Ocula Report ‘An Opera for Animals’ at Rockbund Art Museum 19 Jul 2019 : Penny Liu for Ocula An Opera for Animals was first staged at Para Site in Hong Kong between 23 March and 2 June 2019, with works by over 48 artists and collectives that use opera as a metaphor for modes of contemporary, cross-disciplinary art-making. The exhibition's second iteration takes up a large portion of the Rockbund Art Museum (RAM) in Shanghai (22 June–25...
Ocula Conversation Zoe Butt on the Challenges and Rewards of Curating Zoe Butt is the artistic director of The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre in Ho Chi Minh City, the first purpose-built space for contemporary art in Vietnam. Founded in March 2016, the Centre was designed by HTAP Architects in an old steel warehouse, with cargo shipping containers added to its structure. Initiated as a social enterprise...
Ocula Report Ocula 报告｜Condo Shanghai 2019 展览看点 11 Jul 2019 : Penny Liu for Ocula 即将于2019年7月13开幕的第二届 Condo Shanghai，联合上海7座画廊/艺术机构与14 家来自全球11个不同的城市，如东京、首尔、雅加达、巴尔的摩、洛杉矶、伦敦、纽约、危地马拉城、利马和墨西哥城，为实验性展览营造了一个更切实可行的国际环境。以下是Ocula的展览看点。周奥，《景观/对象WA》（2016）。橡木上固化油墨打印，左: 55.88 × 147.32 cm，中: 121.92 × 152.4 cm，右: 55.88 × 147.32 cm，图片提供：马凌画廊，上海。马凌画廊 × 80m2 Livia Benavides × LABOR × Proyectos Ultravioleta马凌画廊 |...
XU ZHEN® (徐震) is a Chinese conceptual artist and curator. Working across a variety of media, including installation, video, painting, and performance, he has established himself as an iconic figure in contemporary Chinese art.
Xu’s works combine a social critique of contemporary life with a dark sense of humour and an obvious, albeit ironic, disdain for the politics of art. His installations often take the form of elaborate, theatrical pranks. His ShanghART Supermarket, originally exhibited in 2007, replicates exactly an ordinary convenience store, though with empty products that are sold at the original price. Other, more recent works, have aimed to fuse elements of Chinese and Western cultures in a way that rejects typical perceptions of Chinese culture.
XU ZHEN® founded MadeIn Company, a collective contemporary art practice, in 2009. Xu has been producing works collaboratively since the collective’s inception, although several have been censored due to ‘inappropriate’ themes of violence and erotica. In 2014, Xu returned to his individual practice, though now as a ‘product’ of MadeIn Company, rather than its founder.
The artist’s recent solo exhibitions have included Movement Field at Long March Space, Beijing (2013); ShanghART Supermarket at ShanghART, Singapore (2014); Blissful As Gods at ShanghART H-Space, China (2014-2015); and Look Again at Pékin Fine Arts, Hong Kong (2015). Xu has exhibited at international institutions and biennales such as the Venice Biennale (both 2001 and 2005), the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; the Tate, Liverpool; and the Long Museum, Shanghai.
In 2004, Xu was awarded the prize for Best Artist at the China Contemporary Art Awards. He lives and works in Shanghai.
Ocula Report China’s Post-Intranet Artists Get Personal 27 Apr 2019 : Sam Gaskin for Ocula China's post-80s artists are no longer all that 'young', nor do they much need that moniker. With the oldest of that generation fast approaching 40, to call them young would be misleading given how rapidly many of them rose to prominence during the tail-end of China's foreign collector-powered art boom and subsequent influx of domestic collectors....
Ocula Report Art Basel in Hong Kong: Exhibitions to See 23 Mar 2019 : Tessa Moldan for Ocula For those visiting during Art Basel in Hong Kong (29–31 March 2019), the smell of fresh paint may still be in the air at the latest heritage conservation project, The Mills, which opened on 16 March to encompass the Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textiles (CHAT), joining the ranks with ex-prison complex Tai Kwun, along with Eaton HK—a retro...
Ocula Report PHOTOFAIRS | Shanghai 2018 15 Oct 2018 : Georgina Adam for Ocula PHOTOFAIRS | Shanghai held its fifth edition between 21 and 23 September 2018. As in previous years, the event was held in the Shanghai Exhibition Center—a neoclassical construction dating from 1955, built in the form of a central hall with two curved wings, topped with an ornate and unmissable 110-metre spire. The building is surprisingly...
Ocula Conversation Serge Tiroche Co-founder, the Tiroche DeLeon Collection With an ultra slick website that enables easy navigation of its 400 plus artworks from many of the leading artists of today, the Tiroche DeLeon Collection is unique in its focus and ownership structure. Established in 2011 by Serge Tiroche and Russ DeLeon, the collection is focused on artworks by both recognised masters, and emerging talent from...
Related Press Xu Zhen: Civilization Iteration at Perrotin Art Fuse : 19 July 2017 Iteration refers to the way of achieving a desired result through repeated feedback. The exhibited series shows how an artist, amidst increasing globalization and networking of art, can approach the future of art with his own formula.As early as 2001, Xu participated in the 49th Venice Biennale, then the youngest Chinese artist to exhibit works at...
Related Press 'The Dynamics': Chinese multimedia art at ShanghART in Singapore Art Radar Journal : 16 November 2016 Mention new media art, and the first things which might come to mind are a sense of ephemerality and insubstantiality – the evanescence of artworks which exist, in some sense, as particular arrangements of bits. Not so with The Dynamics, a largely new media-based group exhibition at Singapore’s ShanghART gallery, which places some...
Related Press Critic's Guide: Shanghai Frieze : 9 November 2016 In June, a new local policy banning private entities from renting state-owned property meant BANK was evicted from its previous gallery space – the Union Bank building near Shanghai’s Bund district that gave the gallery its name. Now BANK has finally announced a solo by Austin Lee as the inaugural show of its new venue in Xuhui...
Related Press Introducing the Apollo 40 under 40 Asia Pacific Apollo : 1 September 2016 Who are the people under 40 making waves in the art world? That was the question we asked ourselves in 2014, when we launched the first Apollo 40 Under 40. That year’s list, which focused on Europe, and the subsequent 40 Under 40 USA, weren’t meant as power lists but as surveys of talent: of young people who have firmly established...
Related Video & Audio Xu Zhen 'Civilization Iteration' Perrotin : 9 June 2017 Xu Zhen Civilization IterationMay 18-July 29, 2017Perrotin Paris, 76 rue de Turenne & Saint Claude
