Gallery Crawl

OK, time to stop that dragon boating and hit dry land. This weekend brings the fun and games of the Affordable Art Fair at The Village in Sanlitun and some glamorous openings out east in 798 and downtown at the Today Art Museum.

Read more about the Affordable Art Fair in this fortnight’s Agenda, which carries an interview with one of the event's formidable founders, Tamsin Roberts. For two days, today and Sunday 11am-8pm, you have a chance to take home something you fancy and be sure of paying no more than 10,000 RMB for the privilege.

Meanwhile, today in 798, you can view the whimsical work of French painter Olivier O Olivier (see above) at the Xin Dong Cheng Space for Contemporary Art. Supported by the French Government’s Croissement Festival, the exhibition will open at 3pm and promises to be a good party. The Xin Dong Cheng Space is always worth a visit and doubly so on a warm evening after a day cruising the many other worthwhile shows around the district. See particularly “That Obscure Object of Desire” at Officina, then check out their eminent neighbors: Galleria Continua, who is hosting a stark installation by Gu Dexin, and Tang Contemporary, holding an equally simple, but excitingly dynamic show by the always stimulating Sun Yuan and Peng Yu.

Finally, on Sunday at 3pm at the Today Art Museum comes the opening of “Yipai: Reflections of Chinese Contemporary Art”, a major new exhibition by leading curator Gao Minglu. This show brings together some of China’s most important contemporary artists – figures like Huang Yong Ping, Xu Bing, Gu Wenda and Su Xinping – alongside a range of emerging artists. The scope of the show promises to be vast and should give us a chance to experience where Chinese contemporary art is at now, twenty years since the seminal "China/Avant Garde" show, also co-curated by Gao Minglu, first brought China’s contemporary art scene into public view.