ART021 Shanghai: Advisory Selections

Owen Fu's You are my destiny (2023) at Antenna Space

Celebrating its tenth year, Simon Wang's Antenna Space is a key stop for anyone heading to M50, Shanghai's original art district.

The gallery focuses on young artists, among them Owen Fu. Born in Guilin, China, and now based in Los Angeles, Fu's recent solo shows include Last Summer at Balice Hertling in Paris (2023), and Stealing Beauty (2022) at Antenna Space the year before.

In You are my destiny, Owen's parents are represented as candle flames while he appears hovering above. Having returned home after prolonged separation, he says the painting captures 'the familiar, yet irksome intimacy among family members.'

Chris Huen Sin Kan's Doodood No.5 (2015) at Gallery EXIT

Hong Kong's Gallery EXIT staged Huen's first solo exhibition back in 2014, a year after the artist graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Following a run of solo shows, the gallery has brought Huen's Doodood No.5 (2015) to Shanghai.

Doodood is Huen's dog. Other family members—his wife, son, daughter, and two other dogs Balltsz and MuiMui—regularly feature in his work. Rendered in a constellation of brushstrokes influenced by traditional Chinese ink painting, Huen's paintings are lyrical renderings from memory.

'I think the perfect representation of the idea in my mind would be the one that stops me making any new paintings again,' Huen revealed in an interview with Ocula Magazine in 2020.

'In this sense, I will also need to admit that every work I have done so far is a failed attempt at pursuing this idea of perfection. But all these existing works also give me reasons and references to start over, again and again.'

Michael Ho's Dream of (Erosion) (2023) at Gallery Vacancy

Painting on the back of the canvas, Michael Ho investigates the notion of the Chinese diaspora, cultural mismatch, and cultural rediscovery through his painting.

'The first painting we [Michael and Chiyan Ho, his former working partner] made was terrible, so we decided to flip it over because we didn't want to look at it and then we saw the paint bleeding through. We noticed the interesting textures that the paint created at the back of the canvas'.

'Shortly after, we experimented, developed, and refined the technique, swapping oil for acrylic which dries quicker but also made sense for conservation purposes,' Ho explained to curator Robert Spragg in Ocula.

His inclusion in Gallery Vacancy's ART021 booth comes off the back of his well-received show, Grotto Heavens (2023), at the gallery in July.

Neo Rauch's Die Beladung (2023) at David Zwirner

Zwirner's booth largely focuses on works by Josef and Anni Albers this year, but among the other fantastic works they are presenting is Die Beladung (2023) by Neo Rauch.

Born in 1960, Rauch's parents—both young art students at the time—died in a train crash when he was just four weeks old.

In the painting Die Beladung ('The Loading'), we see a figure helping child-sized men into their backpacks as they head out into the world. In his practice, Rauch often draws on the socialist realist tradition to deal with themes of labour and alienation.

Neo Rauch's presentation at ART021 anticipates his solo exhibition, Field Signs, at David Zwirner, Hong Kong (16 November 2023–24 February 2024).

Camille Henrot's Je Coupe 1 (2020) at Mennour

Three apples stacked on top of each other are divided by bronze sheets punctuated by a knife blade in the bronze sculpture Je Coupe 1 (2020), one of five works in Camille Henrot's 'Je Coupe' (2022) series.

Cut apple slices, sections, and knives feature in various assemblages throughout the series, and refer to the concept of growth. Henrot used apples when she was learning to count as a child.

Her inclusion in Mennour's presentation in Shanghai coincides with her solo exhibition Jus d'Orange at Fondazione ICA Milano, Italy (19 September–25 November 2023).

Read about Camille Henrot's unusual way of reading and her love of Maria Lassnig here.