Artist: Jerry Hsu

Biography

1981 - Born in San Jose, California



Pro skateboarder and photographer.

Event: 2 exhibits at Eli Klein Fine Art

Eli Klein Fine Art showcases two contemporary Chinese artists. The exhibitions are on view in the gallery from March 22, 2008 until June 17, 2008.

Zhang Hui
Beijing Wawa
2007
Oil on Canvas

Zhang Hui's solo exhibition "Beijing Wawa" includes 15 paintings and three sculptures.

“Beijing Wawa” signifies clichéd young girls searching for identity within a society driven by the commodification of culture. The subject of childhoods lost under Mao is a common one in China, but Zhang Hui is looking at her own generation and at a new loss of innocence stolen by new ideals and vacant dreams. “Beijing Wawa” has particular characteristics that exaggerate her personality such as a heart-shaped upper lip, a peach-shaped baby face, a tiny nose that is slightly upturned, and hair like an angel’s wings. She also often has scar on her forehead, like Zhang Hui herself. “Beijing Wawa” reflects a complex, emotional landscape within the portraits of young girls, there is a presence of power balanced with vulnerability, beauty with scars, and youth with maturity.

Read more from the press release.

Liu Bolin
China Report 2007 #5
2007
Oil on Canvas

Also on view is "China Report 2007" which features ten new paintings by Liu Bolin.

Liu Bolin chose ten significant photographs from the two official news agencies with the largest circulation in China, “The People’s Daily” and “The Beijing News.”... Liu Bolin took the photographs and transformed them into large photorealistic oil paintings.... He uses his voice to transform the imagery by re- creating these images of real events that have already been edited, framed and approved by the official media.

Read more from the press release.

Eli Klein Fine Art is located at 462 West Broadway.

I Want to Believe

This weekend I went to Cai Guo Qiang's retrospective at the Guggenheim. Photography was not allowed, but I was able to sneak a snapshot of the rotunda installation.

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

Some Interesting News: Forbes

Article in Forbes today, "Pump and Dump," investigates the ways in which artists, buyers and dealers are working the contemporary Chinese art market.

"It is no secret that the Chinese contemporary art market is blistering hot, but outsiders have little idea of the murky ways the market's players have been cashing in for the last few years. With hundreds of millions of dollars at stake, China's high-earning artists, speculators, middlemen and critics have come up with some creative ways to manufacture demand. Artists are mass-producing paintings, auction houses are working with artists and dealers to juice up prices, and artists are paying for praise and exhibitions to build up their brands. If it were penny stocks being peddled, all this would go under the label of market manipulation. In the art world it's business as usual. Is there any law to stop a painter from bidding on his own artwork in order to create feverish demand? There isn't."

Read the entire article, it's interesting!

Event: Asia Week 2008

There is a lot to do and see in New York during this year's Asia Week.

At the top of my list is Asian Contemporary Art Week.
Saturday March 15, 2008 - Monday March 24, 2008

Museums exhibitions, gallery shows, receptions, symposiums, film screenings, talks with artists, talks with professionals, you can catch it all during Asian Contemporary Art Week.

13th Annual International Asian Art Fair
Saturday March 15, 2008 - Wednesday March 19, 2008

Galleries from all over the world convene at 583 Park Avenue. This is your chance to view (and maybe buy) Asian artworks ranging from relics to contemporary paintings.

17th Annual New York Arts of Pacific Asia Show
Friday March 21, 2008 - Monday March 24, 2008

Located at the Gramercy Park Armory at Lexington Avenue and 26th Street, this Asian antiquities fair features over 70 international Asian art galleries. Admission is $20 and includes and illustrated color catalogue!

Asian Works of Art Auctions
Monday March 17, 2008 - Friday March 21, 2008

Sotheby's, Christie's, Bonhams & Butterfields, and Doyle New York are all having Asian Art sales this week. Auction previews are open to the public .

Event: International Asian Art Fair

Coinciding with New York's Asian Contemporary Art Week 2008 is the 13th Annual International Asian Art Fair starting on Saturday March 15th, 2008.

"The International Asian Art Fair presents museums and private collectors with a rare and very special opportunity to view and buy from among the finest Asian art currently on the market. There is a wide range of these art works on view, from antiquity up to contemporary."

For more information, visit their website.

The International Asian Art Fair is located at 583 Park Avenue at 63rd Street.

Admission is $20

If, however, you have a lot of money and cannot wait until tomorrow, Asia Society is holding a preview tonight.

Artist: So Yeun Lee

Biography
1971 - Born in South Korea
Lives and works in Dusseldorf, Germany

the style files state that "according to So Yeun Lee, she gets to know herself better by creating self-portraits."

Mit Saewookkang Chips
2007
Oil on Canvas

See more of her work at Galerie Conrads.