The Beijinger Blog - Venus Lau

New Contemporary Art Museum to Open Next to the Bird's Nest

thebeijinger — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 11:00:13 +0800

Back at the end of August, the Beijinger's Art Editor Venus Lau reported rumors had been circulating that the National Art Museum of China was planning on opening a huge new gallery especially devoted to contemporary art. More details about the new museum were revealed yesterday, with The Art Newspaper quoting the director of the NAMOC, Fan Di'an as saying that the huge new gallery (80,000 sqm) will be built in the vicinity of the Bird's Nest and that it will indeed be home to the gallery's collection of Chinese modern and contemporary art. There has still been no official announcement about the plan to build a new gallery.

Banks and Butterflies: UBS Art Exhibition opens at NAMOC Today

thebeijinger — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:19:27 +0800

Everyone knows, though none of us can really seem to fathom it, that the world is going down the gurgler. The credit crisis, triggered by the subprime fiasco in the US, is so bad that even the president of the US is willing to admit that "this sucker could go down." It's starting to feel like we're entering some twilight zone that precedes a world depression. It's during this interim period, when no one really knows what's going on, that the inconceivable happens. September 15 was one of those days. On that day Lehman Brothers, a 158-year-old American investment bank, filed for bankruptcy protection. Over in London, auction house Sotheby's were flogging off a collection of Damien Hirst's art works for a record USD 200 million. To quote Hirst - who along with painting dots and suspending animals in formaldehyde, also likes to use butterfly wings in his works - "I guess it means that people would rather put their money into butterflies than banks." News Biscuit, an Onion-like satirical news blog, joked that the highest grossing work from the auction was a piece called "Oh Shit" featuring "a Merrill Lynch employee suspended in a tank of formaldehyde." The truth wasn't far off, the most expensive item sold that day was an installation titled "The Golden Calf" - a "gilded and crowned calf embalmed in a tank of formaldehyde." it sold for USD 18.6 million.

Art Roundup: news, reviews and previews

thebeijinger — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:43:15 +0800

News

The UCCA, which is currently hosting the impressive Our Future exhibition, are now open 7 days a week and entry is free until the end of August. You can take a look at our earlier review of the exhibition here. The new restaurant at UCCA, Super Ganbei, is now open you can call 5128 5488 to reserve a table. Their hours are noon-2.30pm, 6-9.30pm. They expect to have an official opening event in September.
Ullens also have some great events going on, yesterday afternoon American sculptor Alexander Calder gave a talk at the gallery and this afternoon at 4pm as part of a series of talks to accompany the Our Future exhibition, Chinese artist Wang Xingwei will talk about conceptual painting and the “future of art practice.” You’ll need to reserve a ticket to attend the talk. Reservations through the Ullens site or by calling 8459 9269. A who's who of the Beijing art world will also be gathering at the gallery this Sunday to discuss the future trends in Chinese contemporary art.

Cai Guoqiang: I Want to Believe

thebeijinger — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:11:30 +0800

The following profile of Cai Guoqiang, the creative director behind the opening ceremony's fireworks display first appeared as the art feature in the August issue of the Beijinger magazine. The National Art Museum of China (NAMOC) is currently hosting Cai’s retrospective, it will be on display until Sep 2.

Review: Our Future, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art

thebeijinger — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:30:03 +0800

Despite the bloody fistfight that marred its opening, UCCA’s (Ullens Center for Contemporary Art) new exhibition, Our Future (which runs until October 12), is well deserving of the spotlight. The show is a testament to the massive size of the UCCA exhibition hall – there is probably nowhere else in 798 that can display more than 90 works at once – and attests to the impressive diversity of the Guy and Myriam Ullens collection, which includes Chinese contemporary art works from the last few decades, ranging from the late oil painter Chen Yifei’s works to emerging female artist Cao Fei’s Second Life project.

Tonight in Beijing

thebeijinger — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:35:25 +0800

There's always a few late-breaking events that come to our attention after our weekly 7 Days in Beijing newsletter has gone out, and so, in an effort to give the Beijinger readers the widest possible range of events to choose from, we offer this regular series of posts covering events taking place in the capital every Thursday.

Mad About English

Beijing's Channel Zero Media will host the premier screening of what looks like a very well-made documentary that examines the experience of various Chinese people in their attempts to learn English. Directed by Lian Pek and produced by Siok Sian Pek-Dorji, you can find more information about Mad About English here. For more info about the "Crazy English" phenomenon, see this recent article in the New Yorker. Get there early as they’re expecting a lot of people to attend. Free.

7pm. Channel Zero Salon (8855 0623)

Mind maps and other arty stuff

thebeijinger — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 09:30:35 +0800

Last week, on a stuffy Wednesday afternoon, I went to check out the opening of the Map Games: Dynamics of Change exhibition at the Today Art Museum. Featuring the works of more than 20 big-name artists and architects, including the likes of Ai Weiwei and Ma Yansong, the show revolves around the topic of maps.

After entering the exhibition hall, it became obvious that the exhibition was divided into two types of artworks – ones inspired by maps and ones that actually were maps. Examples included Russian artist Varvara Shavrova's Beijing Map and Ai Weiwei's Map of China – an installation shaped like the map of China made from wood sourced from a relic of the Qing dynasty (see image above), were also examples of the creative interpretation of maps.

Spring Festival Text Messages

thebeijinger — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 15:54:00 +0800

Aside from feasting, watching Zhang Ziyi's poor attempt at lip-syncing on TV and letting off truckloads of fireworks, Beijingers were also busy sending off text messages to friends and family on Spring Festival eve. The official numbers haven't been announced yet, but China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) was forecasting that across the country more than 17 billion Spring Festival greeting messages would be sent via mobile phone over the holiday season. In Beijing alone 600 million text messages were sent on Chuxi (Spring Festival Eve), which works out at close to 38 texts per person. This number is up from 400 million last year.

As in previous years, a contest aimed at discovery the best Spring Festival text message was held.

What's open over Spring Festival?

thebeijinger — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 12:00:32 +0800

Staying in town during the break and not sure which of your favorite restaurants are going to be open? Keep reading below for a comprehensive list of grocery store, bar, restaurant, shopping center, bookstore, art gallery and live music venue opening hours over the Chinese New Year.

Restaurants

Alameda
Regular opening hours.
http://www.thebeijinger.com/directory/venue/Alameda/38

Purple Haze
Regular opening hours.
http://www.thebeijinger.com/directory/venue/Purple-Haze/3248

Jin Ding Xuan
Regular opening hours.
http://www.thebeijinger.com/directory/venue/Jin-Ding-Xuan/606

Bellagio
Open but may close earlier than usual – call to confirm.
http://www.thebeijinger.com/directory/venue/Bellagio/181

Manzo
Closed Feb 6-11.
http://www.thebeijinger.com/directory/venue/Manzo/737

Three Guizhou Men
Regular opening hours.
http://www.thebeijinger.com/directory/venue/Three-Guizhou-Men/1078

Ding Tai Fung
Close at 2.30pm on Feb 6.
jttp://www.thebeijinger.com/directory/venue/Din-Tai-Fung/365

Rumi
Closed Feb 6.
http://www.thebeijinger.com/directory/venue/Rumi/939

The newest hipster hangout

thebeijinger — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 10:57:16 +0800

Stroll down Guowang Hutong, one of the many that run at a sharp right angle to Jiu Guolou Dajie, and there you find Rockstar. The name, of course, has been abused for decades, but Rockstar is a new bar, in a hidden, somber-looking house standing with pointed roof and sunlight slinking playfully through the bar’s two attic-windows.

Painted mirrors from the Cultural Revolution, gray couches, lightweight curtains, chairs engraved with mythical Chinese animals, a radio from the 60s, a Buddha head … it seems like Rockstar inherits the “struggling China” decoration package from the bars at Houhai and Nanluogu Xiang, yet the high ceilings of the spacious bar create a distance between the different items and hold them back from over-intimacy and clumsiness. Although the bar is still in the process of planning schedules for regular gigs, one should expect some spontaneous shows by local Beijing Bohemian- style musicians like Guo Long (of Glorious Pharmacy) and Zhao Laoda, both of whom already make themselves at home at Rockstar. And on nights without live music, the bar still entertains itself with the murmuring of mantras from Buddha machines (not FM3’s).