randian | 燃点

Since opening ShanghART in the lobby of a hotel in Shanghai in 1996, Lorenz has been friend and mentor to scores of artists, including Ding Yi, Zeng Fanzhi, Yu Youhan, Zhao Bandi, Xu Zhen, and Birdhead, among many others. Sardonic and understated, Helbling’s Swiss roots are routinely noted but as Zhou Tiehai comments, “Lorenz has long been one of us”. >> Read more

Before I catch my connecting flight back to Rome, I briefly note down my impression of Art Taipei. “It’s both very young, with the  insecurities and optimism of an adolescent, and very old, with the relaxed attitude of someone who has seen a lot and is a pinch senile”. >> Read more

For a long time ShanghART’s home was the M50 art district, on the banks of Suzhou Creek, a much smaller version of Beijing’s Dashanzi 798. Galleries at M50 would come and go but ShanghART’s presence, along with the mostly local artists it represented—including Ding Yi, Zhang Enli and Xu Zhen—remained constant. >> Read more

It is a curious historical fact that such a small and distant country as Switzerland has had such a profound impact on the development of art in China, especially at this moment of China’s greatest economic and cultural transformation. >> Read more