Art
LOS ANGELES — The image of the Chinese manufacturing plant is quickly becoming a 21st century icon of production, just as the car plants of Fordism were in the 20th century and Victorian coal mines were during the Industrial Revolution. They're frequently portrayed as sites of high efficiency, but r
Art
Alison Klayman’s 90-minute film Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry set out to be a portrait of the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei and along the way morphed into a highbrow, jaw-dropping reality show about fumbling, corrupt governments (China), social media (Twitter), democracy and art (Weiwei) and the power of the st
Art
Whenever I find myself strolling in the hutongs near Gulou and see the entrance of Bed Bar, images of Liang Tao's 2005 cross-gender performance come to mind. I met her that same year in the 798 art district, just after her performance "Madhouse in Paradise" at Marella Gallery. For that piece she bui
Art
LOS ANGELES — Now that I've written so extensively about residencies and their benefits, maybe you're wondering: which residency to join? As mentioned in my series of articles, the Alliance of Artist Communities is a great resource, with well over a thousand sites here and abroad.
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LOS ANGELES — I first noticed a few pictures of a curious performance piece on Sina Weibo and then Ai Weiwei also posted about it on his Twitter account. Since March 24, He Yunchang, also known as A Chang, has been sleeping outside in the Beijing artist village of Caochangdi (whose name literally me
News
LOS ANGELES — Independent Curators International is setting up shop in Beijing. Working with the prestigious Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, ICI's first curatorial intensive in China will be focused on the subject of The Museum of the Future?: Curating Institutions.
Art
BEIJING — I moved to China almost a year ago now, into a country where I knew no one and where even the internet was foreign. I pulled away from my main social circle geographically, but did what I could do stay connected via the internet and phone. And yet, just as I turned to the internet for soci
Art
BEIJING — Anecdotally, Beijing, like New York, definitely feels like a city of immigrants and migrants. Few people I meet actually grew up in Beijing. For Beijing Design Week, Beijing artist Chen Ke partnered with Beijing curatorial lab ChART Contemporary to find a retro, more personal way to connec
Art
BEIJING — I arrived at Dongfeng Art District one afternoon, a 20-minute drive east of the more famous 798 and Caochangdi arts districts in northeast Beijing. It’s a short but somewhat winding drive away from the shinier parts of Chaoyang District, Beijing’s most economically-developed area. “Dongfeng” means “East Wind,
Art
Last night, the National Art Museum of China (中国美术馆) launched Translife (延展生命), their triennial of new media art from around the world. Curated by Zhang Ga (张尕), Translife is divided into four parts and three floors: Sensorium of the Extraordinary, Sublime of the Liminal, Zone of the Impending and,
Art
If Beijing has a Chelsea, 798 Art Zone, then surely it has a Williamsburg. That "alternative" neighborhood is Caochangdi (草场地). According to legend, Ai Weiwei moved out here in early 2000 to set up his studio and the China Art Archives and Warehouse. It was a strange move at the time, but galleries
Art
Joseph DeLappe, known best for his performances situated in first person shooter (FPS) games, has unveiled the beginning of a new series of work at Where Where Exhibition Space (“哪里哪里”艺术空间) in Beijing's Caochangdi neighborhood.