture in shaping our way of thinking.

Huan has held solo exhibitions at many galleries and museums, including the Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai (2011), Shanghai Art Museum (2010), Vancouver Art Gallery (2008), the Asia Society, New York (2007), the 6^th Gwangju Biennale (2006), Whitney Biennial (2002). In 2009, he directed his first opera, Semele (by George Frideric Handel) in Brussels and Beijing.

He lives and works Shanghai and New York.

Zhao Yao

Zhao Yao was born in 1981 in Luzhou, Sichuan Province, China.

He graduated from the Design Department of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. Zhao Yao’s works have been widely exhibited in China, with three major solo exhibitions at the Beijing Commune Gallery and Taikang Space in Beijing. He has participated in a number of international group exhibitions including the No Soul for Sale festival at Tate Modern, London (2010); The Knife’s Edge at the Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle (2011), Global Groove at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum in Michigan (2013), Spirit above all (2013) at Pace London.

Zhao Yao currently resides in Beijing.

Zhao Zhao

Zhao Zhao was born in 1982 in Xinjiang, China.

Graduated from the Xinjiang Institute of Arts, BFA in Painting. Zhao worked for seven years as an assistant for Ai Weiwei. Currently, Zhao is one of China’s most promising young artists. His paintings, sculptures and videos address realities in his country, as well as documenting his life and those of his friends.

Lives and works in Beijing, China