Art Attack: Fingerprints and X-rays

If the increased likelihood of my being shoulder-checked on my morning subway ride is any indication, Beijing is back to the grind. While this is sad news for the commute, it also means exhibits and events in general are picking up pace again, and that's good news. For your viewing pleasure, here are some new openings and a few that are closing up shop soon.

Openings:

Feb 20: Zhang Yu's Fingerprint Works (pictured above) are on display at the Today Art Museum. Defined as a "Maximalist" by Beijing-based curator Gao Minglu, Zhang and his peers create work that appears minimalist, but is intensely focused on the process, the embodiment of the artist's philosophical and spiritual states of being within usually simple forms. Then again, it also looks a lot like finger painting, doesn't it?

Feb 18: We've mentioned 798 Photo Gallery's Historical Retrospective Part I as an event to see in the February issue of our magazine. Take a photojournalistic tour of China's past.

Feb 19: Dr. Werner Schuster is not a professional photographer, but the radiologist's stunning x-rays of seahorses, shells, and ... nesting dolls (?!) are just the start of an unlikely collection of prints on show at the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre - including combos of things like a shark's head next to a piece of taffy. So this is what happens when a doctor has too much imagination and a little extra time on his hands. We like it!

Ending soon:

Until February 28: This year, Pace Beijing kicked off the first of what will become an annual project called "Beijing Voice". Purposely avoiding a set theme, it brings together a slew of contemporary artists in hopes that their works will freely comment on and contradict one another, and "review and reflect on the art phenomena of the past year." This year's participating artists include Shi Jinsong, Song Dong, Wang Guangle and Wang Jin among others.

Until March 6: "Beyond-ism", Sun Xun's Solo Exhibition at ShanghART Gallery, includes animation video, ink drawings, and hand-drawn renderings from an artist in residence project in Yokohama. His highly detailed animations feature a key protagonist: a magician dressed in a black suit and a high top hat who creates misty mirages and turns the world upside down. (Gob Bluth, is that you?)

There you have it, kids. Go get your art fix before we bury you under a pile of books and author events and interviews in March.