Event: Art on Screen 2007

A film festival showing highlights from the 25th Montreal International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA).

When: November 30 - December 2

Where: The Paley Center for Media in New York
25 West 52 Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues)

$8 with discount code FIFA
$5 for students with discount code STUDENT


Go see Yang Ban Xi: The 8 Model Works directed by Yan Ting Yuen
"Mao meets Busby Berkeley meets hip-hop in this resurgence of revolutionary Chinese opera."

New record for Contemporary Chinese Art at Auction

Cai Guo Qiang's Drawing for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, a series of 14 works of gunpowder on paper sold for $9,652,175 at Christie's Hong Kong on November 25, 2007.

He is now the highest selling contemporary Chinese artists at auction, beating out former leader, Yue Minjun, whose Execution sold for $5,964,700.

$10 million paper! Back in 2000, a copy of the Declaration of Independence sold for $7.4 million. And in December this year, Sotheby's is going to auction a copy of the Magna Carta, estimated to bring in $20 million to $30 million. In this age of going green, I say we just recycle it all for sustainable living.

Event: Chance to win a free skateboard

OUR ART SITE DOT COM is giving away a free enjoi skateboard designed and signed by Michael Hsiung.

"What do you have to do to become instantly cool? Simply dress up and try and pass yourself off as The Michael C. Hsiung and send us a photo. The best photo will be picked, presented on the site in all its glory, and a shinny new deck will be yours in the mail the next day. That's it! So grab your father's mustache off his face, hang around some Asians for a few days and make sure to bring your camera!"

Contest runs until December 1, 2007.
For rules of entry and more details, visit OUR ART SITE DOT COM.

Artist: Michael Hsiung

30ish, Chinese and mustachioed, Micheal Hsiung's art "addresses gender roles/gender assignment given to mermen, the fragility of unicorn/panda dynamics, domestic violence between centaurs and unitaurs and the underlying threads of violence and danger that underpin all other-worldly societies."

Some of these themes appear in his designs for enjoi's 2007 Holiday line.

enjoi Cairo Foster Merman

enjoi Jerry Hsu Panda vs. Narwhal

Hsiung's pen drawings usually depict odd, humorous scenarios rendered in a freakishly childlike manner. In an interview with Virb, Michael Hsiung admits, "I have a retarded 8 year old boy living with me. I give him an oreo cookie everytime he draws me a picture."

Scenes from a Distraught Man trying to cure his Diseased Warthog

2007
Ink on Cream Classic paper

Check out his website and his blog.

Artist: Ken Hiratsuka

Biography
1959 - Born in Shimodate City, Ibaraki, Japan
1982 - BA in Sculpture from Musashino University, Tokyo, Japan
Lives and works in New York City

Sculptor Ken Hiratsuka uses hammer and chisel to cut "oneline design - a single continuous line carving chiselled by hand, guided by a fluid, oceanic imagery."

Lights of Istanbul
2002
Buyukcekmece, Istanbul, Turkey

He also works in other mediums.

One Line Grass Cutting Performance
1986
Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, Austria

One Line Forged Fence
1999
West 89th Street, New York City

Check out photos of the artist at work in front of 25 Bond.

Artist: Rong Rong

Biography
1968 - Born in Zhangzhou, Fujian, China
1986 - Studied Painting at Fujian Industrial Art Institute
Lives and works in Beijing

From the series East Village Beijing
1994-1995
Photograph

Rong Rong documented the artist community gathered in the East Village outside Beijing during the 1990s. He photographed artist performances, one of the most famous being Zhang Huan's 12 Square Meters.

Beijing No 2
1997
Photograph

Rong Rong embarked on a series of photographs showing the ruins and the dilapidated landscape of Beijing.

Rong Rong and inri
in Bad Goisern, Austria, No. 6
2001
Hand-colored silver gelatin print

Since 2000, he collaborates with his wife, i n r i. A gallery states, "Rong Rong and i n r i became archetypal figures in scenarios of their own devising. Shedding their individual identities as husband and wife and residents of Beijing, they became primal figures at the birth of time, notable for their frailty and diminutive scale before the majesty of nature."

Rong Rong and i n r i
Liu Li Tun Migration
2002
Gelatin Silver Print

"The artists document their short life together in the modest house that they shared for a short but crucial time in their lives. Photographs of details from their daily life complement evocative photographs of social gatherings and art world visitors posing in front of the front door of their house. Finally, dressed in dark clothes and offering bouquets of lilies, they record the process of demolition until all that is left is a pile of rubble."

Artist: i n r i

Biography
1973 - Born in Kanagawa, Japan
1992 - Graduated Nippon Photography Institute, Tokyo, Japan
Lives and works in Beijing

From the series Gray Zone
1998-1999
Photograph

i n r i began her career as a celebrity photographer, but in 1997 she quit her job and "turned her camera on the semi-abstract shadows of the Tokyo cityscape, on the emotional vicissitudes of the human form, and to documenting performance works that explored both of these subjects" states The Chicago Journal.

From the series MAXIMAX
1998
Photograph

"Her 1998 series MAXIMAX documents a performance in which a model, clad all in white and ensconced in a white room with a white bed, progressively stains herself and her environment with bright red paint."

From the series 1999, Tokyo
1999
Photograph

Her series 1999, Tokyo "pursues a model through the city's crumbling, nondescript backstreets, portraying her hunched in corners or zeroing in on individual body parts."

Artist: Patray Lui

Biography
1980 - Born in Hong Kong
2003 - BA in Environmental Design from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
2005 - MA in Interaction Design from Institute Ivrea, Italy
Lives and works in the Netherlands

Patray Lui's Le Avventure del Cane Picio (The Adventures of Dog Picio), according to startdrawing.org, "is inspired by her everyday life experience with some fantasies. The ongoing project records the different pieces of her life, no matter happy or sad, in a way that can bring a smile to audiences."

Check out Patray Lui's blog for continued updates on Picio!

Artist: Liu Hong Wei

1965 - Born in Beijing, China
Graduated from the Fine Art department at Hebei Teaching University, China

Liu Hong Wei's haunting, geometric settings are reminiscent of M.C. Escher sketches of impossible stairways and Giorgio de Chirico paintings of metaphsical landscapes. The artist's gallery describes his paintings "solitary, desolate, almost menacing visions. In these bizarre lands of Liu's imagination the perspectives of mind and space are skewed."

Swimming Pool
2006
Oil on Canvas

Check Series - Fun!
2006
Oil on Canvas

98 Diary - Still Life
1998
Oil on Canvas

Sill Life
1999
Oil on Canvas

This work sold for $43,680 at Christie's Hong Kong on May 27, 2007 - a record high at auction for this artist.

Yue Minjun: Queens Museum of Art

Noah's Ark
2005
Oil on Canvas

Yue Minjun and the Symbolic Smile at the Queens Museum of Art is the first American museum exhibition of this leading contemporary Chinese artist.

Contemporary Terracotta Warriors
2001
Acrylic on Plexiglas Reinforced Plastic

Terracotta Warriors
2006
Bronze

These exaggerated, slightly larger than life size sculptures took me by surprise when I turned the corner. Yes, I jumped and squeaked. But the sculptures were very exciting to see, and stand next to, and mimic.

A young girl who who went to the museum with her family said of Yue Minjun's work, "He has weird teeth."

Untitled from the Beauty Series
1996
Oil on Canvas

Look at how strange his teeth are in this earlier work. The bottom row is small and undefined.

Untitled
2004
Oil on Canvas

Perhaps a reference to Eddie Adams' Vietcong Execution?

Untitled No. 13
2006
Watercolor

The watercolors were wonderful. It was good to see the pencil sketching underneath the paint.

Also on view: Generation 1.5, a phrase "to identify those who moved from their native country between the ages of 12 and 18." This exhibit featuring eight artists belonging to this in-between generation, "already subject to the physical and intellectual transformations of their formative years, now upon emigrating, also experiences a change in context, language and culture."

Yue Minjun and the Symbolic Smile on view until January 6, 2008
Generation 1.5 on view until December 2, 2007

Artist: Du Xinjian

Biography
1962 - Born in Jinan, Shandong, China
1986 - Graduated from Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China

Often considered a Surrealist, Du Xinjian's paintings are inspired by his dreams, his imagination and Eastern philosophy. "In reality," Du Xinjian states, "physics prevents our dreams from coming to fruition" However in Du Xinjian's dreamscapes people can fly and "donkeys can understand poetry."

Shameless: A Wrong Boat
1999
Oil on Canvas

Fish Rider
2002
Oil on Canvas

Airplane
2003
Oil on canvas

Artist: Ujino Muneteru

Biography
1964 - Born in Tokyo, Japan
1988 - Graduated Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music, Japan
Lives and works in Tokyo, Japan

The Rotators
Nissan Cedric, Household Appliances and Mixed Media
2006

Tangled in Pop Art, Noise and some Dada, his conversions, performances and arrangements of junk and vintage are an insight into the role of materialism and what is of value in our lives.

The Rotators
Mixed Media
2007

In an interview, Ujino Muneteru explains that his work is "DIY. With an emphasis on physical means- just using your hands and body to make your own things- sculptures or instruments- using technology in your own way and not letting it dictate function. You know, its like a computer, the keyboard is made for your fingers, and we shouldn't limit our thinking to that way. I try to find the opposite way and do it. With the rotators, I feel I am reversing that relationship, that I am in control of technology, not vice versa."

See a video of Ujino Muneteru and the Rotators

Artist: Zhang Dali

1963 - Born in Harbin, Heilongjiang, China
1987 - Graduated from National Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Beijing, China
Lives and works in Beijing, China

Dialogue
1999

In an interview, Zhang Dali aka Ak47 aka 18k, known for his spray-painted heads around Beijing, describes his experience with graffiti.

Many years ago the police would try to find me and not allow me to do the graffiti. I painted it for 2 years and nobody knew, but one day the police suddenly came to my house and asked "Is that painted by you?" and I said "no," I denied it. They said, "Who do you think we are? We know everything," and then I said yes. They wanted to know what the graffiti was for, was it anti-government, was it an organization or group that did it. That was in 1997; that was the worst time.

Demolition: Forbidden City
1998

According to CNN, Zhang Dali "returns to the heads and chisels out portions of them. These voids offer a new perspective on the changes sweeping through Beijing as its leaders bulldoze traditional neighborhoods to make room for modern apartments and shopping malls."

Rain No 1. - AK 47 Series
2007
Acrylic on vinyl

Chinese Offspring
2004
Mixed Media

"His other work has included portraits of migrant workers built from his "AK-47" tag and resin casts of their whole bodies, suspended upside down in groups."