Event: Architecture in China

Catch two exhibitions on contemporary Chinese architecture at the Center for Architecture.

Co-Evolution: Danish/Chinese Collaboration on Sustainable Urban Development in China
"The exhibition confronts the environmental challenges related to rapid and extensive urbanization in China and illustrates the value of international and interdisciplinary collaboration. CO-EVOLUTION displays four visionary projects – the results of collaborations between Danish architects and professors and students from leading Chinese universities."
On view from February 15, 2008 to April 12, 2008

Building China: Five Projects, Five Stories
The exhibition "features five unique architectural case studies that were conceived, designed, and recently completed by Chinese architects."

The projects are:
• Dafen Art Museum, Dafen Village, Shenzhen
Architect: Urbanus architectural and design, completed 2007

• Desheng Noble Town, Beijing
Architect: Cui Kai Studio, China Architecture Design & Research Group, completed 2007

• New Campus for the New Academy of Arts, Hangzhou, Zhejiang
Architect: Amateur Architecture Studio, completed 2007

• Timepiece Museum, Jian Chuan Museum Town, An Ren, Sichuan
Architect: Jiakun Architects, completed 2007

• Brick House, Gao Chun County, Nanjing
Architect: Atelier Zhanglei, completed 2007

"These case studies of contemporary architecture introduce critical voices from the People’s Republic of China, challenging the West’s stereotypical interpretation of China as a homogeneous society."
On view from February 26, 2008 to May 31, 2008

Center for Architecture is located at 536 LaGuardia Place.

Event: Courses from China Institute

Learn more about the beginnings of contemporary Chinese art at the China Institute from their course U-Turn: Contemporary Chinese Art, 1978-1992.

There will be three courses, each focusing on a five-year period in the development of contemporary Chinese art.

Stirrings, 1978-1982
A look at the artist groups which populate the earliest phase of contemporary art in post-Cultural Revolution China, including the No Name Painting Society, the April Photographic Society, the trend toward "Scar Art" and the Stars Group.
This course will be on February 26, 2008 from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm

Ferment, 1983-1987
The mid-80s were a major moment for the development of artistic thought in China, as artists entered into serious dialogues with Chinese tradition and foreign ideas. This session focuses on art movements around the country that exemplify these trends: Wang Guangyi’s "Northern Art Group," Huang Yong Ping’s "Xiamen Dada," the Pool Society of Hangzhou, and the New Image painters of the Southwest.
This course will be on February 28, 2008 from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm

Clash, 1988-1992
The 1989 China/Avant-Garde exhibition (from whose logo U-TURN takes its name) was a watershed moment for art and culture in China as the tensions which built up throughout the 1980s came to a head. The years that followed set the stage for the rebirth of the avant-garde in a newly consumerist society and marked the entry of art from China into the international art world. This session explores the major exhibitions that marked this transformation.
This course will be held on March 2, 2008 from 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm

To register for one or all three of the courses please call (212) 744-8181 or email ralaimo@chinainstitute.org

China Institute is located at 125 East 65th Street.

Event: Cai Guo Qiang in person

Hear Cai Guo-Qiang speak on opening day. There will also be a book signing, ($75 Hardcover, $45 Softcover).


Peter B. Lewis Theater
5th Avenue at 89th Street

February 22, 2008
7:00 pm
$10 general
$7 members, students, seniors

Event: Cai-Guo-Qiang at Guggenheim preview

Cai Guo-Qiang: I Want to Believe, opens at the Guggenheim on Friday February 22, 2008.

This best selling contemporary Chinese artist's mid-career retrospective looks like its going big. Cai Guo-Qiang's theatrical artworks adapts well to the Guggenheim's unique architecture. I saw bits of the show as it was being installed and cannot wait for the actual opening. As I walked into the mueusem's central atrium, Cai Guo-Qiang's Inopportune: Stage One—an installation depicting a car bomb sequence—literally exploded in front of me. The nine Ford Tauruses suspended in the rotunda led my eye straight up, where I saw Inopportune: Stage Two and Head On circling the museum's galleries. How could I not get excited? Cars stuck with dazzling light tubes, a pack of dire wolves crashing against a glass wall, and tigers covered with arrows somersaulting through the air.

If my description of the show sounds a bit campy to you, let me tell you that it's certainly in-tents.

Watch the museum install Inopportune: Stage One.

Don't go now, wait for the show to open to get your money's worth.

The Guggenheim Museum is located at 1071 5th Avenue at 89th Street.

$18 general admission
$15 students and seniors
free for members and children under 12

Artist: Natalie Lo Lai Lai

Biography

1983 - Born in Hong Kong
2006 - BA from The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Lives and works in Hong Kong

She love puzzles, as seen in her 2005 tangram art.

Keep Racing
2005

Keep Dancing
2005

"The proverb originally meant to comfort Hong Kong people before the handover of Hong Kong to the Mainland. However, the proverb created an illusion that Hong Kong people may just tend to have stable and enjoyable life." - Natalie Lo Lai Lai explaining the title of her work, Keep Racing, Keep Dancing.

In 2006, Natalie Lo Lai Lai devoted an entire series to her favorite drink, Coke Light Lemon.

Coke Light Lemon I

2006
Oil on Canvas

Coke Light Lemon IV
2006
Oil on Canvas

Chinese New Year

There's still a chance to catch the Chinese New Year celebrations in Manhattan Chinatown. Parades will be marching through Mott, Canal and Bayard Streets today from 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm.

Happy Year of the Rat!

If your house isn't clean, don't bother on New Year's. The superstition is, if you dust or sweep then your good fortune will be swept away with the dirt. Haha! A day off! Go out and celebrate!

I know I am.

Photos of festivities to come!

Event: Chinese Lunar New Year

Tomorrow is the start of the New Year on the Lunar calendar!

Check out these fun events around New York:

Firecracker Ceremony and Cultural Festival
Thursday February 7, 2008
from 11:00 am - 3:oo pm at Chatham Square

Don't miss the festivities! According to betterchinatown.com, the day will kick off with "600,000 rounds of colorful firecrackers...a traditional Lunar New Year practice believed to scare away evil spirits," followed by Lion and Dragon dances weaving through the streets.

Celebrate Lunar New Year!
Thursday February 7, 2008
from 5:00 pm - 7:oo pm at the Empire State Building

In association with the Asia Society, the Empire State Building will be lighting up red and yellow this New Year's to celebrate the Year of the Rat.

Lunar New Year Parade
Saturday, February 9, 2008
from 11:00 am - 1:00 pm in the streets of Flushing Chinatown

Fireworks and parade! Check it out at Flushing Library, Main Street or the Flushing Mall as the celebrations wind through Flushing Chinatown.

Chinatown Walking Tour
Saturday, Saturday, February 9, 2008
from 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm, meet at MOCA

Museum of Chinese in America, located at 70 Mulberry Street, presents a walking tour of Chinatown. "Learn about the traditions and customs observed by Chinese households and discover the significance of red envelopes, foods and decorations. Enjoy the sights, smells, sounds and tastes of Chinatown in the most festive tour of the year!"

9th Annual Chinatown Lunar New Year Parade and Festival
Sunday, February 10, 2008
from 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm in the streets of Manhattan Chinatown

Gather around as floats, marching bands, acrobats, and Lion and Dragon dances march through Mott, Canal and Bayard Streets.

Artist: Ma Tse Lin

Biography
1960 - Born in Guangdong, China
1983 - Graduated from Central Institute for Arts and Crafts, Beijing, China
1990 - Graduated from Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Decoratifs de Paris, France
Lives and works in Paris, France

Buddha en Larmes
2002
Oil on Canvas

Buddha is a key theme in Ma Tse Lin's paintings. After experiencing the Cultural Revolution, Ma Tse Lin probably intends for the image of Buddha to symbolize tranquility within a chaotic environment.

Buddha assis
2006
Oil on Canvas

"Truth, simplicity, self control and serenity lie behind the mystery of Buddha. Regardless of the changes that our society undergoes, these feelings that the Buddha represents remain true and unaffected by time and space." - Ma Tse Lin

Buddha bleu
2007
Oil on Canvas

Artist: Feng Zhengjie

Biography
1968 - Born in Sichuan, China
1992 - BFA from the Fine Arts Department at Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, China
1995 - MFA from the Oil Painting Department at Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, China
Lives and works in Beijing, China

A 224-page book about this artist by Eleonora Battiston.
ISBN-10: 8889431369
ISBN-13: 978-8889431368

"Feng Zhengjie, whose work appears on the cover of 2005's China: The New Contemporary Painting, represents international trends toward borrowing and riffing on bygone styles--and the return to painterly technique--as much as he does his country's blooming contemporary art scene. His sources include posters of Shanghai in the 1930s and contemporary wedding photography, and the bright, streamlined style with which he addresses their conventions has the look of polished fashion imagery, an airbrushed 1980s feeling that's gotten increasingly eerie in recent years as his subjects' irises and pupils have shrunk to little dots on largely white eyes, giving them a glassy, doll-like look." - Amazon

China 2005 No. 11
2005
Oil on Canvas

Bride
1997
Oil on canvas

This work sold for $50, 998 at Shanghai Hosane Auction on Sunday, December 23, 2007 - a record high price at auction for this artist.

Some Interesting News

From The Art Newspaper:

Samsung accused of $64m art fraud

The conglomerate’s former house attorney alleges that the chairman set up a slush fund which his wife used to buy art

Lucian Harris | 2.1.08 | Issue 187

According to the news (here and here), Samsung created a $225 million slush fund for purposes of bribery and art purchases. Alleged acquisitions include works by modern art superstars Roy Lichtenstein, Barnett Newman, Ed Ruscha, Donald Judd, Agnes Martin, and Gerhard Richer. The Art Newspaper states that money from the Samsung slush fund paid for 30 artworks from five Christie's New York auctions between 2002 and 2003.