Looking back on the art figures of the week, in Shanghai, nearly 50 works were exhibited by the art couple Hua Hua and Qigu, who have lived in the United States for many years, presenting a collision of ideas across the East and the West; Ma Ke's solo exhibition at Xihai Art Museum is a retrospective of the artist's creative journey over the past 30 years. In Beijing, the painter Zhang Yao presents the landscapes of the south of the Yangtze River, and the rice paper stained by ink presents the original ecological customs of the rural Jiangnan.
Sotheby's Hong Kong announced its latest appointments, with Elaine Holt as Chairperson of the Modern and Contemporary Art Department and Vice Chairman of Asia. Founded in New York by Lucy Mitchell-Innes and David Nash, the MITCHELL-INNES & NASH gallery closes and transforms into a consulting business.
Shanghai | Flowers Qigu
Crossing things in a work of art
Recently, nearly 50 works by artists in the United States, Mr. and Mrs. Hua and Qi Gu, were presented at Shanghai Shengjia Art Space. They have lived in the United States for many years, and are deeply influenced by Eastern and Western cultures, skillfully integrating different cultural backgrounds and individual experiences into their creations.
Works on display
Hana's paintings are made of oil on flaxseed oil and acrylic, with a surrealist and mysterious atmosphere with rich texture layering that overlaps each other, images full of reading possibilities, and elegant and unique brushstrokes. Jiang Qigu's ink paintings, with the classic theme of "vase flower" in Chinese painting, are used as the starting point, condensing his personal experience and the Chinese and Western processes of artistic creation. In the composition, brushwork, color, stamping and even framing, we continue to explore and innovate, trace the root of the brush and ink, blend the spirit and artistic conception of the brush and ink, and finally present a unique appearance of simplicity and elegance, tranquility and far-reaching.
Works on display
Qiya, Hanao
Huahua and Qigu have lived in the United States for many years, and both creators have studied and lived in a dual cultural background of China and the United States. Both were born in Shanghai, spent their childhood and adolescence on Wukang Road before moving to the United States, where they studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. Qi Gu has been teaching and researching painting and art history at the Art Institute of Chicago since the 90s, while Hua Hua has experienced different professional experiences such as poet, educator, children's literature writer, etc., and finally both chose to return to the world of painting creation.
Ma Ke, Shanghai
Solo exhibition "Prelude and Meditation"
From June 22nd to September 8th, artist Ma Ke's solo exhibition "Prelude and Meditation" was presented at Xihai Art Museum. The exhibition is a retrospective of Ma Ke's creative journey over the past 30 years, and is also his largest mid-term retrospective to date.
The exhibition showcases more than 130 works created by Ma Ke since 1997, including paintings, paper, manuscripts, archives, and documentaries. The exhibition is divided into nine units, weaving narratives into the two-story exhibition space of Xihai Art Museum, presenting the artist's creations from different perspectives.
The staggered exhibition walls in the exhibition space often make several works under the same theme look at each other, which is not only the artist's rewriting of traditional texts, such as the blind man touching the elephant or the journey to the west, but also the artist's attempt to find more possibilities in repetition. The No. 6 exhibition hall on the second floor is divided into three spaces, which unfold slices of Ma Ke's different stages of creation, and the audience seems to enter one montage after another, and this non-linear exhibition narrative also responds to the concept of "folding time and space" in Ma Ke's creation. The windows of Exhibition Hall 7 across the sea and the "Transformation of Landscape" reflect each other, creating a poetic space together.
Ma Ke graduated from the Painting Department of Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts with a bachelor's degree and stayed on to teach, and was later seconded to the Ministry of Culture to Eritrea in Northeast Africa. He graduated from the Fourth Studio of the Oil Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts with a master's degree. He currently lives and works in Beijing. Regarding Ma Ke's art, scholar Wang Min'an commented: "It is difficult for an artist to stay outside the painting tradition, and every genre lives in the artist's body. For Ma Ke's creation, in addition to the vivid shadow of cubism, there is also a surrealist color, and the charm of this kind of painting lies in the drama composed of conflicts and turmoil between the various elements of painting, and Ma Ke's paintings have a sense of dream, a kind of unreal, some unreal does not lead to dreams, and Ma Ke's unreal leads to dreams. (Gao Dan)
Beijing|Zhang Yao
"Four Seasons Smoke and Clouds" new landscape painting exhibition
Zhang Yao
From June 29th to July 10th, the exhibition of new landscape paintings by painter Zhang Yao was presented in the Qing Secret Pavilion in Beijing.
The exhibition presents Zhang Yao's new landscape paintings, presenting a true portrayal of the relationship between people and people and painting displayed in the landscapes of the south of the Yangtze River, as well as the relationship between man and nature.
Exhibition site
Works on display
Zhang Yao was born in Haining, Zhejiang Province in 1963, and his ancestral home is Digang, Huzhou, Zhejiang. He used to be the director of Xu Bangda Art Museum, and is now a member of the Chinese Artists Association and a distinguished painter of Zhejiang Painting Academy.
According to his friends, Zhang Yao's original brushwork originated from the imitation of tradition, and the four monks and the remnant painters of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties had an inspiring influence on his landscapes. In the mid-80s, with the rise of new ink painting, he was fortunate to follow Mr. Jiang Baolin and other gentlemen, during which he also received the guidance of Mr. Zeng Mi. After entering the 21st century, Zhang Yao's painting style has undergone some changes, focusing more on inner expression, and showing a certain secret combination with freehand coquettishness on the outside.
He has painted the new look of the times, with a glimpse of the small bridge and flowing water, the green tiles and white walls in the middle of the houses, and the crescent moon on the willow tops in the soft stalks...... The rice paper stained by ink presents the last original ecological style of the rural Jiangnan.
Hong Kong|Ho Xingqi
The latest personnel changes at Sotheby's Hong Kong
On June 26, Sotheby's Hong Kong announced the latest personnel appointments, Elaine Holt as the chairman of the modern and contemporary art department and vice chairman of the Asia region, and officially took office in July. He Xingqi has worked at Opera Gallery, Ravenel Auctions, and Christie's Auctions. Alex Branczik, former chairman of the Asian Modern and Contemporary Art Department, and Max Moore, former head of contemporary art sales in Asia, have been transferred back to Europe and the United States.
At the same time, there are new appointments in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art. Yang Zongxun and Boris Cornelissen joined the Department of Contemporary Art in Asia as Senior Specialists, taking up their positions in August and October respectively. In recent years, Sotheby's Hong Kong's modern and contemporary art sector has seen frequent personnel changes. Standard & Poor's has downgraded Sotheby's credit rating to B- from B due to lower revenue and rising costs in the first quarter of 2024.
Lucy Mitchell-Ince, David Nash
纽约MITCHELL-INNES&NASH画廊关闭,转型咨询业务
According to a press release, Mitchell-Innes & Nash, which has been operating in New York for many years, is closing its Chelsea space and changing its business model to "project-based consulting". The gallery was founded in 1996 by Lucy Mitchell-Innes and David Nash, both of whom previously held senior positions at Sotheby's. In 2005, the gallery moved to its current location. The gallery currently represents artists such as Jean Arp (1886-1966), Alberto Burri (1915-1995), Martha Rosler, Pope.L (1955-2023), and the artistic heritage of the Canadian art collective General Idea.
"Going forward, we will work on a new model, providing professional advice to selected primary market artists and heritages, art advisory services to individual collectors and foundations, and representation of artworks in the primary and secondary markets," the founders wrote in a statement. ”
Shanghai|Artist Song Chen
Presenting "Guitu - Chongtu Concept Art"
Artist Song Chen likes to use the so-called "Gui" in the so-called high-gauge shadow measurement method to create the "Gui of Chongtu" series of art and installation works, and his new exhibition "Gui Tu: Song Chen Chongtu Conceptual Art" series of works was recently exhibited at the Van Herde Art Space in M50, Shanghai. 桂 (guī), quoted in the Han classics, was first seen in the Jin text. It also refers to the parts of the base of the ancient sun-measuring instrument "Gui Biao", which refers to the ruler placed flat on the stone seat to measure the solar terms and time between heaven and earth. The curatorial theme of the exhibition is "Gui", which emphasizes and overlaps the cultural attributes of "soil".
Chongtu Series No.20
Song Chen was born in Luoyang in 1979 and has been living and working in Shanghai since 2003. Song Chen said that soil has profound physical and mental healing functions. "Big Earth" is a deep and quiet existence, while "Small Earth" suggests the vitality of life, so when creating contemporary art works about earth, she can feel a deep calm and regenerative energy at the same time. At the same time, she believes that the revelation of this power can make people forget the short-term turmoil of human beings, the pressure of the present and the uncertainty of the future, so that people can renew their understanding of the reality of time and space, and re-examine the current life ecology, so as to live in harmony with nature and integrate more.