Art Radar asked Alexandre Errera, who was at the recently concluded Armory Show 2014 in New York City, to share his five favourite artists and artworks from the Armory Focus: China section.
Zhao Zhao, ‘Constellations No. 1′, 2013, oil on canvas, 140 x 120 cm. Image courtesy the artist and Chambers Fine Art.
Alexandre Errera is the Founder and CEO of Artshare.com, an online platform for the exhibition and sale of Chinese contemporary art that features curated exhibitions and exclusive content. He is also a contributor to websites such as ARTINFO and Forbes, writing on the Chinese contemporary art market.
The Armory Show 2014 took place in New York City from 6 to 9 March 2014. The fifth edition of its Focus section this year highlighted contemporary art from China, curated by Philip Tinari, Director of Beijing’s Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA). The section featured 17 galleries representing a new generation of artists that are not as well known in an American context. Art Radar spotlights Alexandre Errera’s top five picks from the Focus section.
Xu Qu, ‘Currency War 4′ (Chinese Yuan 1978-10), 2013, acrylic on canvas, 158 x 150 cm. Image courtesy the artist.
Xu Qu
Xu Qu (b. 1978, Suzhou, China) is an emerging artist and a graduate of the Nanjing Art Institute and the Braunschweig University of Art in Germany, where he completed a postgraduate programme under Professor John Armleder in 2008. His work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in China, Australia and Germany. Xu Qu works in various media including installations, photography, painting, performance and video.
Xu Qu is a part of the artist collective GUEST, and lives and works in Beijing.
Zhao Zhao, ‘Fragment’, 2014, steel, 200 x 300 x 8 cm. Image courtesy The Armory Show 2014.
Zhao Zhao
Having assisted and learned from renowned Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, Zhao Zhao (b. 1982) studied painting at the Xinjiang Art Institute. He now works with a range of media including performance, installation and sculpture to express conceptually provocative, political and sometimes controversial ideas. Zhao Zhao’s 2013 “Constellations” series employs glass, stainless steel and bullets. Firing bullets into these materials, the artist creates patterns and fissures reminiscent of star clusters.
The paradoxical creation of aesthetic beauty from violence is inspired by a number of events in his life, including a car accident and images of bullet holes in China’s Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. The works explore ideas of hope and beauty despite the odds, the power of a single shot that can cause so much destruction, as well as China’s relationship with violence and firearms.
Zhao Zhao is based in Beijing, and his work has been exhibited in China, Europe and the USA.
Li Shurui, ‘Proud Italy’ (detail), 2013, acrylic on canvas, dimensions variable. Image courtesy The Armory Show 2014.
Li Shurui
Li Shurui (b. 1981, Chongqing, China) works with concepts of light and space to create alluring installations that cross the barriers of language and logic. Her “Light” series uses LED lights to create compositions, fleeting and changing sensory experiences, and optical illusions. She also paints – often two-dimensional depictions of LED lights or explosions – and uses materials such as mosquito nets and elevators in her sculptures and installations.
Li Shurui graduated from the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute and has had solo exhibitions in China, Korea and Spain. Her work is a part of public and private collections in Asia, Europe, the USA and Mexico. Li Shurui lives and works in Beijing.
Wang Yuyang, ‘Artificial Moon’, 2007, energy saving lamps, metal frame. Image courtesy Tang Contemporary Art.
Wang Yuyang
Described in his profile at Boers-Li Gallery as an “accidental new media artist”, Wang Yuyang (b. 1979) is interested in technology and how machines are made. His work is highly conceptual and uses media such as installation, sculpture, photography and video to explore, often humorously, “the relationship between body, experience and cognition.” Many of his works employ motors, lights and electricity.
Wang Yuyang studied at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing, where he currently teaches in the Experimental Art Department. His work has been shown in fairs and exhibitions in China and across Europe.
Nadim Abbas, “Zone (1)”, 2014, lightweight concrete casts, robotic vacuum cleaner, rug, skirting board, house paint, dimensions variable. Image courtesy the artist and Gallery EXIT.
Nadim Abbas
Nadim Abbas (b. 1980, Hong Kong) is an installation artist whose works involve extensive research, drawing on themes from literature, science and psychology, and using everyday objects and facets of daily life. Abbas studied Sculpture at London’s Chelsea College of Art and Design, and holds an MPhil in Comparative Literature from the University of Hong Kong.
Nadim Abbas lives and works in Hong Kong, and currently teaches at City University of Hong Kong’s School of Creative Media and the Hong Kong Art School.
Kriti Bajaj
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Related Topics: Chinese artists, emerging artists, art fairs, overviews, Asia expands, events in New York
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