If you only gave Yang Shufeng’s engraving prints a short glance, his work would come off as a confused mess.
The chaotic lines and objects seem to purposefully confound whatever message Yang hopes to send. But in that confusion lies the real message: one of depression, anger, disappointment, and rebellion.
The definition of irony has always been difficult to pin down, even for the most seasoned of wordsmiths, but here’s an attempt through example: an artist who achieved fame by defacing or destroying other artists’ work sees one of his defaced works defaced by another artist.
The famous artist is Ai Weiwei, whose 1995 photographic triptych Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn is undoubtedly one of the pieces that propelled him to international art world fame and fortune.
No one can doubt Ma Haifang’s Beijing credentials.
Born in the city in 1956, Ma studied at the Central Academy of Fine Arts and graduated in 1981 with a degree in traditional painting. Like many masters in his field, he has spent the years since working at People’s Art Publishing House as a supervisor.
Ma obsesses about Beijing life. Each of his works capture daily life in Old Beijing and festival celebrations.
Our friends at Beijing Today will sporadically swing by to introduce art and culture in the city. This week, a man who paints of and with love.
Sheng Tianhong’s heart is wholly devoted to painting. Born in Zhejiang Province in 1973 and a graduate from the Chinese Central Academy of Fine Arts, he moved to Dusseldorf, Germany at the age of 24 to travel and develop his career.
Our friends at Beijing Today will be swinging by now and then to introduce art and culture around the city. This week, get acquainted with modern creations as the National Art Museum of China reexamines the New Wave movement of 1985, which began with an essay and series of pictures by graduate students at the Zhejiang Art Academy (now the China Academy of Art). They ran wildly counter to the Chinese mainstream at the time, emphasizing a deeper perspective on humanity – one that respected individuality and free expression.
Our friends at Beijing Today will be swinging by every now and then to introduce art and culture around the city. This week's focus is on 798's Galleria Continua Beijing, which currently is featuring a solo exhibition by Qiu Zhijie.
Chen Zhifeng is a “self-made” billionaire, founder of the Western Regions Photography Society, and a major force in Xinjiang’s art scene. He is part of a newly minted cohort of Xinjiang capitalists: the Xinjiang 8 (or 9), who have taken advantage of Chinese-Central Asian market development and the post-Reform oil and gas economy. His Wild Horses Corporation brings in an annual income of $700 million selling Chinese-made women’s underwear and TVs in Russia and Kazakhstan.
Yet, unlike some other Xinjiang elites, Chen has reinvested his wealth in Xinjiang.
For the first time ever, Art Basel opened in Hong Kong on Thursday, where it'll remain a showcase for Asian art, artists and galleries until tomorrow. For a glimpse, you'll want to check out Stephy Chung's latest video for Crane.tv, above, featuring scenes from this international event.
Does Hong Kong deserve Art Basel? That's debatable. "Even a few local boosters will admit that the paucity of Hong Kong galleries is largely a reflection of the weakness of the local art scene," reports the New York Times.
Chinese media gets fooled by things occasionally. Usually it’s satire that gets them, but recently, the Chinese edition of Global Times discovered it could embarrass itself in totally new and interesting ways.
By mistaking DeviantArt for the real thing.
Li Hongbo loves paper. He loves it so much that he's taken it to the "artistic extreme," as Crane TV puts it -- which is apt, considering Li can "open" and "provoke" his paper art, turning/flipping/rotating it into different shapes or evocations. Check out this former book editor at work in the above video as he shapes paper gourds, guns, statues, and other miscellany.
