Seven years ago, American artists Raymond Pettibon and John Newsom were introduced to each other by Stella Schnabel at a brunch she hosted for artists and their children. Both of the artists have sons who attended the brunch as well. Pettibon’s son Bo and Newsom’s son Luke were 5 and 6 years old at the time they met. As they became friends quite fast, their relationship also led to an ever-developing artistic dialogue between Pettibon and Newsom. The exhibition at the Kebbel Villa will represent the two artists’ second shared exhibition together and the first institutional presentation in Europe.
Expanding on the artists’ first joint exhibition “Raymond Pettibon / John Newsom: Classical Elements” presented at COUNTY Gallery, Palm Beach in 2022, the artists chose another timeless theme to tackle and portray for their exhibition at the Kebbel Villa. From the classical elements to the seven deadly sins and the seven heavenly virtues, Pettibon and Newsom share a respectful appreciation for time-tested iconography with a spiritual or psychological leaning. This allows them to explore the heights and depths of allegorical and metaphorical possibilities of each of their individual practices and processes.
Pettibon’s creative engagement with a myriad of pictorial tropes and diverse written language incorporates wit and humor along with mystery and, at times, sexual innuendo to create highly engaging and provocative expressions of both body and mind, giving perfect weight and measure to the sins as well as to the relief of the virtues. He presents the viewer with challenges to their everyday norms of understanding and forces the viewer out of their comfort zone, providing the opportunity for repeated viewing, thought, and mind expansion.
Similarly, Newsom relishes the natural world’s potential to engage in and embrace any possible pictorial language, referencing through enlarged flora and fauna worldly scenes of pleasure and pain, accompanied by beauty and transcendence. Both artists engage in highly individualized styles of working, focusing here on the formal process of primarily drawing or ‘drawn painting’ to access the image. Pettibon by means of ink, a wet medium; and Newsom by means of charcoal, a dry medium. Together, the complete bodies of both artists’ output for the exhibition comprise 28 pieces in total, all created in 2024, especially for this exhibition at the Kebbel Villa.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with a foreword by the director of the Kebbel Villa, Jürgen Dehm, and an essay by renowned esoteric author Mitch Horowitz (available through kebbelvilla.de/publikationen).
Raymond Pettibon (*1957 in Tucson, AZ, US, lives in New York, NY, US) first came to prominence in the Southern California punk scene of the early 1980s, where he created posters, zines, and album cover artwork for a number of influential bands of the period, including Black Flag, Minutemen, Off!, and Sonic Youth. He has maintained this relationship to music throughout his storied career, recently creating artwork for Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, and Iggy Pop. Pettibon’s art is one of piercing, poignant, and raw emotional states. He has mined the American cultural subconscious for nearly 50 years, creating a contemporary body of work that can only be referenced historically to the likes of William Blake and Goya. He stands alone in the contemporary landscape as a beacon of artistic integrity and inquiry. Pettibon is somewhat of an anomaly, as is Newsom in his own right, individually investigating his sharp mind and vast imagination, Pettibon continues to spark intrigue by the international contemporary art-world community and beyond.
Pettibon had his first solo exhibition in 1986 at the Semaphore Gallery in New York. In 1995, he had his first major solo exhibition at David Zwirner Gallery in New York. In the mid-1990s, he had his first solo museum exhibition at the Kunsthalle Bern in Switzerland, which travelled to Paris. In 1998, a self-titled show opened at the Renaissance Society in Chicago and travelled to The Drawing Center in New York; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. In 2002, he had a solo exhibition, “Raymond Pettibon Plots Laid Thick”, organized by the Museu d’art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), which travelled to the Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo and GEM, the Museum Voor Actuele Kunst, The Hague, The Netherlands. In 2006, Pettibon had a major solo survey exhibition at the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, Spain that travelled to The Kestner Gesellschaft in Hannover, Germany. A comprehensive catalogue was produced on the occasion of both exhibitions. In 2007, Pettibon participated in the Venice Biennial, for “Think with the Senses – Feel with the Mind: Art in the Present Tense”, curated by Robert Storr where he created a unique wall drawing installation. A retrospective of Pettibon’s work entitled “A Pen of All Work” spanned three floors of New York City’s New Museum in 2017 and travelled to The Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht, The Netherlands. A portion of the show was presented at the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, entitled “The Cloud of Misreading.” In 2019, Pettibon’s work was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Pettibon’s work is included in numerous private and public collections, including the Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore; the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; the Moderna Museet, Stockholm; the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; San Francisco; the Tate Britain, London; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
John Newsom (*1970 in Hutchinson, KS, US, lives in New York, NY, US) is best known for combining multiple techniques of formal painting strategies onto large-scale canvases featuring dynamic spectacles of the natural world. In 1992, he completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at The Rhode Island School of Design (R.I.S.D.) and subsequently moved to New York City, where he attended New York University’s studio arts program. He graduated with a Master of Fine Arts degree from NYU at the age of 24. Newsom has been based in New York for his entire career. Newsom had his first solo show in New York at Earl McGrath Gallery in 1995, located at 20 West 57th Street, and has been exhibiting consistently ever since, participating in more than 100 national and international exhibitions since the mid-1990s. In 2007, Newsom’s work was included in the notable exhibition “Paradise” organized by Heather Harmon at Patrick Painter Inc. in Los Angeles. The other artists included in the exhibition were Peter Saul, H.C. Westermann, and R. Crumb. Newsom was represented by Patrick Painter for nearly a decade, and this is where he befriended fellow gallery artist André Butzer, a German painter. Newsom and Butzer have remained close friends and periodically organize group exhibitions together as an anonymous collective. In 2013, Newsom was approached by Raekwon of the Wu-Tang Clan after Raekwon discovered Newsom’s paintings in an exhibition. Raekwon invited Newsom to create the artwork for his sixth solo studio album entitled “Fly International Luxurious Art”, released in 2015. Since then, Newsom, similar to Pettibon’s practice of collaborating with punk bands and musicians, has collaborated on several additional albums with Killah Priest, also of the Wu-Tang Clan. In 2024, Newsom presented the artwork from Killah Priest’s album “Forest of the Happy Ever After” in a solo exhibition at the Brattleboro Museum located in Brattleboro, Vermont. Newsom’s work has been the focus of a number of solo exhibitions presented at notable institutions, including “John Newsom: CRESCENDO” at the Richard J. Massey Foundation for the Arts and Sciences, New York, NY (2011-2012); “John Newsom: Rogue Arena” at MANA Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ (2015); “John Newsom: Nature’s Course” at the Oklahoma Contemporary, Oklahoma City, OK (2022); “John Newsom: Universal Frontier” at The Mary R. Koch Arts Center, Wichita, KS (2023); “John Newsom: Painting the Forest of the Happy Ever After” at the Brattleboro Museum, Brattleboro, VT (2024); “John Newsom: New Growth in an Old Garden” at the Kunstverein Heppenheim, Heppenheim, Germany (2024); “Raymond Pettibon and John Newsom: The Seven Deadly Sins and The Seven Heavenly Virtues” at the Kebbel Villa, Schwandorf, Germany (2025).
Published in a 2015 monograph of Newsom’s paintings, art critic Barry Schwabsky writes in his essay: “Beneath his thick and sensuous painted renderings of flora and fauna is a grappling with the giants of abstraction. What keeps ‘strong painting’ from becoming merely muscle-bound – is Newsom’s secret weapon: the discipline that comes from considering himself, not a painter of images, but rather an abstractionist (…) to appreciate his paintings is (…) to engage with their surfaces of purely sensual incident.”
Articles and reviews of Newsom’s work have appeared in Artforum, Art in America, Flash Art, and The New York Times, among other notable periodicals. His work is included in numerous private and public collections including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Brooklyn Museum, New York; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA), San Francisco; the Yale University Art Gallery, Connecticut and the R.I.S.D. Museum, Providence. He resides in Brooklyn, NY with his wife Cassie and their two children, Luke and Ruby.
https://daily-lazy.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/1_Pettibon-Newsom-at-Kebbel-Villa-Raymond-Pettibon-WRATH-2024.jpghttps://daily-lazy.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Weixin-Image_20250312102011.jpgLife is the redemption of the self from loneliness. Even when memory is lost, the heart still moves toward its destined direction. The human being possesses an inherent guiding ability, and that is what makes one truly oneself. One of Ye Guozhi’s themes is lost and found, and within this process, he affirms the true essence of things, a sense of time, the continuity of memory and self-identity, and the relationship between memory and the material world. Capturing memory (recording how time briefly lingers between the eyes and the heart) is far trickier than capturing a reality that has already been organized by concepts or the dreams that emerge. The key lies in the gaze, not what is seen. Through the eye beyond the painting, one reaches the heart within. What the artist wishes to preserve is the open, personal experience, rather than something quickly categorized into a system of traits. Ever-changing like the artist, complex like art history. Everyone tries in various ways to rediscover a creation that no one else has. When one stops creating, talent no longer matters, and all that remains is taste. Taste can reject others, narrowing one’s perspective. There is no art of truth, only the artist’s truth. We cannot hold onto anything; we can only dance with those ever-changing moments. Thus, the artist is entrusted with two tasks: one is to seek the eternal, and the other is to record the fleeting, turning it into eternity. Ye Guozhi measures the world with the scale of faith, always on the road, training himself to endure more pain, for the more pain he can bear, the more answers he finds. Every artwork of his is a segment of fleeting time, a reflection of the era upon the soul. The fusion of scene and emotion (the idea that all landscapes are expressions of emotion) becomes the guiding principle. The landscape is material, but the heart is supreme; the landscape lies outside, but it is to be appreciated through the heart. Merging the spirituality of life with nature, without intention in depicting objects, yet with intention in expressing scenes, letting the heart dictate, brings forth a paper full of atmosphere and feeling. The highest level of creativity is not about immersive engagement but rather an elusive detachment, a proper distance and quiet estrangement. A good technique is one that allows the viewer to feel the absence of technique. The resonance of artistic aesthetics is far more important to the audience of work than the nebulous, power-laden narratives of art history. Time, it seems, never passes justly; it does not stop for our laughter or tears but always takes what it is meant to take on schedule. Some discard, some treasure, some forget, and some memorize. What was seen, is no longer seen; what was remembered, is forgotten… What was unseen, is now seen; what was forgotten, is now remembered… The night sky always holds the densest blue, the endless dark that spirals downward and the shimmering brilliance of each step sends shivers down one’s spine, briefly brightening in the shadow of the iceberg. Twixt now and sunrise, we bid farewell to youth before the sun rises, and let sorrow end with the dawn.
https://daily-lazy.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Screenshot_38.jpgBlindspot Gallery is pleased to present Chen Wei’s second solo exhibition with the gallery, “Breath of Silence”, on view from February 18 to April 12, 2025, presenting his recent body of works encompassing photography, LED light sculptures and videos. Chen is known for his staged photography capturing cinematic scenes suspended in a fragmented time space, these scenes are meticulously constructed in his studio. Muted and often vacant, these charged compositions are allegorical of the psyche of contemporary milieu. His LED sculptures and video installations further transpose in three dimensionality the urban textures and motifs photographed on the lens.
“Breath of Silence” captures an era characterized by alienation and solitude, a repercussion of the global pandemic. The title alludes to the tacit and suppressed traumas from a collective experience that has engendered disquietude and paranoia. The turning to virtual technology and screens as a means of escapism further creates barriers between people. The exhibition also signals a curtain fall to Chen’s New City (2013-) series, wherein the former boisterous promises of progress and prosperity muffle to diminution in a declined economic climate, exposing the cracks between people’s expectations and the reality that unfolds.
The titular photographic work Breath of Silence (2024) stages a figure in a self-confinement chamber. Claustrophobia permeates through the yellow plastic sheet that covers the structure he sits within. A similar sentiment is imbued in Clean Hands (2024) which portrays a pair of rubber gloves hanging down by two holes on an amber glass partition, evoking alienation.
Ring Lock (2024) depicts a marine blue exterior abstracted by glass fluted doors, kept shut by an illuminated ring. The scene appears alluring and serene, yet distant. The video work Light Me (2021) plays a looping still shot of a person sitting in the dark enraptured by the digital screen, their obscured face illuminated by its jarring light. The video conjures the surreal familiarity of late-night scrolls, a poignant portrait of a screen-dominated era. In precarious times, the past is romanticized to be more hopeful and promising. The Stars of Last Night (2024) unfurls as a dilapidated shopfront with broken shards of glass, containing an old time polychromatic light display flickering like Christmas lights — a relic left in abandoned disarray. Chen’s mise-en scènes often evoke the sociopsychological conditions of the city through objects and motifs. Tears on the Ground (2024) depicts a myriad crystal baubles and trinkets scattered across the floor in static disorder, resembling a dispersing crowd in the train station. Temporary solace is found in the lemon, dispersed in disarray in Lemons in the Corner (2024) — forever refreshing and bright.
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Placelessness
Soka Art is pleased to announce its group exhibition Placelessness on December 28th, presented by five artists: Fang Weiji, Tao Fa, Jagoda Mićović, Yuan Na, Anna NL Cheung, curated by Yuana, the exhibition will run until January 25, 2025.
“Placelessness” is a geographical phenomenon proposed by Edward Relph in his humanistic geography book Place and Placelessness: In the process of post-industrialization and the rapid expansion of consumer society, the significance of some diverse landscapes and important places is constantly decreasing or even disappearing, and they are gradually losing their original sense of place. Along with this, people have weakened their ability to recognize places and identities, and are lost in a maze of countless “similarities”. In this exhibition, five artists explore the boundaries and interweaving of different regional spaces in the context of “placelessness” from their own perspectives of understanding and expression.
Spreading Perceptual Space
Perceptual space is usually a “behavioral space based on people’s direct needs and practices”. In past experiences, people will project their own emotions and personality into it, creating a private and unique place. Fang Weiji’s Thoughts on a Quiet Night series of works, depicting the tranquil and beautiful flowers and plants in the night, interprets an aesthetic of transcendental emotions and philosophical thoughts, and is also the artist’s experience of objects from life. The daily tediousness and suffocation of the city have aggravated people’s inner anxiety and conflicts, so people tend to have the impulse to escape for a short time and begin to yearn for a peaceful land. For example, in their spare time, they appreciate the flowers and the moon, sit and watch the sunrise and sunset, and try to find a moment of peace and self in the thousands of landscapes. Fang Weiji uses elegant and harmonious colors, simple and clear composition to convey his immediate psychological state that transcends visual concepts. The branches standing under the moonlight involve a memory of looking up at the starry sky in childhood, then the past and the present seem to overlap. At this point, the perceptual space centered on the individual has been able to transcend the limits of time and become a more distant existence.
Insideness of Place Identity
“Home” is the basis of our identity and the dwelling place of being. People’s most primitive cognition and most personal feelings about a place come from this. Artist Tao Fa focuses his creation on his hometown, Yunnan, which is his most familiar and attachable place of belonging, where mountains and rivers nurtured his body, and where humanistic concepts shaped his personality. Tao Fa is used to letting his subconscious mind control the works freely in his creation, letting the paint flow wildly on the canvas, then constructing a mysterious world where all things are spiritual in the unconventional brushstrokes and the tone of traditional oriental colors. The scenes he paints are never silent but are always vibrant with illusions. In the work Thorny Mount Gui, the dilemma of thorns will not block the way, when the burning fire inside people is externalized and manifested, the silent guidance of the mountain god indicates to return home. At this moment, all the complexes and emotions have a place to go.
Obviously, every place in the world has its own uniqueness and recognition. When people leave their homes and arrive in an unfamiliar place, they are surrounded by completely different things and atmospheres, the imaginations that were previously based on pictures and words become real, and the resulting empathy produces different place identities. The work of Serbian artist Jagoda Mićović is inspired by the scenery of Jeju Island in South Korea. She visited the island as an “outsider” and saw the brilliant landscape on the island, such as colorful houses, black rocks and vast green forests. Jagoda came up with the idea of “making the landscape lose its color.” By reducing the high frequency of green, replacing the original colors of the landscape with grey to create a monochromatic view, and incorporating the contrast between the composition of the colorful houses and the white space that hints at the contours of the landscape, the work remains vivid and artistic. When the absence of primary colors makes the shape of the scenery sharp, gray also becomes “duality”, they become a game between light and shadow, day and night, flickering and stillness. As if the seasons had flipped, hot summer and snow coexisted here. Jagoda’s creations have taken Jeju Island away from those empty descriptions and traditional impressions, turning it into another kind of dreamy mystery, and have also created new perceptions and connections between people and places.
Arriving at each new city, the traveler finds again a past of his that he did not know he had: the foreignness of what you no longer are or no longer possess lies in wait for you in foreign, unpossessed places.
— Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
https://daily-lazy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Weixin-Image_20241230134926.jpghttps://daily-lazy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/exhibition-view-15.jpghttps://daily-lazy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Screenshot_10-1.jpg钟笛鸣（b.1993，中国）最近生活和工作于纽约。她拥有罗德岛设计学院玻璃艺术专业的学士学位（BFA）和耶鲁大学的艺术硕士学位（MFA）。
钟笛鸣的雕塑充满着广阔而冷峻的氛围，充斥着几乎不可见之物，仿若渗透着一种宁静的混乱。她的作品同时触及宇宙与微观世界，并使这些对象在尺度上发生急剧变化，放大了孤独与连通性，折射出人们在当代生活中的共同体验——同时性、疏离感、存在的戏谑与其不确定性——似是引致共鸣，但最终又会触及最内心的私密之地。艺术家的每个封闭宇宙都被校准到某种极端状态——如同消除了摩擦力的粒子加速器——从而来观察微小事物的革命性潜力；或感受停滞中的动力。
钟笛鸣曾在希腊比雷埃夫斯的The Intermission机构；纽约Chapter画廊；米兰Fanta-MLN；波特兰Adams and Ollman画廊；以及深圳关山月美术馆等地举办个展。她的作品曾在国际上展出，包括首尔三星美术馆；纽约皇后区Sculpture Center；康涅狄格州里奇菲尔德的奥尔德里奇当代艺术博物馆；慕尼黑Deborah Schamoni；伦敦/纽约Grimm Gallery；纽约/华沙Galerie Wschód；巴黎Marguo画廊；洛杉矶in lieu；墨西哥城Peana；纽约YveYANG；泽西市Mana Contemporary；北京HUA国际画廊；等。她的作品曾被《FlashArt》《ArtAsiaPacific》《Mousse杂志》《艺术与文本》《纽约时报》《艺术在美国》等刊物评论。她即将展开的项目包括美国达拉斯的The Powerstation和休斯顿亚洲艺术协会的全新委托创作。
Stella Zhong（b. 1993, China）currently lives and works in New York, NY. She holds a BFA in Glass from Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA from Yale University.
Stella Zhong’s sculptural environments are vast and stark, registered by scarcely visible objects in quiet chaos. Making tactile the cosmic and infinitesimal at once, Zhong’s acute scale-shift magnifies solitude and connectivity, refracting contemporary experiences—simultaneity, alienation, existential humor and uncertainty—shared yet ultimately incurving. Each of Zhong’s hermetic worlds is calibrated to a radical condition—like a particle accelerator absent of friction—to observe the revolutionary potential of smallness in one, in another, to feel hope and momentum in inert states.
https://daily-lazy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Screenshot_9.jpgThe second OPENFILE Festival of Contemporary Visual Culture, organized by V/Collective, had its grand opening on 5 September 2024, at the Chi K11 Art Museum in Shanghai. “A Whole New World,” the theme for this year’s festival, delves into the evolving practices at the crossroads of visual culture, art, technology, and pop culture. While the title draws inspiration from the beloved Disney song of the 1990s, it does more than stir nostalgia—it carries a subtle irony, highlighting the complexities of today’s ever-changing world. The Chinese title, influenced by the 2002 album from the pop group S.H.E., also resonates with a sense of temporal connection, bridging childhood memories with contemporary issues, and reflecting on how past influences continue to shape our present and future. The exhibition brings together a diverse selection of artworks that reflect the ongoing intersection of the real and the imagined. It investigates how digital AI, physical art, and sculptural forms converge, inviting visitors to explore the dynamic interplay and contrasts between these mediums. As the digital and physical worlds blend more than ever, the exhibition offers a fresh perspective on how these changes impact our daily lives, challenging us to reconsider our interactions with both realms.
With contributions from 36 international and Chinese artists across multiple disciplines, OPENFILE presents a wide-ranging selection of creative expressions. Spanning from original paintings and sculptures to cutting-edge digital works and AI-generated content, the exhibition is divided into five distinct thematic zones—Shine, Shimmer, Dazzle, Thrill, and Wonder—across a 2,000-square-meter space. This year’s lineup features renowned artists such as Danny Casale and Nobody Sausage, whose animations have captivated millions; Christoph Niemann, known for his innovative visual storytelling; Emiliano Ponzi, introducing a new immersive installation; and Shantell Martin, famous for her dynamic line art. Emerging Chinese talents like, Steven Guo, Changchien Shihyang, Huang Heshan, and Sean Tnyualso present their latest visions. Additionally, the exhibition venue enriches the experience with interactive artist collaborations, brand exhibitions, workshops, and pop-up stores, providing a multi-layered engagement with contemporary visual culture. On opening day, artists Brolga and Danny Casale engaged audiences with their spontaneous live art-making, setting a dynamic tone for the festival. The event was further energised by surprise appearances from artists such as David Stenbeck, Gary Card, JCCHR, Lorien Stern, Ma Ming, and Zhang Quan. Throughout the first week of OPENFILE, a series of exclusive master class workshops offers the public a chance to dive into a variety of creative practices. Participants can engage closely with Danny Casale in creating hand-drawn comic books, collaborate with CROSSWAVE on crafting fluffy outdoor accessories inspired by their character Lionbit, explore Steven Guo’s Qing Dynasty porcelain collage techniques, and join Ma Ming in making LED light paintings.
This year’s OPENFILE Festival of Contemporary Visual Culture, in partnership with the brands Marvis, Salomon, DeLonghi, Lee Jeans, and Pidan, presents a vibrant and cross-disciplinary artistic experience, bringing together diverse creative expressions to explore new horizons in visual culture. Thai artist JCCHR teamed up with Marvis, the iconic Italian oral care brand, to co-create a playful pyjama party-themed parlour, inviting visitors to explore the boundary between reality and fantasy through an imaginative sensory dreamscape. Salomon and CROSSWAVE co-curated an outdoor-themed mini-exhibition titled “The Wild State of Mind,” with CROSSWAVE’s character Lionbit guiding visitors through speculative outdoor narratives, encouraging a sense of adventure. De’Longhi and Zuer Chen crafted an immersive experience filled with fluid ink lines set in a minimalist space, brimming with creative energy. De’Longhi also unveiled its latest home-use semi-automatic coffee machine, the Girardot collection, at the event. This new line masterfully blends mystical Eastern elements with traditional Italian coffee culture, offering a fresh at-home cold brew experience crafted with professional-grade precision. Lee Jeans, in collaboration with Huang Heshan, presents a world meticulously sculpted by the constructs of modernity—a realm forged and solidified through the fabrication of conceptual symbols. Concurrently, Agathe, in partnership with Pidan, unveils “Watching the Moon with Cats”, a music album brought to life through an interactive installation. This immersive experience allows the audience to unlock five uniquely crafted tracks, each inspired by the enigmatic allure of cats, offering a diverse and imaginative auditory journey.
Emiliano Ponzi, one of the featured artists in the exhibition presenting an immersive installation, is supported by the Italian Cultural Institute of Shanghai, which recognises him as a leading figure in Italian contemporary art. At the OPENFILE Art Store, Casetify presents a range of exclusive products in collaboration with participating artists Lorien Stern, Danny Casale, Zhang Quan. Additionally, limited-edition artist prints, uniquely designed wine glasses, and various art merchandise is available for purchase, showcasing the dynamic interplay between art, everyday life, and the commercial world. The 2nd OPENFILE showcases cutting-edge artistic expressions that are shaping the future of visual culture globally. By bringing together international artists, OPENFILE encourages a rich exchange of ideas and highlights the power of collaboration in today’s creative landscape. The festival’s name, OPENFILE, symbolises the open and accessible digital formats commonly used by artists, reflecting the shared, collaborative ethos present in visual culture today. By connecting diverse artistic traditions, OPENFILE serves as a key platform for presenting new visual experiences and nurturing intercultural dialogue. The theme “A Whole New World” invites visitors to delve into these multifaceted realms, revealing a new dimension of creative exploration.
https://daily-lazy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/15.jpgBluerider ART is pleased to announce a compelling group exhibition titled “Hope is the thing with feathers – Post-80s Chinese Youth Artist Open Call Exhibition”, which will be on shown at our Shanghai·The Bund gallery from August 24 to October 20, 2024. This exhibition will showcase 48 outstanding and diverse works from 25 young Chinese artists born after 1985, selected from 2,000 submissions by 500 competitors. The exhibition includes a range of mediums such as painting, ink, sculpture, and kinetic installations. The purpose of this open call exhibition is to discover and highlight exceptional local young artists, encourage bold innovation, explore creative perspectives of different generations, and provide an important professional display and social interaction platform. It aims to foster learning and growth through the exhibition process, enhance professional artistic skills, and ensure that the artists’ works gain wider recognition, support, and visibility in their future careers.
In the poem “Hope is the thing with feathers,” poet Emily Dickinson described hope as a bird with feathers, singing from the deepest part of its soul, unwavering in the fiercest storms. Young artists, in their early careers, embody the fearless spirit of Dickinson’s bird. In spite of facing challenges and setbacks, they strive to present distinctive personal styles and innovative ideas, exploring various possibilities of life, society, and the future.
The symbols of hope and feathers have rich symbolic meanings and expressions across Eastern and Western art history, literature, and philosophy, representing humanity’s aspirations for the future, struggles with adversity, and inner emotions. In ancient Egyptian art, feathers symbolize truth and justice. The flying celestial maidens and divine bird feather patterns in the Mogao Caves’ murals represent the sacred and the transcendent. In Eastern Jin, Gu Kaizhi’s “Luoshen Fu” depicts the Luoshen’s feathered garments and cranes’ feathers, symbolizing the elevation to the divine realm. In the Renaissance, Raphael’s “Sistine Madonna” features angelic wings that tenderly protect the future. Picasso’s “Dove of Peace” signifies peace and hope. In Zhuangzi’s “Xiaoyaoyou”, the great roc’s outspread wings allude to freedom and transcendence. Existentialist philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus discuss how hope serves as an individual’s struggle against absurdity and a testament to existence. Philosopher Ernst Bloch argues that hope drives human historical progress and serves as the impetus toward utopia.
“Hope is the Thing with Feathers,” curated by Bluerider ART, encompasses 25 emerging artists from Generations Y and Z, aged 21 to 39. The exhibition focuses on spiritual dialogue, unique perspectives, and innovative thinking, featuring 48 diverse works in various sizes and media, including oil painting, ink, acrylic, sculpture, paper embroidery, and kinetic installations. Among these works, many metaphorically allude to the themes of hope and feathers. Lu Jusong’s acrylic painting “What is She Eating?” depicts leaping noodles and exaggerated eating expressions, exploring the contrast between self-perception and external views. Bay Tang Jiaxin’s “Paper Embroidery: Piece Five” uses needlework to create textures on paper, with each puncture and stitch revealing the delicate interplay of space and time. Bai Shiqi’s new ink work “Impossible Dream” features crowds wearing winged masks, bouncing between the realms of reality and illusion. Wang Minghui’s oil painting “The Heartbroken” presents deep emotional layers through heavy brushstrokes and exaggerated facial expressions. Shaw’s kinetic installation “IX-0” uses mechanical control of lighting and colour to navigate the intersection between two-dimensional paintings and three-dimensional bird sculptures. Li Cong’s ink and colour work “Dream No. 2” shows a blindfolded figure about to step down a damaged ladder, searching for a hidden self amidst subconscious dangers. Hong Kai’s oil painting “Death and Spirit Eternal on the Grassland” features winged mountain landscapes and white flowers, evoking a moment of sudden emotional stir. PEI’s silk ink piece “Desiring Flower 4” anthropomorphizes each flower and plant, exploring the spread of desire from the heart.
Young artists explore the spectrum from personal inner selves to broader social realities through their artistic creations, transforming these reflections into visual language and becoming pioneers of innovation and experimentation. Growing up in the internet-driven Y and Z generations, these artists come from diverse cultural backgrounds, and their varied perspectives infuse their works with freshness and resonate emotionally with the younger generation. This exhibition of Chinese post-85s young artists is not only a showcase of outstanding artistic works but also an opportunity to explore the spirit of the times and reflect on contemporary social conditions, carrying multiple layers of social significance. Through the works of these young artists, we can witness the diversity and infinite possibilities of hope, awakening our anticipation for the future and our passion for life. We welcome you to bring along your own feather of hope.
https://daily-lazy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/IMG_7777.jpegThe extremely comfortable visual experience and the thought-provoking “Obscure” painting process in the works of artist Jiang Lining are the most moving parts of his works for me. Amid the myriad of creative forms today, Jiang still pursues the purity of the painting itself, believing that the “picture” can already say it all. After seven years of tempering, the paintings have more of the artist’s “private goods”, some unique emotions and states that only belong to Jiang Lining.
The Studio Gallery is pleased to announce the presentation of artist Jiang Lining’s solo exhibition “Obscure” from July 13 to September 1, 2024. This exhibition will be the artist’s second solo exhibition at the gallery, and will also be an important summary and presentation of the artist’s personal creative practice during this stage (2018-2024). It is worth mentioning that in the presentation of this exhibition, the artist will create a hidden science fiction space in the gallery space, allowing the viewer to be placed between “abstract and concrete”, and to experience a state of ultimate tranquillity and quietness of “being alone” through viewing.
https://daily-lazy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/installation-view-28.jpgBlindspot Gallery is pleased to present Play and Loop VI, the sixth iteration of our summer video screening program. The program will be divided into two scenes, each scene lasting for three weeks
Scene 1 | 23 July – 10 August 2024
Featured artists: Leung Chi Wo + Sara Wong, Benjamin Li, Charmaine Poh and Yu Shuk Pui Bobby
Scene one of the program brings together compelling works by four artists that delve into the intricate themes of identity, self-image, body politics, and the multifaceted meanings of home. Charmaine Poh’s and Yu Shuk Pui Bobby’s works discuss gender expectations related to queerness and femininity, drawn from personal experiences; while Benjamin Li and Leung Chi Wo + Sara Wong adopt a detached and observational approach of phenomena and processes shaped by history and cultures. These works invite us to reflect on how societal standards, upbringings, and personal narratives intersect to shape our perceptions of self and belonging.
Charmaine Poh’s GOOD MORNING YOUNG BODY (2021-2023) employs AI-generated deep fakes to digitally resurrect the character E-Ching, a character whom she played on television as a preteen actress in the early 2000s in Singapore. The video confronts the criticisms she had received online, specifically targeting her body shape. Poh is currently participating in the Main Exhibition of the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, “Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere”. Yu Shuk Pui Bobby’s My dream is to become a vase (2019) is an autobiographical film which makes a commentary on the image the mainstream often compels us to conform to. The video takes Yu’s childhood aspiration to be a Miss Hong Kong as a starting point. Through the process of ceramic making set against the backdrop of her confessional narration, Yu addresses her failure to conform to these standards. The sculpting of the vase becomes a metaphoric reconstruction of her self-image, showing her acceptance of these perceived imperfections. Born to Chinese parents close to Rotterdam and adopted into a Dutch Caucasian family, Benjamin Li creates a three-channel video In Search of Perfect Orange (2016) that embodies his hybrid identity, mixed cultural background, and bifurcated upbringing. These notions are conveyed through the layering of food, specifically a European-Chinese chicken chop suey dish served in his biological parents’ Chinese-Indonesian restaurant in Amsterdam. Piece by piece, ingredients of the dish are transferred from one plate to another by multiple hands belonging to his birth and adopted parents. This raises a philosophical paradox akin to the “Ship of Theseus” — is the dish still the same when its very composition has been completely altered?
Leung Chi Wo + Sara Wong’s The Woman Carrying A Basin Over Her Head (2023) presents the interlocking narratives of a South Korean woman in 1970 Seoul and her modern-day reenactor, Park So Young. The video depicts a woman carrying a basin, a character drawn from a photograph taken by Kim Ki-chan near Seoul Station in 1970, which is from the archival collection of Asia Culture Center. The character is one of four women in the photograph, she is singled out and suspended in a motionless tableau in the video. Commissioned by the Asia Culture Center, this multilayered video conveys the evolving roles and sociocultural frameworks that have shaped women’s experiences over time. This is the first video developed from the duo’s ongoing project Museum of the Lost which examines anonymous individuals captured in news photographs and archival images.
Scene 2 | 13 – 31 August 2024
Featured artists: Chu Chun-Teng, He Zike, Hsu Che-Yu and Santiago Mostyn
Scene two explores how our lives are shaped by geopolitical, historical, and technological contexts. It conveys vulnerability in an individual against a larger system due to bureaucratic inertia, humans’ collective dependency on technology, colonial migrations and intergovernmental relations. Hsu Che-Yu and Santiago Mostyn’s expansive lens focus on transnational power dynamics across different timelines. Chu Chun-Teng and He Zike’s videos capture the experiences of communities and individuals grappling with the realities of their living circumstances, using specific localities as backdrops. He Zike’s Random Access (2023), commissioned by VH AWARD of Hyundai Motor Group, follows the journey of a
passenger and retired taxi driver who are the personifications of the server keeper and the cloud system in the city of Guiyang the day following the collapse and reboot of the city’s central data center. Guiyang is the Chinese data capital, hosting the iCloud data center and the FAST telescope. The two protagonists encounter ancient memories stored in the cloud, symbolizing interconnected data which contains fragments of history, personal recollections, and collective consciousness. The fictional narrative conveys society’s overreliance on digital systems in storing our memories and information, leaving us susceptible to the malfunction of these infrastructure.
Chu Chun-Teng’s three-channel film EEL (2021-2022), supported by the Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab and commissioned by CHAT, comprises mundane scenes of residents on Shezi Island near Taipei City, a time capsule forgotten and isolated due to government restrictions on urban development in the area. One channel of the film shows two young men carrying a local deity “⼟地公” (the Land Duke) on a palanquin; another depicts island residents wandering with their gazes fixed on Taipei City; the last channel shows a woman burning foraged objects for departed spirits. The inherent notion of “drifting” strings together the three scenes, showing local residents’ embracement of their environment.
Hsu Che-Yu’s The Making of Crime Scenes (2021) centers upon Wu Dun, a Taiwanese filmmaker, gangster, patriot, and killer who was involved in a 1984 assassination in the US. The assassination was deemed a political murder executed by the Taiwanese Military Intelligence Bureau and United Bamboo Gang which Wu was a member of. Wu went to jail for six years but was given amnesty, and went on to leverage his mafia influence to found a film company which was known for producing “wuxia” movies, a genre of Chinese swordplay films. Hsu delves into Wu’s fascination with producing “wuxia” films wherein nationalistic ideologies, brotherhood, and loyalty are embodied by the martial heroes. Hsu cooperated with a 3D scanning team whose job is to provide forensic scanning services at crime scenes to make a digital replication of Wu. The film shows through an individual, the convergence of power dynamics across time between countries, government and triad, and the triad and film industry.
Commissioned by Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Santiago Mostyn’s Language Against Identity (2024) video essay is a montage of archival images and present-day footages. The work highlights exploitations in Africa by European settlers, specifically focusing on the historical elephant trade between Southern Africa and Northern Europe. The film points out the elephant as an exotic symbol of colonial power, with its mass carnage by European traders impacting the local ecosystem.
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(Hong Kong, July 30th, 2024) ART021 HONG KONG CONTEMPORARY ART FAIR (ART021 HONG KONG)
is delighted to announce the galleries and programming highlights presenting at its inaugural edition.
Financially supported by the Mega Arts and Cultural Events Fund under the Culture, Sports and Tourism
Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, the Fair takes place from August
28th to September 8th, featuring 73 galleries and projects from 13 countries and regions. It spans five
sections: GALLERIES, VIDEOS, EXPANSION, SCULPTURE, at four distinct cultural locations across the
city, as well as the GBA ART WEEK.
ART021 HONG KONG’s vision is to bring a new model of art fair to the city. While presenting modern
and contemporary works from across the globe, ART021 HONG KONG’s focus is on the distinguished
practices of artists from West Asia, South Asia and across the region. The Fair aims to deepen Hong
Kong’s connection with diverse cultural and art ecosystems and bring further benefit to the wider
community and visitors to the city through its inclusive programming.
ART021 HONG KONG features five distinctive sections that enliven the city with artistic inspiration and
engage diverse audiences: GALLERIES highlights outstanding works by established and emerging
artists worldwide; VIDEOS celebrates remarkable video arts and films; EXPANSION presents projects
with unique concepts and strong cultural representation; SCULPTURE, a public art group exhibition,
displays large-scale works that vitalise the urban landscape and provide the public with opportunities
to explore contemporary art; and GBA ART WEEK brings together a schedule of gallery exhibitions
from more than 30 participating galleries that have a GBA presence, creating an inclusive and open
celebration of the GBA art scene.
David Chau, co-founder of ART021 Group, said, “The inaugural ART021 HONG KONG carries
exceptional significance for the ART021 Group. We are honoured to launch in Hong Kong, a city with
deep arts and culture heritage and a strong regional standing. ART021 HONG KONG signifies the first
mainland China art fair brand to enter the Hong Kong market, which we hope brings new energy to
the arts ecosystem in return. With the rapidly evolving global art market today, we are committed to
seizing opportunities for breakthroughs and innovations, attracting more collectors and new
audiences, and becoming a bridge between communities and regions.”
GALLERIES
Phillips Asia Headquarters, WKCDA Tower | 8.29 – 9.1
GALLERIES, located at Phillips Asia Headquarters in the WKCDA Tower, presents 40 galleriesshowcasing
artworks spanning all segments, including contemporary paintings, ink paintings, sculptures,
installations, and digital artworks. Top-tier Chinese galleries include ShanghART Gallery, Tang
Contemporary Art, Kwai Fung Hin, Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Antenna Space, MadeIn
Gallery, and Triumph Gallery, each with distinctive line-ups of their artists presented. Focusing on the
dynamic art scene in the Asia-Pacific region are important galleries such as Whitestone Gallery, Asia
Art Center, Lin & Lin Gallery and Each Modern Gallery.
Not to be missed within the GALLERIES section are the Special Projects, showcasing large-scale feature
artworks presented by galleries David Zwirner, Chantal Crousel, Mennour, and Pilar Corrias.
With an emphasis on art practices from West Asia and South Asia, ART021 HONG KONG explores
geospatial narratives of these areas. The solo exhibition of artist Amir H. Fallah, presented by Gallery
All, offers a unique and rich culture perspective. Dastan Gallery, a cutting-edge gallery from Tehran,
showcases a group exhibition of Iranian artists, reassessing what Asian cultural legacies bring to the
present.
The non-commercial curatorial project One Thousand and One Nights, inspired by the famed
collection of Middle Eastern folktales, is the first important exhibition in Hong Kong that focuses on
West Asia. The exhibition features work by Tala Madani, Shilpa Gupta, Mandy El Sayegh, Alia Ahmad,
and many others, supported by galleries such as White Cube, David Kordansky, Lawrie Shabibi,
Vadehra Art Gallery, The Third Line, and Gordon Gallery. These presentations provide a platform
where the art communities of the Global South can be seen and connect.
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