Magician Space has established its reputation by boldly supporting emergent future artists in China with vital solo exhibitions, whilst also championing and connecting successive generations of historically influential artists. The gallery is proud to continue its participation in the 2016 Galleries Section, showcasing new positions developed in the program, working alongside artists from both Mainland China and internationally. This carefully curated presentation marks another entry point into the collaborations with these artists in Beijing, showcasing works of international significance whilst maintaining relevancy to the local Asian context. Representing the plurality of positions defining contemporary China, the booth features new and key existing work by artists Ai Weiwei, Liu Chuang, Li Jinghu, Li Ran, Tang Yongxiang, Wu Chen, Wang Zhongjie, Wang Shang and Yu Honglei
Presented Artists
Ai Weiwei’s multifarious practice stretches far and beyond the confines of his studio based in Caochangdi (‘grassy field’ in Chinese). From San Francisco’s famed Alcatraz Island to his participation at the 2013 Venice Biennale, as a leading chronicler of our times, he has also participated in major solo exhibitions including: Royal Academy, London (2015); Martin Gropius Bau (2014), Indianapolis Museum of Art (2013), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C. (2012), Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan (2011), Tate Modern, London (2010) and Haus der Kunst, Munich (2009). Architectural collaborations include the 2012 Serpentine Pavilion and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Stadium, with Herzog and de Meuron.
Liu Chuang (b. 1978, Hubei) is an artist based in Beijing whose work functions between sculpture, installation, and video and frequently permeate the division between private and public space. Major exhibitions include: Foundation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2016); Berlinale, Berlin (2016); Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2014); Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai (2014); Kunsthall Stavanger, Stavanger (2014); Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa (2014); Rubell Family Collection, Miami (2013); Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (2012); China Power Station, Pinacoteca Agnelli, Turin (2010); New Triennial, New Museum, New York (2009); Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo (2007); 5th Shenzhen International Exhibition, Shenzhen (2003)
Li Jinghu (b.1972, Guangdong) works primarily with sculpture and installation, altering and reworking materials accrued in a region renowned as the emerging industrial hub in the Pearl River Delta. Li’s poetically charged work frequently utilize humble materials gathered from his everyday locale. Previous exhibitions include: UCCA, Beijing (2016); Cass Sculpture Foundation, West Sussex (2016); Times Museum, Guangzhou (2016); Futura, Prague (2016); Taikang Space, Beijing (2015); Minsheng Museum, Shanghai (2015); 8th Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale, Shenzhen (2014); Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai (2012); and Para/Site Art Space, Hong Kong (2006).
Li Ran (b. 1986, Hubei) works interweave spoken-word performances with installations and video. Creating a wide-ranging oeuvre, his work reflect the narration of history through fragmented global exchanges and examines the fluid voice of the artists in relation to this unfolding context in China. Co-founder of the influential young Chinese artist collective ‘Company’ with artists Yan Xing, Chen Zhou, and Li Ming. Major exhibitions include OCAT Xi’an, Xi’an (2015); CCA, Singapore (2015); Daimler Contemporary Collection, Berlin (2015); Sifang Museum, Nanjing (2015); Mobile M+, Hong Kong (2015); MONA, Hobart (2015); San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio (2015); Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco (2014); Centre d’Art Contemporain Geneve, Geneva (2014); Jewish Museum, New York (2014); and 9th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju (2014).
Tang Yongxiang’s (b.1977, Hubei) abstract paintings are dedicated to the revealing a trove of submerged clues and fragmented found imagery. The relationship between human identity and its dark side is buried within the painting as they continually clash together, gradually becoming immersed in perpetual search of one another. Each work undergoes a painstaking process of subtraction, layering, and reworking, enabling each work to accumulate a hidden psychological weight and for new associative connections to be revealed. Tang Yongxiang graduated with a Master’s Degree in Hubei Institute of Fine Arts and currently lives and works in Beijing.
Wang Shang (b. 1984, Beijing) currently lives and works in Beijing. He graduated from Goldsmiths College and the Royal College of Art. Upon graduation, he took a course at the Gemological Institute of America, and began working in the gem industry. His paintings, installations, sculptures and videos discuss natural history from various perspectives, and through this, examine doubts about the relationship between human civilization and nature. Solo exhibitions: Magician Space, Beijing (2015); OCAT Shenzhen, Shenzhen (2014); Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2011). Group exhibitions: Antenna Space, Shanghai (2015); Casa Dei Carraresi, Italy (2015); Between Art Lab, Shanghai (2015); OCAT Shenzhen, Shenzhen (2014); Mitsuko
Wang Zhongjie (b. 1972, Henan) has remained in his hometown, Henan Province, his whole life. Revealing a philosophical sensibility, the layers of paint evoke subtle nuances of light to imprint the personal state of the artist. Eluding stylistic formulas imparted by institutions, Wang Zhongjie paintings form an individually responsive enigmatic visual language framing his ongoing ruminations of the ‘essence of existence’ and the imagination.
Wu Chen’s (b.1983, Henan) paintings evoke a miscellaneous array of ‘artist portraits’ and layered references culled from sources as varied as picture handbooks to exquisite illustrations from art history. Layer by layer they undergo a child-like process of distortion and reassembly, causing one to wonder at the morbidity of such a whimsical sense of imagination. Major exhibitions include: 6th Chengdu Biennale, Chengdu International Conference and Exhibition Centre, Chengdu (2013); Hi Art, Beijing (2013); Times Art Museum, Beijing (2011); M50 Creative District, Shanghai (2009); Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai (2008).
Yu Honglei (b. 1984, Inner Mongolia) was recently selected as a FutureGreat by ArtReview, representing a leading new voice in the field of sculpture in China. Fascinated by the ‘muted’ speech of objects and its plastic ability to accrue hidden stories through the passage of time, the work of Yu Honglei deftly combines processes of fabrication, appropriation, and placement to create new narrative spaces engaging with personal history and his blurring the boundary of an object’s status as art and its erratic position within the stream of everyday life. Exhibitions include: Spring Workshop, Hong Kong (2015); Antenna Space, Shanghai (2014); 7th Sculpture Biennale, Shenzhen; MOCA Shanghai Museum, Shanghai (2011).
Magician Space represents these artists: