LuxArtAsia: April 2011

Opening - Li Songsong @ Pace Gallery, New York

On May 5, the Pace Gallery will open the first solo U.S. exhibition of Chinese painter Li Songsong. The exhibition features eleven new large-scale oil paintings, with works measuring up to seventeen feet wide. Li Songsong’s impasto paintings transform photographs, film stills, and other found images into grids of subtle color.

Drawing from images that address charged moments in recent world history or contentious current events and snapshots that are more personal and idiosyncratic, Li dismembers and reassembles the image into squares of lush paint in tones ranging from pastel to somber, with some brushstrokes cutting through two or more inches of oil paint to reveal other colors hidden below. By removing the image from its original context, he maintains a distance between the content of the image and the final painting. The transformed image —divided analytically into rectangular fragments, reworked with multiple layers of paint, pocked and daubed with unexpected colors—becomes abstract and expressionistic, both obscuring and neutralizing the original content as it explores the imperfection of memory. Li explains that the key to his paintings lies in the formal interpretation of the image, as well as the dissonance between content and style: “It’s like telling a story packed with violence and gore with a huge smile on your face. It’s how the stories are told that attracts you, and that’s the art of it. Everyone knows the story. The important thing is the way that you tell it.”

He approaches each fragment of the grid individually, moving methodically from left-to-right and top-to-bottom and finishing one square before moving on to the next.

Opening - Zheng Chongbin @ Ooi Botos, Hong Kong

On May 13, Gallery Ooi Botos will open INKquiry, a show by contemporary ink artist, Zheng Chongbin. Living between Shanghai and San Francisco, the Chinese artist has shown widely at international museums, as well as the Taipei 2010 Contemporary Ink Painting Biennial.

Contemporary ink painting is steadily gaining in importance as greater number of public exhibitions — such as "Fresh Ink" at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts — are dedicated to the reinterpretation of this refined and scholarly medium. Zheng Chongbin, who is classically trained, has sought to break away from tradition by incorporating new materials and techniques into his works. It has been through a process-driven exploration that he discovered the combination of acrylic, ink and wash that has become one of the hallmarks of his oeuvre. Using an interplay of black, white and grey, Zheng creates profound depth in his layered works, which are simple yet powerful abstractions. Shifting away from the softness and luminosity of his past works, his new paintings are marked by an increasing boldness and drama. The show will be in a pop-up gallery space (ArtEast Island, Unit 614, 6/F, Chai Wan Industrial City Phase 1, 60 Wing Tai Road, Chai Wan)

Auction - Bonhams to offer great collection of soapstone figures

On May 25, Bonhams will auction the Q Collection, arguably the greatest collection of soapstone figures ever to be offered at auction. The 78 figures represent the personal journey of the collector, who showed remarkable vision in collecting these figures, starting in the late 1970s. They were purchased from top art dealers in USA, Europe and Japan, and also from street markets. One of the rarest examples was purchased for a token sum in Cat Street in the late 1970s. Soapstone, or shoushan stone, is produced in South East China near to Fuzhou city. Prized throughout Chinese history, attractive to the eye and highly tangible, it was somewhat overlooked by collectors of Chinese art in the 20th century, who focused on porcelain and jade. Now however, there will be great interest from new Chinese collectors looking for pieces of quality and provenance. The collection includes this extremely fine and rare large soapstone figure of a sage, 17th/18th century (Estimate: HK$2,000,000-4,000,000)

Auction - Preview of Christie's Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Art

Zhou Chunya

David Chan

F.X. Harsono

Ronald Ventura

Udiantara

Ju Ming

Opening - Ranjani Shettar @ Third Floor-Hermes

The artist was in town for the opening Wednesday

Ranjani Shettar’s compact site-specific installation, “Flame of the Forest” at Third Floor-Hermès consists of a beautiful sculptural wall installation entitled “Green Breeze,” a couple of floor artworks in teak and a hanging sculpture in rose wood. To be honest, this is an extremely small show, but worth a quick visit if you’re on Orchard Road, because Shettar is one of the rising young artistic stars out of India, and the overall visual impact is fairly poetic and beautiful.

The artist is best known for her free-falling, suspended works of thread and beeswax webs. Her piece ‘Just a bit more’, first presented at the Sydney Biennale in 2006, has been acquired by MoMA in New York for its permanent collection, while ‘Me, No, Not Me, Buy Me, Eat Me, Wear Me, Have Me, Me, No, Not Me’ (2006 - 07) has been acquired by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in New Delhi bought Sing Along (2008-09).

She's now working on a major retrospective show for the National Art Gallery of Victoria, in Melbourne, Australia scheduled for November.

MUST TRY - Two Robuchon open in Singapore, it’s time for a Michelin Guide

One little birdie told me Michelin Guide staff have been seen in Singapore! Does this mean it’s time for a new Guide? Definitely and it’s safe to bet the new Joel Robuchon Restaurant and L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon at Resorts World Singapore are likely to be right at the top of their list. It’s easy to get a little blase about the opening of the two restaurants today, after the retinue of top chefs that have landed here in the last year at the two casinos. I’m thinking Guy Savoy (with his artichoke soup to die for), Wolfgang Puck (and his amazing Mini Kobe "Sliders" and steak tartare with herb Aioli), Tetsuya Wakuda (and his marinated prawns with sea urchin and Oscietre caviar). But the new restaurants (which opened to the press yesterday) are really a great addition to the local food scene, and not just for the food! Top restaurants here are often let down by their minimalist décor (school of “the focus should be on the cuisine”), but if one is paying north of $300 a head, a bit of decorum could be thrown in. And you certainly will get that at the new Joel Robuchon. The elegant décor oozes 1930s style with giant Lalique vases, bronze statues and a grand Chandelier. The 52-seat restaurant has also a very nice Winter Garden (though a bit chilly), with a large tree in the center under a glass skylight and two walls with vertical gardens. In the words of his Executive Chef Tomonori Danzaki (who has helmed Joel Robuchon Restaurants in Tokyo and in Las Vegas) “This is the most beautiful Robuchon from an interior décor perspective.”

Meanwhile across the entrance, L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon has the usual sleek black and red décor, with a curving bar around the open kitchen. On the menu are a divine Amuse bouche, a full bodied foie gras custard with a very light porto and parmesan foam, along with a crispy langoustine fritter with a kicking basil pesto sauce and of course his famed mashed potatoes (though I wasn’t too keen on the foie gras filled quail it was served with). But the restaurant has possibly the best desserts in town… a white chocolate sphere full of strawberry ice-cream which melts when the raspberry couli is poured over it and a passion fruit cream with coconut foam…need I say more?

Singapore transforms in auctionville for the next two weeks!

Ronald Ventura at 33Auction

The next couple of weeks promise to be exciting for art lovers in Singapore. No less than four auction houses will be showcasing their wears for upcoming auctions. Starting Friday One East Larasati will preview for two days its Hong Kong 2011 Spring Auction at ONE EAST Artspace (30 Bideford Road #03-02 , Thong Sia Building), while Christie’s will preview Apr 31-May 1 the highlight lots of its upcoming HK Spring Summer auctions at ARTSPACE@Helutrans (39 Keppel Road, #02-04, Tanjong Pagar Distripark).

Zhong Biao

Then on May 6-7 at MOCA (27A Loewen Road), 33Auction will preview Modern and Contemporary Asian Art, ahead of its sale on May 8 here at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, which carries a pre-sale estimate of around S$3 million. Leading the Philippines section is Ronald Ventura, whose work recently sold for just under $1 Million at auction, making him the highest ever selling South East Asian contemporary artist at auction. Ventura’s Nestling is an arresting mixed media assemblage, represents an apocalyptic scene of falling angels and a world in turmoil (typical Ventura!). Ventura’s background in a country struggling with poverty, displacement and religious restrictions was a clear influence in his creating this powerful and deeply personal work. Other Filipino artists in the sale include Annie Cabigting, Arturo Sanchez (a participant of the Singapore Biennale 2011), Ronald Caringal and Crist Espiritu.

Qu Guangci

Amongst Chinese artists is a rare large sculpture by Zhu Wei, along with some interesting pieces by Zhong Biao, Qu Guangci and Zhou Chunya (famous for his Green Dog series). Vagary by Zhong, who has long been obsessed with the marriage between the past and the present, depicts his wife, a woman who has also been swept up by the changes in society. Taking on the roles of a Chinese wife and daughter-in-law as well as the role of a modern woman, she garners a large number of differing opinions on who she is, based on the various rolls she plays. To the artist, that is exciting, a mirror for the reality in which he lives. Vagary captures this notion in mirror of illusion, visually juxtaposing the past and the present. I love Qu Guangci’s My Nature Tree, his twist on a Ming chair with colourful birds sitting on it, obviously appreciating the value of old tradition. As Qu Guangci once said, roots are the reason why a tree will keep growing.

Published - Southeast Asian Artists Look to the Present

Vasan Sitthiket

Fourteen old-fashioned children’s school desks are neatly installed in rows. The wooden desktops are carved with barely visible images of contentious events and figures in Thai history that are brought to life when visitors sit down and start rubbing the images with a crayon on paper to reveal them in full. The installation “History Class” by the Thai conceptual artist Sutee Kunavichayanont was first set up in 2000 at the foot of Bangkok’s Democracy Monument to invite people to produce their own history textbooks and reclaim their pasts. The work now takes pride of place in “Negotiating Home, History and Nation: Two Decades of Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia 1991-2011,” a new exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum that runs through June 26.

Agus Suwage

“It’s what I would call a quintessential Southeast Asian work because it wasn’t designed to be in an exhibition space, but instead to be seen and experienced on the street by ordinary people,” said Iola Lenzi, an art critic and guest curator, of the installation. “He combines form and concept to perfection, using the familiarity of children’s school desks and wood carving to engage the public.”

“Negotiating Home, History and Nation” is an ambitious survey of works by 54 artists from six Southeast Asian countries (Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia). It offers a rare chance to experience the diverse yet often related conceptual style and ideological concerns of artists in the region.

Among common themes found in the exhibition are the challenge to national power structures and their offshoots — cronyism, authoritarianism, abuse of power, racial policies biases — as well as investigation of cultural identities. “Wayang Legenda Indonesia Baru” (2000), an installation by the Indonesian artist Heri Dono, uses Wayang, or shadow puppets, in the shape of various Indonesian islands to represent the diverse nation, which faced a possible breakup after East Timor seceded in 1998. “Executive Toy” (2004), by the Malaysian artist Sharon Chin, uses 27 pendulum balls to represent each of Malaysia’s political parties, the movement of one creating a ripple effect across them all.

Sharon Chin

A glance around “Home, History and Nation” reveals a preponderance of three-dimensional art, photography and video. Mr. Kunavichayanont created his 1999 inflatable latex The White Elephant, which lies deflated on the floor, in reaction to the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998. Viewers are invited to inflate the elephant, but the strength required to achieve a full elephant again hints at the economic difficulties ahead. The controversial Thai artist Vasan Sitthiket’s “Committing Suicide Culture: The Only Way Thai Farmers Escape Debt” (1995) is an installation of plywood figures hanging by their necks in the midst of rice husks, a visually arresting political statement on Thailand’s agricultural policy. The Indonesian artist Agus Suwage presents a cabinet filled with books in “Give Me More Questions” (1997) with a superimposed cutout of a boy crouched in fear. The cabinet is surrounded by curtains with prints of the same boy in different positions, including crouching under the burden of books that are supposed to give him knowledge.

Spirituality and the role of religion in a society faced with consumerism, shifting sexual mores and corruption is another theme among many of the works. The Thai artist Kamin Lertchaiprasert’s “Lord Buddha Said ‘if you see Dhamma, you see me”’ (2003-4) is a papier-mâché effigy of a walking Buddha made of shredded notes on Thai money sliced horizontally into three parts — each presented separately, lining up one behind another. Read the whole story in the IHT .

Elephants Parade announces Asian artists for its Singapore foray

Following on my previous post, the herd of the Elephant Parade will roll down Orchard Road and around Marina Bay on Nov 11.

Organizers have just announced the list of the 120 or so artists, designers and celebrities that will be designing their own elephants, which will eventually then be auctioned at Sotheby's. It's a very mix bag, but top of my list amongst the Asian artists will be elephants designed by Filipino artist Ronald Ventura (can't wait!) and Korean sculptor Osang Gwon, along with works by Indian Farhad Hussain, Indonesian artist Ay Tjoe Chritine and Putu Sutawijaya, Filipino artist Bencab and Malaysian painter Ahmad Zakii Anwar.

Auction - Rare revolving vase from the Qianlong period coming up at Christie's

Christie's will auction a magnificent revolving vase from the Qianlong period (1736-1795) at its upcoming Hong Kong Spring Sale of Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art on June 1. Intricately decorated inside with symbols of happiness, longevity, prosperity and joy, the vase has reticulated outer walls and painted interiors, with a complex form and structure that exemplifies the technical brilliance of the craftsmen at the Imperial kilns of the period.

As a few reticulated revolving vases were successfully produced in China at the time, these are extremely rare. The case is constructed so that the neck and inner cylinder are one piece, while the reticulated outer walls, base, and foot form the envelope within which it revolves. A porcelain cone placed in the centre between the bases of the outer and inner sections provides the pivot on which the latter is able to rotate. It would have been necessary that no part of the vases should distort during firing; that all the sections should shrink the same amount in the firing; and that the revolving section should not become stuck to the rest of the vase during or after the assembly process.

Not content with making a vase that revolved, the ceramicists who produced this vase added a further degree of difficulty to their task by piercing the outer shell in order to create a reticulated pattern and to allow the decoration of the inner wall to be seen. The design of the reticulated roundels in the outer shell had to be very carefully balanced so as not to result in distortion or collapse of the outer wall during firing.

Opening - Katsushika Hokusai's Mount Fuji prints @ National Art Museum of Romania

The National Art Museum of Romania will open Thursday a special exhibition of Katsushika Hokusai's Mount Fuji prints entitled “Pilgrimage to Mount Fuji: Katsushika Hokusai engravings.”
Hokusai (1760 –1849) was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. In his time, he was Japan's leading expert on Chinese painting. Born in Edo (now Tokyo), Hokusai is best-known as author of the woodblock print series "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji" which includes the internationally recognized print, "The Great Wave off Kanagawa", created during the 1820s. Hokusai was known by at least 30 names during his lifetime. Although the use of multiple names was a common practice of Japanese artists of the time, the numbers of names he used far exceeds that of any other major Japanese artist. At the age of 12, he was sent by his father to work in a bookshop and lending library, a popular type of institution in Japanese cities, where reading books made from wood-cut blocks was a popular entertainment of the middle and upper classes. At 14, he became an apprentice to a wood-carver, where he worked until the age of 18, whereupon he was accepted into the studio of Katsukawa Shunsho.

Shunsho was an artist of ukiyo-e, a style of wood block prints and paintings that Hokusai would master, and head of the so-called Katsukawa school. Ukiyo-e, as practiced by artists like Shunsho, focused on images of the courtesans and Kabuki actors who were popular in Japan's cities at the time. After a year, Hokusai's name changed
for the first time, when he was dubbed Shunro by his master. It was under this name that he published his first prints, a series of pictures of Kabuki actorspublished in 1779.

Upon the death of Shunsho in 1793, Hokusai began exploring other styles of art, including European styles he was exposed to through French and Dutch copperengravings he was able to acquire. He was soon expelled from the Katsukawa school by Shunko, the chief disciple of Shunsho, possibly due to studies at the rival Kan school. This event was, in his own words, inspirational. Hokusai also changed the subjects of his works, moving away from the images of courtesans and actors that were the traditional subjects of ukiyo-e. Instead, his work became focused on landscapes and images of the daily life of Japanese people from a variety of social levels. This change of subject was a breakthrough in ukiyo-e and in Hokusai's career

During the 1820s Hokusai reached the peak of his career. His most famous work, Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, including the famous Great Wave off Kanagawa, dated from this period. It proved so popular that Hokusai later added ten more prints to the series. Hokusai created the "Thirty-Six Views" both as a response to a domestic travel boom and as part of a personal obsession with Mount Fuji. It was this series that secured Hokusai’s fame both within Japan and overseas.

Auction - Asian Art Week at Christie's London runs May 10-13

Asian Art Week at Christie’s London will run 10 - 13 May, featuring some interesting works from important private collections such a rare parcel-gilt silver lobed bowl and cover dated Tang dynasty from the collection of Swedish entrepreneur Martin Månsson (1880-1952) and some beautiful shibayama inro dating from the Meijing period from the Brozman Collection. In the ceramics, there is one of only four known Kakiemon models of an immortal on a tortoise, Edo period (1660-1670). This rare model is academically key to dating early enamelled wares.

Opening - Art Beijing 2011 Contemporary Art Fair

Zhang Xiaogang

Zhou Chunya

Zeng Fanzhi

The Art Beijing 2011 Contemporary Art Fair will be held from April 29-May 2 at the China National Agriculture Exhibition Center in Beijing. Now in its sixth year, Art Beijing is a busy fair attracting primarily Chinese art galleries, with a splattering of international galleries as well.

There will be a dedicated section called Art Unforbidden “Ullens Contemporary Art Collection” which will present pieces owned the famed collector that weren't recently sold at Sotheby's HK (as this exhibition is sponsored by Poly International Auction Co. once can assume they will come to the market in a not so distant future?). These includes works by Zhang Xiaogang, Wang Guangyi, Yue Minjun, Long Liyou, Fang Lijun, Zeng Fanzhi, Liu Xiaodong, Zhou Chunya, Yu Youhan and Liu Wei.

Opening - Chong Siew Ying @ Valentine Willie Fine Art, Singapore

Malaysian painter Chong Siew Ying is opening a new exhibition at Valentine Willie gallery in Singapore on May 6. Informed by both traditional Chinese ink painting and European sensibilities Chong creates imagined charcoal mindscapes that play with texture and formal composition to communicate the infinite qualities of landscape. In this recent body of work the artist first drew with charcoal on large scale paper-mounted canvases. Once laden with grainy textures, she placed her work on the floor to layer them with a clear emulsion, then lifted lifted the canvas merging charcoal and emulsion. The result of this labor-intensive process is an animated and atmospheric surface that has similarities to the fluid and meticulous strokes of ink painting. After studying art in Paris, Cheong returned to her native Malaysia in 1998, and has since built a name as an elegant and gifted painter, which produces profoundly emotive works. She’s at ease painting human figure and landscape. In late 2006 she made a series of charcoal drawings of largely Malaysian flora and fauna, of an almost forgotten life in nature. In 2008, she moved on to a series of portraits of imagined Oriental beauties adorning her compositions with classical Chinese motifs - flowers, blossoms, goldfish, distant mountainscapes. Her latest works focus on the imaged landscapes with highly dramatic effect, that have yet a strangely familiar feel.

Auction - Playful Qi Baishi paintings from Katsuizumi collection at Christie's HK

The sale of Fine Modern Chinese Paintings at Christie's HK on May 31 will offers several rare and important paintings from the Katsuizumi Collection, including works by top master Qi Baishi.

Sotokichi Katsuizumi was an economist, author and pacifist, who worked for the Yokohamo Specie Bank in Beijing from 1925 to 1932. He had a passionate interest in Chinese paintings, in particular those by Qi . During his time in Beijing, he befriended the artist through his colleague, Mr. Tanso Ito, and acquired a large number of his works. Many of the paintings were purchased directly from Qi or his wife. Known for painting birds and flowers, insects and grasses, figures and landscapes, Qi was recognized not only for his meticulous detailing and contemplative mood, but more importantly for his unique style that is fresh and spontaneous.

Monkey Contemplating Peach is imbued with blessings and symbols of longevity for the receiver, Mr. Katsuizumi. The peach is a symbol of longevity, while the monkey is another important symbol, for its name hou is a pun for a high-ranking noble, and is also symbolic of longevity. The peach and monkey are often paired with the peach of immortality, such as in this present painting. Qi positioned the monkey upon a rock, a natural symbol of longevity and permanence due to its hardness, and gave him a playful gaze of the monkey as he stares in wonder and amusement at the peach.

Qi's paintings emphasize his interchange with daily life and the nature, from which he drew his inspiration. Taking Grandson to School is another highlight in the collection in which Qi depicts a humorous everyday scene of a grandson unwilling to attend school, vividly reminding viewers of their own childhoods.

Elephant Parade heading to Singapore this November

The Elephant Parade (http://www.elephantparade.com/), a large open air art exhibition dedicated to saving the Asian elephant, is coming to Singapore, its first Asian stop. From November, a herd of 100 life-sized “art” elephants, painted and decorated by local and foreign celebrities and artists, will be on display along Orchard Roadand Marina Bay for two months before being auctioned off by Sotheby’s at a Grand Auction Gala on January 12.Orchard Roadand Marina Bay for two months before being auctioned off by Sotheby’s at a Grand Auction Gala on January 12.

Each elephant will be a unique piece of art, and a large part of the proceeds from Elephant Parade sale will be donated to The Asian Elephant Foundation and used to support various elephant-related projects throughout Asia (some goes to the artists too). There are only 13 countries left where Asian elephants are living in the wild and the Asian elephant is literally running out of space and time. For example, in 1960 there were over 35,000 Asian elephants in Thailand. Today, there are less than 4,000 elephants left, of which only 1,500 live in the wild. A similar Elephant Parade exhibition was held last year in London (see photos) and this year there will be similar parade in Copenhagen, Heerlen and Milan! Details on the names of the Asian artists involved should be unveiled next week.

Opening - Get ready for some Dali @ MBS ArtScience Museum

Snail and the Angel

The MBS ArtScience Museum in Singapore will open Dali: Mind of a Genius on May 14. Visitors will be able to enter the surreal mind of Salvador Dalí, one of the 20th century’s best-known artists, thanks to a display of over 250 Dalí artworks, primarily sculptures and lithographs.

Montre Molle

Dalí, the most iconic figure of the surrealist movement, explored a wide range of artistic expressions ranging from paintings, sculptures, literature, cinema to decorative art, fashion, furniture, jewelry and last but not least advertising. The exhibition will be divided into three themed areas – Femininity and Sensuality, Religion and Mythology, Dreams and Fantasy.

Woman Aflame

“Femininity and Sensuality” features Dalí artworks depicting the female form and its sensuality. Important pieces include the sculpture of Women Aflame that unites two of Dalí’s obsessions: A female form with drawers set aflame. Other highlights include Space Venus and Anthropomorphic Cabinet.

“Religion and Mythology” reflects Dalí’s tempestuous and ambiguous relationship with the Church. Artworks found in this gallery include renowned sculptures such as the Snail and the Angel, Adam and Eve, and Vision of the Angel.

“Dreams and Fantasy” embodies Dalí’s enduring fascination with the subconscious mind as the true canvas for expression of personality. This comes into vivid focus through sculptural works such as Persistence of Memory and Dance of Time I. Other works that refer to a life lived through dreams and distorted visions of reality include the alluring Alice in Wonderland and Spellbound, a huge 11 meter by 5 meter visually spectacular 1945 painting borne from Dalí’s collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock. The exhibition will run until Oct 30.

Spellbound