Eli Klein Gallery was first established in 2007 in SoHo, New York, with an aim to introduce the works of emerging and prominent Chinese contemporary artists to the West.
Read MoreNow located at 398 West Street, with a spacious exhibition and area spanning three floors, Eli Klein Gallery is a leading force, promoting contemporary Chinese art and offering challenging and original exhibitions. With a concern for fostering cross-cultural awareness, Eli Klein Gallery also encourages new critical discourses on China and contemporary Chinese art through publications and collaboration with artists and international museums.
In its early years, Eli Klein Gallery garnered acclaim for exhibiting works of Chinese contemporary artists in the United States, notably Cui Xiuwen’s experimental pursuit of the self and human sexuality in her photographs; Zhang Dali’s confrontational graffiti, sculpture, and painting; and Liu Bolin’s performance works exploring life in contemporary China.
Eli Klein Gallery also represents contemporary Chinese artists with an eclectic range of interests, from Zheng Guogu’s, Chow Chun Fai’s, and Ye Funa’s politically charged works to Li Hongbo’s intricate and kinetic paper sculptures and Cai Dongdong’s dada-infused nostalgic photo-sculptures.
With a reputation for its fresh, discerning spirit, Eli Klein Gallery was the first to organise solo exhibitions of Chinese artists in the United States, such as Geng Xue, Jiang Pengyi, Li Hongbo, Liu Bolin, Shen Shaomin among many others. In 2019, the gallery presented Photoworks 1993–2016 “Even a click of the shutter is unnecessary”, the first-ever retrospective exhibition of Zheng Guogu’s influential and dynamic bodies of works surrounding the concept of photography.
One of Eli Klein Gallery’s first group exhibitions was China Now: Lost in Transition (2007): a survey of works by contemporary Chinese artists with a focus on photography. The gallery continues to examine the diverse aspects of contemporary Chinese art through group presentations such as Becoming - Experimental Video Works (2019), which brought together the work of eight female artists engaging with the impact of cultural, economic, and social changes on individuals, and Force Majeure (2020), showcasing the works from the past decade of 13 Chinese artists of international repute.
Ocula Insight Thirteen Artists Interpret Force Majeure in New York By Sherry Paik, New York Thirteen artists from China respond to the French term force majeure at Eli Klein Gallery in New York, which has two definitions: 'superior strength', and 'unforeseen circumstances that release parties from a contract'.
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Ocula Report Shanghai Museum Shows: “Myth / History II” at the Yuz Museum and “Xu Zhen Solo Show” at the Long Museum By Sam Gaskin, Shanghai Both shows are milestone moments in the institutions’ development. The massive museums—each with about 10,000 square metres of space—are learning to stand.
Ocula Report 'Metamorphosis Of The Virtual 5 + 5' At Chi K11 Art Museum By Anna Dickie and Sam Gaskin, Shanghai Ten artists, five French and five Chinese, feature in Metamorphosis of the Virtual 5 + 5, an exhibition focused on digital art, curated by David Rosenberg and co-produced by Joanne Kim. The show, which continues until August 31, is organized by K11 Art Foundation (KAF), and its genesis can be traced back to Adrian Cheng, founder of KAF, seeing...
Related Press Three exhibitions to see in New York this weekend 7 February 2019, The Art Newspaper Ring in the Year of the Pig with a visit to Eli Klein Gallery’s solo exhibition Shen Fan: Works in Abstraction, 1992–2017 (until 16 February). 'A pioneer in the field, along with his Shanghai-based contemporaries Ding Yi and Yu Youhan, Shen Fan has set the gold standard for defining historically important abstract art in contemporary China,'...
Related Press “Canton Express”: art from the Pearl River Delta at M+ Pavilion, Hong Kong 29 August 2017, Art Radar Canton Express is held at the M+ Pavilion, located at the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong, which showcases the collection donated by Chinese collector Guan Yi to M+ in 2013. The show is on view from 23 June to 10 September 2017. In addition to the exhibition, M+ also organised a weekend-long film and video screening, City Limits...
Related Press Digital Personalities 27 January 2017, Aesthetica With the rise of the social media, artificial intelligence, video games and the power of anonymity afforded by the Internet, the process of adopting a newly invented persona is a now a common part of everyday life and popular culture. After Us, from the K11 Art Foundation, Shanghai, and the New Museum, New York, examines the possibilities...
Related Press 'Digging a Hole in China': exploring Land Art in the context of Chinese contemporary art 21 April 2016, Art Radar Land is the subject of a large-scale show at OCAT Shenzhen entitled Digging a Hole in China (20 March – 26 June 2016) which features a variety of media and works by over a dozen contemporary Chinese artists executed from 1994 onwards. In this inaugural show at OCAT Shenzhen, since her appointment as Artistic Director in August 2015...
Related Video & Audio ASIA NOW 2018 || Liu Bolin (artist), Romain Degoul (Galerie Paris-Beijing) & Li Yu Yeo (curator) 2 November 2018, ASIA NOW Liu Bolin, artist, Romain Degoul, founder of the Galerie Paris-Beijing, and independent curator Li Yu Yeo discuss Liu Bolin's recent works, including his collaboration avec Ruinart.
