Three Must-See Paintings at West Bund Art & Design

All eyes are on China this week as the 11th edition of West Bund Art & Design opens in Shanghai (8–10 November 2024). Art Basel and UBS’s collector report published a fortnight ago cited optimism in the Asian market. Despite the general slowdown in spending globally, the outlook for Asia—particularly China—was positive; the median collector expenditure was reported at U.S. $97,000, a figure more than double that of any other region surveyed.

No wonder galleries are back at West Bund Art Center. Presenting 121 galleries from 23 countries and regions, the fair hosts long-time stalwarts White Cube, Hauser & Wirth, Pace Gallery, and ShanghART, alongside 41 newcomers, including Karma and Lucie Chang Fine Arts (Hong Kong).

Ocula Advisors Simon Fisher, Eva Fuchs, and Rory Mitchell selected three paintings to hunt down in Shanghai.

Arturo Kameya‘s The void (2024) at GRIMM

Arturo Kameya’s paintings marry magic and tension, at once hazy, nostalgic, and dreamlike.

The Amsterdam-based artist grew up in the suburbs of Lima in the 1990s, where he witnessed socio-political conflict consume Peru. His paintings incorporate clay powder to help evoke his childhood memories.

‘My intention was to replicate the texture and appearance of the muted paint layers found on adobe houses, which is reminiscent of the home I grew up in in Peru,’ Kameya told Ocula.

His colour palette of pale green and blue stems from a similar tale, both partially derived from the pale yellow that was dominant in his family house.

Recent paintings exhibited with GRIMM examine the fabric of urban environments, while embracing the contradictions that come with knowing a place intimately. In The void (2024), viewers are presented with a snapshot of a football stadium’s bleachers. Bright clay powder highlights stone slab benches lining the curved structure devoid of the chorus of fans, but for a small group in the distance.

Next year, GRIMM will present a solo exhibition of Kameya’s new works during Amsterdam Art Week (21–25 May 2025). Kameya will also open a solo exhibition at Centre d’Art Saint-Fons, Lyon, in autumn 2025.

Zheng Haozhong’s Green Chair LINKE (2021) at Blindspot Gallery

For Zheng Haozhong, painting is about how to return to the self. An artist, musician, and writer, Zheng approaches painting the way he tackles music: stylistically free and refusing rigid parameters.

Zheng’s canvases are filled with friends, acquaintances, and himself in his studio in Zhujiajiao, an ancient water town on the outskirts of Shanghai. In Green Chair LINKE (2021), Zheng depicts his friend and fellow artist, Lin Ke, curled up in a green chair on a cold winter day.

Lin reclines in nonchalance, holding a beer. His right hand hovers over a shirt-shaped negative space, a stylistic decision conjuring the imagery of liu bai (leave blank) in Chinese ink paintings.

Blindspot Gallery are devoting a solo presentation to the artist. Fifteen paintings are on view, each up to two metres wide. The exception is a small, green acrylic-and-oil work painted over a four-year period (A Minor, Window, Peach, 2021–2024).

Since graduating from Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2008, Zheng has exhibited in China and abroad, namely at BANK Gallery, Shanghai (2023); Blindspot Gallery, Hong Kong (2023); and Centre for Chinese Contemporary Arts, Manchester (2016).

Xiao Jiang‘s Boy studying painting (2024) at Karma

Xiao Jiang’s paintings intentionally leave things unsaid, creating atmospheric oil paintings of landscapes, people, and interiors that are drawn from his daily routine. Derived from his own photographs, the process of painting serves as extension of the lived experience.

Boy studying painting (2024) is one of two of Xiao’s works that Karma that brings to Shanghai. The oil-on-burlap work depicts a pared-back figure; the subject lacks definition, devoid of facial features and any semblance of fingers. It resembles a reflective snapshot, reminiscent of the poetic solitude of Edward Hopper paintings.

‘I would like my artworks to be less straightforward; they appeared to be ordinary yet with a hint of suggestion,’ Xiao explained. ‘This helps leave room for audiences to have their own interpretation.’

In Boy studying painting, a layer of detail is provided in a thin veil of white marks; a wintery haze blows outside the window, reflective of the luminous white canvas that sits before the subject.

Since gradating from Hangzhou’s China Academy of Art in 2003, Xiao has exhibited at Karma, New York (2022); Vanguard Gallery, Shanghai (2021, 2028); and LEO Gallery, Hong Kong (2020), among other places.

Selected Artworks

Main image: Zheng Haozhong, Green Chair LINKE (2021). Oil on canvas. 150 x 100 cm. Courtesy the artist and Blindspot Gallery.