In her first exhibition in China, prolific American avant-garde artist Leslie Thornton presents a series of compelling videos examining animals in vivid and thought-provoking detail. Her Binocular Series consists of video installations, each containing two circles. On the left-hand side, an animal features in its natural habitat, while the second ... Read More
French multimedia artist Alexandre Joly is based in Geneva, but has spent time in Shanghai as an artist in residence at The Swatch Art Peace Hotel. This solo exhibition presents a bizarre and intriguing world populated by birds, crystals and natural phenomena, spanning silk-screen painting, sculpture and sound installation.
When ... Read More
Charting eight years in the recent history of Studio 115, “MELD” is a diverse and compelling exhibition of jewelry and ceramics which bear witness to the creative dynamism of the Fine Arts College of Shanghai University. The exhibition at twocities gallery includes more than 50 original pieces, covering ornamental and ... Read More
Anyone familiar with video art will know Bill Viola’s name. For newcomers to the genre, his works provide the ideal introduction. The award-winning artist has been creating video installations since the ’70s, focusing on the landmark events and processes that make us human. The exhibition “Unspoken” at James Cohan ... Read More
Leo Xu’s lanehouse gallery has been given over to 13 international artists for the exhibition “Boy: A Contemporary Portrait.” Spanning three floors of the gallery, the show uses installation, photography, video and painting to investigate masculinity.
The most prominent piece is Cédric Andrieux. French choreographer Jérôme Bel’s 87-minute ... Read More
Shakespeare's comedy Much Ado About Nothing is familiar to most of us for its lighthearted depiction of love in Renaissance Italy. In its own adaptation, Shanghai Repertory Theater (SRT) has managed to bring the play to idyllic Gulangyu Island in 1900, bringing a touch of Chinese to the Western ... Read More
Despite studying art in Shanghai and coming from a family of artists, only recently has Fang Wei risen as a talent in the art world. His first solo exhibition includes oil painting and watercolor works, the latter displayed as studies for the former.
The expansive Shanghai Gallery of Art is ... Read More
Spring may be in sight, but winter lingers. Displaying the work of 13 painters, sculptors and video artists, OV Gallery's latest show takes the cold season as its theme. The gallery’s stark white walls provide the ideal backdrop to “Cold Comfort,” and its compact space acts as a ... Read More
When viewed together, “Open Air” by Lu Yanpeng and “Jungle Diary” by Huang Xiaoliang generate a pervasively tranquil yet sinister atmosphere. Placing the two exhibitions in proximity thus seems like a natural choice. They form a cohesive and a strong showcase from m97 Gallery this season.
Born in Fujian, Lu ... Read More
At Studio Rouge’s most recent exhibition, “Ruby, Roxy and the Flaming Lamborghini,” 20 Chinese and international artists meet under a simple theme: the color red.
“It’s no coincidence that we chose the holiday season for this show,” enthuses curator George Michell. “Red, of course, is associated with festivity ... Read More
The stark white space of the exhibition hall housing Zhang Qing’s latest work, titled simply “CCTV,” seems almost intentionally designed to make visitors feel vaguely uncomfortable and self-aware. In this evocative, Orwellian-themed show, the new media artist takes his audience on a tour through the eyes—and lens—of ... Read More
The name of this exhibition is “The 100 Most Influential Men in History,” and if that's all you know about it before you visit, you’ll be forgiven for expecting some reverential display à la TIME magazine. What you get though, is altogether different and more potent.
The stark ... Read More
India and China—the world's biggest democracy and the largest Communist dictatorship—have significant political and economic clout. Although less publicized, their artistic talents have also gained global traction in recent years. The exhibition “Window in the Wall: China and India—Imaginary Conversations” brings the countries’ dual art output ... Read More
In Shanghai exhibitons, the city is a common theme. As much of an inspiration as it is a geographical location, the metropolis often forms the backdrop for what artists produce here. “Utopia Nowhere: Views of Progress and Nostalgia” gathers works from 12 Shanghai-based artists, ranging from arresting installations to hyper-realistic ... Read More
When Zhe Chen turned to self-harm to deal with her internal struggles, she decided to document her experiences through photography. The result is “Bees,” a redemptive collection of portraits from a young photographer making her mark in the world.
Often harrowing and frequently shocking, the photographs in “Bees” show people ... Read More
Pixar is one of the best known names in digital animation, famous for the likes of Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Ratatouille and Wall-E. This exhibition, part of a world tour, is doubtlessly appealing to Pixar fans, animation lovers and anyone with an interest in graphic art.
The exhibition begins with ... Read More
IllustraBrazil! gathers the work of 100 Brazilian illustrators under the aegis of the Society of Illustrators of Brazil. With subject matter ranging from football to rainforest fauna and across genres as diverse as paper-cutting and caricature, the show is a vivid depiction of a country that is famous for its ... Read More
”Experimental Painting Manual” showcases the work of three contemporary Chinese artists over three floors, a floor for each artist. The ground floor is for Chongqing-born Wang Jun’s tranquil black, grey and white canvases. Almost abstract in execution, Wang’s pieces depict doors, walls, vents and brickwork. They are the ... Read More
The Long Goodbye is simply shot, containing almost no narrative or exposition. It follows a handful of residents at a care facility for the elderly in Taipei and talks to their families about the struggles they face when dealing with an aging relative suffering from various degenerative mental conditions, primarily ... Read More
The Shanghai Museum of Glass presents “Impression,” a retrospective of Steve Weinberg, one of the most innovative and prolific glass artists working today. Born in 1959, the American artist pioneered glass casting, which broke from the tradition of glass blowing. He was one of the first modern glass artists to ... Read More
If the name JonOne looks familiar, that’s because an exhibition of his works launched the 18Gallery in 2009. The artist was born John Perello and grew up in Harlem, New York. He has exhibited widely, moving from the walls of his home city where he was a member of ... Read More
As you walk into the main exhibition room at Noeli Gallery, you'll be forgiven for thinking that Li Wei’s “Motherland” is a photography exhibition. So detailed are his works and so vibrant the colors that it’s easy to mistake them for photographs. It’s only when you ... Read More
Although she is primarily known as a sculptor, Louis Bourgeois, the French artist who died in 2010 at the age of 98, was a splendid printmaker. In these prints one can see the conception and growth of her artistic practice. James Cohan Gallery presents 33 museum-quality prints, going so far ... Read More
I hit Shanghaiist most weekday mornings for all the news that's not really fit to print, and on Friday, editor Tiffany Ap posted a nice little bit on Beijing-based artist Liu Bolin's newest "invisible" photos. You can find all 19 photos here. Liu was featured in "City of ... Read More
In a recent review of Taschen’s Asian Graphics Now!, we mentioned that Shanghai's creative types often fill more than one role, citing Chen Hangfeng as an example of both an artist and a designer. At worst, leveling the creative field thoroughly commodifies visual culture, but at best this ... Read More