Artworks & exhibitions in China

Lin Yilin - Safely Maneuvering across Lin He Road, 1995, performance, Guangzhou, China feat

Lin Yilin’s performance – Safely Maneuvering Across Lin He Road

Performances, Video Art / 4 minutes of reading

Lin Yilin Lin Yilin needs no introductions in the world of performance art. As one of the most well-known Chinese artists, Yilin has made a name for himself for his contemporary interventions and performance pieces that often criticize China’s extreme urbanization, modernization, commercial globalization, as well as its geopolitical conflicts. Lin was born in Guangzhou, …

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Xu Zhen’s In just a blink of an eye – Defying the laws of physics?

Performances, Sculptures / 5 minutes of reading

Have you ever seen one of those perfectly timed photos that capture the exact moment someone begins to fall on their bum? With modern technology, it is not hard to capture that “perfect moment”. However, capturing that “perfect moment” in a live performance is nearly impossible; unless you are Xu Zhen. Chinese artist Xu …

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Chen Wenling’s bull fart sculpture – What you see might not be real

Sculptures / 3 minutes of reading

The Bull Fart Sculpture was exhibited in a Beijing art gallery in 2009 by celebrated Chinese artist Chen Wenling. Chen titled the work What You See Might Not Be Real to take an in-depth look at the international financial crisis that the world was grappling with at the time. Chen created the farting bull …

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Who is photographer Hai Bo?

Photography / 4 minutes of reading

Who is Hai Bo? Hai Bo, born in 1962, is a photographer with special interests in intangible photography. His works usually aim at documenting changes in the social and economic environments of society. The main characteristic that defines Hai’s aesthetic is the fact that he captures the everyday moment and, at the same time, tries …

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Who was Tsang Tsou Choi, the King of Kowloon?

Graffiti, Paintings / 7 minutes of reading

Bio Tsang Tsou Choi was born on November 12, 1921, in Gaoyao, Guangdong, Republic of China, and died in Hong Kong on 15, July 2007. When he was 16 years old, Choi traveled to Hong Kong. He worked manual jobs there, which was the only kind he was qualified to do as he was barely …

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Potemkin villages by Gregor Sailer – These are fake towns

Documentary photography, Photography / 5 minutes of reading

Gregor Sailer is an Austrian photographer born in 1980. He is known the world over for his architectural photographs. His most remarkable work is the Potemkin Village, in which he pairs together a couple of ‘fakes’ to create cities and towns. Gregor was educated in Austria and Germany, where he specialized in architectural photography. …

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Olafur Eliasson’s fascinating colorful haze installation in Beijing

Installations, Light Installations / 3 minutes of reading

What was Feelings Are Facts? Feelings Are Facts was created as a result of a collaboration between Danish artist Olafur Eliasson and Beijing-based architect Ma Yansong of MAD studio. Feelings Are Facts was constructed within one of the rooms at the UCCA galleries. It measured approximately 60m by 20m and featured a moderately slanted floor …

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This was Thomas Heatherwick’s UK Pavilion in Shanghai

Architecture / 3 minutes of reading

Thomas Heatherwick’s Seed Cathedral, 2010 What have seeds got to do with art? Well, Thomas Heatherwick did manage to preserve a big chunk of our plants within an art piece he presented at the UK pavilion at Expo 2010. Out of the 200 building exhibits on display, Heatherwick must have instinctively known that he had …

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Zeng Fanzhi’s Last supper – One of China’s most expensive paintings

Paintings / 4 minutes of reading

Background Zeng Fanzhi’s The Last Supper is one of the most noteworthy Asian contemporary pieces of art. Throughout his career, Zeng Fanzhi has been working to make Chinese art more popular. His artwork is known for offering an honest critique of the contemporary Chinese lifestyle while creating a much-needed dialogue between Eastern and Western philosophies. …

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Yang Fudong’s Coloured Sky – Dream & nightmare of the idealized woman

Photography / 3 minutes of reading

Yang Fudong’s multi-screen video installation titled The Coloured Sky: New Women II was created in 2014 to portray today’s radiantly colo...

Cao Fei’s Whose Utopia? The lives & dreams of Chinese workers

Performances, Video Art / 3 minutes of reading

Cao Fei is no stranger to the subject of Chinese urbanism, and Whose Utopia? is a classic example of her prowess and ingenuity as an artist. Cao Fei’s interest in generating multimedia art that touches on social commentary has placed her as China’s leading artist born after the Cultural Revolution. So, what’s Whose Utopia? …

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Song Dong’s Waste Not – Why obsessive hoarding lead to this project

Architecture, Installations / 3 minutes of reading

Song Dong’s Waste Not is an installation with a story behind it. A testament born of the artist’s mother, Zhao Xiangyuan’s hoardings, the...

Who is photographer Li Wei?

Photography / 3 minutes of reading

Li Wei’s work is anything but cautious or wary. In fact, it can be described as peculiar or quirky, depending on your perception of life. Characterized by bodies that are often positioned in near-impossible angles, such as buried in windscreens and toppling off skyscrapers, Li Wei’s bizarre works are distinctive. Li Wei was …

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Huaxi is China’s richest village. Shi Yangkun took these photos

Photography / 2 minutes of reading

China’s model socialst village is also it’s richest At the middle of the 1980s the collectivization process ended up failing in China. But even so, there are repercussions to deal with and the countryside in particular still retains some of the ideas such as individualism, privatization or marketization. There are villages like Huaxi, Nanjie or …

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Visitor in front of work by Chung Sang-Hwa at exhibition Korean Abstract Art – Kim Whanki and Dansaekhwa, Powerlong Museum, Shanghai, 2018-2019 feat

Dansaekhwa: Korean monochrome painting: Everything you need to know

Paintings, Sculptures / 18 minutes of reading

What is Dansaekhwa? Dansaekhwa is an art movement born in South Korea in the 1970s. The pioneers of Dansaekhwa are born between 1913 and 1936 and avoided any reference to Western realism in their works, creating primarily monochrome and minimalist paintings. Dansaekhwa or Tansaekhwa is a term used to refer to a loose grouping of …

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What is Xu Bing’s impressive Book from the Sky all about?

Installations / 3 minutes of reading

The Book from the Sky is one of the most intriguing Chinese art installations of the century and the nifty work of none other than the celebrated Chinese artist Xu Bing. This installation comprises a set of 4 hand-printed books, as well as wall and ceiling scrolls printed in the style of a wood …

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Lu Guang & pollution: Chinese regime doesn’t want you to see this

Photography / 3 minutes of reading

Lu Guang is an award-winning Chinese photojournalist and has done a lot of documentary projects highlighting social, economic and environmental issues and injustices. This renowned photojournalist’s exposures on pollution and environmental destruction have long been underreported in China due to the government’s penchant to mete out punishment to such activists. Due to his work …

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Do Yue Minjun’s self portraits make you laugh?

Paintings / 3 minutes of reading

Yue Minjun’s style is easily be recognized. His self-portrait oil paintings depict himself in vivid colors while grinning with his mouth gaping. An oxymoron of sorts, the self-portraits evoke feelings of sympathy as well as humor. The depictions of himself in various poses laughing draw numerous diverse interpretations. However, the general consensus is that …

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Huang Yong Ping created the longest snakes you have ever seen

Sculptures / 3 minutes of reading

A massive snake in real life? Absolutely frightening. A massive snake skeleton, aluminum and stainless steel structure, on the other hand? Absolutely exciting and awe-inspiring. Such is the Chinese-French artist Huang Yong Ping’s unique aluminum snake sculpture, an installation he dubbed Ressort. Designed and installed in 2012 for the Queensland Art Gallery in Australia, …

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Zhang Huan’s iconic performance: A small mountain of naked people

Performances / 3 minutes of reading

Zhang Huang is one of the greatest and perhaps most popular controversial artists in contemporary China. He first started...

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Sebastião Salgado’s dramatic Workers photos – Overworked & underpaid

Photography / 7 minutes of reading

The Story in Sebastiao Salgado’s Workers Sebastiao Salgado’s Workers is an exceptional photography series and book, thanks to its detail in men at work in the lowest levels and harshest conditions. His work shows solidarity with the world’s poorest societies. He seeks to recognize and appreciate the isolated peasants and refugees who represent a large …

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Artworks & exhibitions in China

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