LEO XU PROJECTS

December 22nd, 2013 to March 23rd, 2014
OCAT Shanghai, 1016 North Suzhou Road, Shanghai
Curator: Mariagrazia Costantino

Participating artists: Chen Wei, Cheng Ran, Chen Zhou, Guan Xiao, Hu Yun, Li Ming, Li Ran, Lu Yang, Ma Qiusha, Ye Linghan

Degeneration explores the concept of continuity and rupture in Contemporary Art, through the presentation of the most representative young artists working with different media in Mainland China.

There seems to be now a certain tension between the reluctance to move away from the legacy transmitted by the former generations and the objective necessity to break this thread: is precisely this the way a new generation arises.

What we would like to suggest or imagine is a possible scenario in which there is no more need to refer back to the formal authority of preceding generation, yet irreverent spirit can be maintained.

The word “Degeneration” implies several meanings. The literal one is “deviation from one’s own genus”, referring to a process that cannot be stopped, an altered status which makes impossible to go back to the starting point, or even to an intermediary one. Not necessarily utterly bad, this is a condition contemporary societies – including the Chinese one – are now confronted with. In this specific context, the other temporary meaning conferred on the word derives from its split into two separate parts – “de” and “generation”: the prefix “de” is used to indicate a process of privation, which in this case is that of this missing “generation.” As a process, “degeneration” embeds the symptom and the cure. Details »

CHENG RAN Studio at Rijksakademie OPEN 2013
November 30th through December 1st, 2013
Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam

In international language testing there are usually four standards by which proficiency is assessed: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Hence, these have become the rules to judge whether a certain person possesses the elementary ability to communicate with others and whether they have the capacity to live overseas. On top of this, they represent a certain kind of defining dimensionality to one’s personal identity, and through examination papers and data, they infer one’s personal ability to control and balance the emotional and the rational. In his one year of residence at Rijksakademie, Cheng Ran employed video installations, sounds and a novel as his creative media, to query these fake, emotionless standards and, from an opposing perspective, to attempt to re-discover the interaction between the primitive instincts of one’s human body and the social fabric in order to describe this state of mania with its corresponding physical disorders, possessing a rebellious personal identity and values. From this, the title is taken.

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September 27th to December 15th, 2013
Opening reception: September 26th, 6PM-8PM
Sheila C. Johnson Design Center
Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Gallery

Ideas and experiences of “China” live across many borders. As routes of commerce and leisure between Chinese regions have become more open, artists have embraced mobility, traveling (or having multiple artistic bases) from Mainland China to Taiwan, Taiwan to Hong Kong or to Singapore, and other areas with large historical Chinese populations. Through works in video, photography, installation, sound and performance, this exhibition explores the pluralism of this Chinese identity, geographically and culturally.

Curated by Arthur Ou, an artist and Assistant Professor of Photography at Parsons, the exhibition features work by Chen Chieh-jen, Heman Chong, Cao Fei, Lee Kit, Michael Lin, Charwei Tsai, Hong-kai Wang, Ming Wong, Jun Yang, and Hu Yun.

PRESS
South China Morning Post, “New York art show tackles what it means to be Chinese in the modern age”, December 2013 [download pdf]

October 5th, 2013 through March 16th, 2014
Carnegie Museum of Art
4400 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA

A commissioned new work and a selection of previous installations by Beijing-based He An will be on view in 2013 Carnegie International that runs from October 5th, 2013 through March 16th, 2014, with an opening celebration on Friday October 4.

Inaugurated in 1896, the Carnegie International is the longest-running international survey of contemporary art at any museum. The upcoming edition will feature Ei Arakawa/Henning Bohl, Phyllida Barlow, Yael Bartana, Sadie Benning, Bidoun Library, The Collection, Nicole Eisenman, Lara Favaretto, Vincent Fecteau, Rodney Graham, Guo Fengyi, Wade Guyton, Rokni Haerizadeh, He An, Amar Kanwar, Dinh Q. Lê, Mark Leckey, Pierre Leguillon, Sarah Lucas, Tobias Madison, Zanele Muholi, Paulina Olowska, The Playground Project, Pedro Reyes, Kamran Shirdel, Gabriel Sierra, Taryn Simon, Frances Stark, Joel Sternfeld, Mladen Stilinović, Zoe Strauss, Henry Taylor, Tezuka Architects, Transformazium, Erika Verzutti, and Joseph Yoakum.

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June 1st through September 15th, 2013
Opening:May 30th, 2013, 5-8pm
Palasport “Giobatta Gianquinto” (Palasport Arsenale)
Calle San Biagio 2132 Castello — Venezia

A winner of Special mentions for National Participations of the 55th International Art Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia, Oo is the pavilion that brings together two countries: Cyprus and Lithuania. Curated by Raimundas Malašauskas, the twin pavilions feature artists Liudvikas Buklys, Gintaras Didžiapetris, Jason Dodge, Lia Haraki, Maria Hassabi, Phanos Kyriacou, Myriam Lefkowitz, Gabriel Lester, Elena Narbutaitė, Morten Norbye Halvorsen, Algirdas Šeškus, Dexter Sinister, Constantinos Taliotis, Kazys Varnelis, Natalie Yiaxi, and Vytautė Žilinskaitė.

Oo is a slightly asymmetric structure conveying uneven, yet mutually open elements; slinging in a movement of a constant twist between the two (at least), suspicious of one, entailed by organizational surfing. Drawing on interest in forms of organization rather than organization of forms, it floats like life and plankton.
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National Salon of Artists: Saber Desconocer (To Know Not to Know)
September 6th through November 3rd, 2013
Medellín, Colombia

First held in 1940, Colombia’s longest-running and best-known platform for contemporary art, the National Salon of Artists, presents its 43rd edition (SNA43) in the city of Medellín from Friday, September 6 to November 3, 2013.

Saber Desconocer (To Know Not To Know) features approximately 100 installations, sculptures, videos, audio works, photographs and paintings by as many artists from throughout Latin America and abroad.

All the featured work will be explored through the lens of two themes: saber, the importance of tradition, territory, and knowledge developed in one place; and desconocer, the need to escape from place and the quest for the unknown.
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Variations On An Icon
September 10th through 30th, 2013
K11 Art Mall
300 Middle Huaihai Road, Shanghai

Chen Wei, together with two other young Chinese artists aaajiao and Hu Yun, are commissioned by Max Mara to produce works that reflect the ideas behind the coat 101801. The new works will be on view in a special presentation titled “Variations on An Icon”.
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Cheng Ran: Video Bureau

May 31st, 2013
Ground floor, 12,Yile Yixiang, Yile Road, Haizhu District
Guangzhou (the backyard of Libreria Borges Institute for Contemporary Art), China

Video Bureau is a non-profit organization that aims to provide a platform to exhibit, organize and archive video art. The mission of Video Bureau is to collect and organize artworks of video artists in order to build a video archive that welcomes research and viewing. As an institute opens to the public, every month Video Bureau features one artist’s video works, and hosts related events.
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May 10th until August 11th, 2013

Curated by Hou Hanru, The 5th Auckland Triennial is titled “If you were to live here…” which offers a way artists and creative participants can inhabit and transform social spaces by producing innovative ideas, projects and works. The 5th Auckland Triennial will provide opportunities to connect with different communities, as well as collaborations among various partners in and out of the city. It will invite discussion, debate and the exchange of ideas.

For further information, please visit: http://aucklandtriennial.com/.

April 24th through May 26th, 2013

The 26th EMAF presents media as art, cult media, media for reflection and media with a fun factor.

In its programme comprising short and feature-length films, documentaries, exhibitions, performances and lectures, EMAF introduces well-known stars such as Californian artist Kerry Laitala, filmmaker Harun Farocki, and documenta 13 participant Omer Fast, in addition to young talented artists from various universities and academies.

More than 180 new films, installations and artistic projects selected from over 2,400 entries will be presented at the festival.

Details »

From April 24th to 28th, 2013, KINO DER KUNST, the first event of its kind worldwide, presents films by visual artists who push boundaries of cinema and explore new narrative forms.

KINO DER KUNST is an exhibition and a film festival in one, which showcases today’s trends in art and provides an international meeting point for artists, curators and the public. Spread across various locations, such as the University of Television and Film Munich (HFF), the Pinakothek der Moderne / Schaustelle, the Museum Brandhorst in the Kunstareal and beyond that the ARRI cinema, the Academy of Fine Arts, the Kunstverein Munich, the MaximliansForum and the Goetz Collection, it will feature a competition with generous prizes, a retrospective program of feature-length films by artists ranging from Rebecca Horn and Eija-Liisa Ahtila to Steve McQueen or Julian Schnabel, a wide range of works from specific geographical regions and a number of museum-based multi-channel installations, all aimed at examining the current relationship between cinema and art.

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March 13th through May 13th, 2013
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

LEO XU PROJECTS is pleased to announce that Gabriel Lester will be presenting a commssioned new work in Sharjah Biennial 11 titled ‘Re:emerge, Towards a New Cultural Cartography’.

Curator Yuko Hasegawa proposes a Biennial that reassess the Westerncentrism of knowledge in modern times and reconsiders the relationship between the Arab world, Asia, the Far East, through North Africa and Latin America.

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June 30th through November 17th, 2013
The Orange County Museum of Art
850 San Clemente Drive in Newport Beach, California

Formerly known as the California Biennial, The Orange County Museum of Art has re-envisioned this important survey of contemporary California art and will re-launch it as the California-Pacific Triennial in 2013 with participating artists representing a cross-section of countries from throughout the Pacific rim.

2013 California-Pacific Triennial is organized by the Orange County Museum of Art and curated by Chief Curator Dan Cameron.

Michael Lin will be presenting a new body of site-specific installations in the Triennial. For further information on the artist and project please contact info@leoxuprojects.com .

To learn more about the Triennial, please visit the official website.

January 13th through April 14th, 2013
Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing

New works by Chen Wei, Cheng Ran, Guo Hongwei, and Liu Chuang are featured in “ON/OFF: China’s Young Artist’s in Concept and Practice” an exhibition that occupies all UCCA exhibition spaces and provides a comprehensive survey of the generation of artists born after the death of Mao and the end of the Cultural Revolution, and at the dawn of the country’s era of opening and reform. “ON | OFF” includes 50 commissioned works by 50 artists and artist groups.

November 25th, 2012 through March 1st, 2013

Minsheng Art Museum Shanghai presents ‘Roxy’, the first solo exhibition in China of internationally exhibited Dutch artist Gabriel Lester. Born in Amsterdam in 1972 and presently based in Amsterdam and Shanghai, Lester has been producing works since the mid-1990s that are informed by lexica of cinematography and architecture, and mediate the perception of the world that is constantly re-shaped by new technology and mass media. The show opens on November 25th 2012 and runs through March 1st 2013. It will be accompanied by a series of events and a monographic book describing the career of the artist.

‘Roxy’ draws its title and inspiration from American theatrical impresario and entrepreneur Samuel Lionel Rothafel, known as ‘Roxy’ (1882-1936), and his legendary Roxy Theatre. Roxy has become synonymous with theatre, cinema, and numerous international namesake venues, which enabled its infiltration into a broader culture sphere. In his Roxy, Gabriel Lester was inspired by the innovative spirits and eclecticism embodied in Roxy stories that he found while researching 1920s silent films. Lester’s defining works, produced between the late 1990s and present, focus on reinventing the fundamental grammar and rhetoric that constitute the cinema and narrative forms.
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Cheng Ran: Perspectives 180: Unfinished Country – New Video From China

November 2nd, 2012 through February 17th, 2013
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston(CAMH)
5216 Montrose Blvd, Houston, USA

Since the introduction of market-based economic reforms in 1978, China has become the world’s fastest growing economy. Parallel to this economic growth has been the unprecedented production of art. While the majority of contemporary art practices have centered upon the traditional genres of painting and sculpture, the expansion of work in video and new media has been rapidly evolving. Perspectives 180-Unfinished Country: New Video from China presents a cross-section of work by a new generation of artists from China working in video and video installation. Details »

FreePort [No. 005]: Michael Lin
March 22, 2012 through May 27, 2013
Peabody Essex Museum, Massachusetts
Located in the: Asian Export Art: China, Mellon Staircase and Galleries
 
Michael Lin delves into the Peabody Essex Museum’s renowned collection of Asian Export Art to animate the history of trade between China and the West. Part display and part performance, the show includes dramatic ornamental murals, photographs, prints, specially commissioned vases, and a large-scale installation of hundreds of replicas of ‘Mr. Nobody’, which is a key object in PEM’s Asian Export Collection and dates from 1690 and is one of the first depictions of a European in Chinese porcelain.

“Michael Lin’s artwork eloquently explores cultural translation, craftsmanship and commerce. Lin’s installation at PEM vividly connects east and west, past and present by animating global trade relationships established 300 years ago and playfully redefining what Asian Export Art looks like today.” Comments Trevor Smith, PEM’s Curator of Contemporary Art.
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October 2nd, 2012 through March 31st, 2013

Li Qing and Guo Hongwei are featured in the 9th Shanghai Biennale, running from October 2nd, 2012 through March 31st, 2013.

Curated by Qiu Zhijie, Boris Groys, Jens Hoffmann, and Johnson Chang, this Biennale, titled ‘Reactivation’, looks into artists’ practices that motivate the public, revisit/rewrite history, convert and transform energy and organize dialogues and communications respectively. In the section of ‘Revisit’, Li Qing presents a selection of large paintings from his recent series ‘Book of Creation–Reincarnation’, which is a time capsule that investigates the overlooked history of contemporary society and civilization, through a series of portraits of sacred and historical objects against transforming landscapes.

In the City Pavilion of Palermo, Guo Hongwei, who is inspired by his visit to this ancient city, exhibits a special diptych that comprises one photorealistic painting on wall and one extensive layer of acrylic paint on the floor. With Guo’s idiosyncratic sculptural brushwork, ‘A Page of Ocean’ (2011) emancipates the images of infinite wavy ocean from the frames and re-imagines the time and space.
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Cheng Ran: The 1st CAFAM FUTURE

August 8th through September 6th, 2012
CAFA Art Museum
No.8 Hua Jia Di Nan St., Chao Yang District, Beijing, China

The “CAFAM • Future” Exhibition, initiated by the China Central Academy of Fine Arts and organized by CAFA Art Museum, was officially launched in February 2012. The Exhibition aims to encourage young people’s exploration into artistic language and new ideas, finding and supporting talented young artists in China, establishing a database of young Chinese artists, as well as improving the social impact and awareness of contemporary art both in Chinese and international art fields, so as to create a core platform for promoting the art of young Chinese people.
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